The Sprig Of Lime Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJ KLIMNOPOQORSTUOOO SV OOWXYZA2 B2 OC2D2OE2F2 G2OH2I2G2OOOOG2J2K2O K2HL2OOHL2M2OTOHN2VO M2J2OOZO2VP2OP2Q2R2O S2OT2U2T2V2W2G2

He lay and those who watched him were amazedA
To see unheralded beneath the lidsB
Twin tears new gathered at the price of painC
Start and at once run crookedly athwartD
Cheeks channelled long by pain never by tearsE
So desolate too the sigh next utteredF
They had wept also but his great lips movedG
And bending down one heard 'A sprig of limeH
Bring me a sprig of lime ' Whereat she stoleI
With dumb signs forth to pluck the thing he cravedJ
-
So lay he till a lime twig had been snappedK
From some still branch that swept the outer grassL
Far from the silver pillar of the boleI
Which mounting past the house's crusted roofM
Split into massy limbs crossed boughs a mazeN
Of close compacted intercontorted staffsO
Bowered in foliage wherethrough the sunP
Shot sudden showers of light or crystal sparsO
Or wavered in a green and vitreous floodQ
And all the while in faint and fainter tonesO
Scarce audible on deepened evening's hushR
He framed his curious and last requestS
For 'lime a sprig of lime ' Her trembling handT
Closed his loose fingers on the awkward stemU
Covered above with gentle heart shaped leavesO
And under dangling pale as honey waxO
Square clusters of sweet scented starry flowersO
-
She laid his bent arm back upon his breastS
Then watched above white knuckles clenched in prayerV
-
He never moved Only at last his eyesO
Opened then brightened in such avid gazeO
She feared the coma mastered him againW
But no strange sobs rose chuckling in his throatX
A stranger ecstasy suffused the fleshY
Of that just mask so sun dried gouged and oldZ
Which few too few had loved too many fearedA2
'Father ' she cried 'Father '-
He did not hearB2
-
She knelt and kneeling drank the scent of limesO
Blown round the slow blind by a vesperal gustC2
Till the room swam So the lime incense blewD2
Into her life as once it had in hisO
Though how and when and with what ageless chargeE2
Of sorrow and deep joy how could she knowF2
-
Sweet lime that often at the height of noonG2
Diffusing dizzy fragrance from your boughsO
Tasselled with blossoms more innumerableH2
Than the black bees the uproar of whose toilI2
Filled your green vaults winning such metheglynG2
As clouds their sappy cells distil as onceO
Ye used your sunniest emanationsO
Toward the window where a woman kneelsO
She who within that room in childish hoursO
Lay through the lasting murmur of blanch'd noonG2
Behind the sultry blind now full now flatJ2
Drinking anew of every odorous breathK2
Supremely happy in her ignoranceO
Of Time that hastens hourly and of DeathK2
Who need not haste Scatter your fumes O limeH
Loose from each hispid star of citron bloomL2
Tangled beneath the labyrinthine boughsO
Cloud on such stinging cloud of exhalationsO
As reek of youth fierce life and summer's primeH
Though hardly now shall he in that dusk roomL2
Savour your sweetness since the very sprigM2
Profuse of blossom and of essencesO
He smells not who in a paltering handT
Clasps it laid close his peaked and gleaming faceO
Propped in the pillow Breathe silent lofty limeH
Your curfew secrets out in fervid scentN2
To the attendant shadows Tinge the airV
Of the midsummer night that now beginsO
At an owl's oaring flight from dusk to duskM2
And downward caper of the giddy batJ2
Hawking against the lustre of bare skiesO
With something of th' unfathomable blissO
He who lies dying there knew once of oldZ
In the serene trance of a summer nightO2
When with th' abundance of his young bride's hairV
Loosed on his breast he lay and dared not sleepP2
Listening for the scarce motion of your boughsO
Which sighed with bliss as she with blissful sleepP2
And drinking desperately each honied waveQ2
Of perfume wafted past the ghostly blindR2
Knew first th' implacable and bitter senseO
Of Time that hastes and Death who need not hasteS2
Shed your last sweetness limesO
But now no moreT2
She fruit of that night's love she heeds you notU2
Who bent compassionate to the dim floorT2
Takes up the sprig of lime and presses itV2
In pain against the stumbling of her heartW2
Knowing untold he cannot need it nowG2

Robert Nichols



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