Sunshine Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDD EFEFGG HIHIJJ A KLKLMM NONOMM MPMPQQ A RMRMMM MAMAMM K AKAKMM MSMSMM S MTMTHNHUVV A MWMW XSXS A EMEMMMMMGG A MYMYBABA B MMMMYMZMAA B VA2VA2BABAMM B MMMMBBMMB2C2YYD2D2E2 E2 B MMMMF2MF2MNU B AG2AG2BH2BH2PWPWMMMM I2G2 A MYMYMM MXMXNU J2XK2XNU BMBMNU A BMBMBMBMNMNML2L2I | A |
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Flat as a drum head stretch the haggard snows | B |
The mighty skies are palisades of light | C |
The stars are blurred the silence grows and grows | B |
Vaster and vaster vaults the icy night | C |
Here in my sleeping bag I cower and pray | D |
Silence and night have pity stoop and slay | D |
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I have not slept for many many days | E |
I close my eyes with weariness that's all | F |
I still have strength to feed the drift wood blaze | E |
That flickers weirdly on the icy wall | F |
I still have strength to pray God rest her soul | G |
Here in the awful shadow of the Pole | G |
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There in the cabin's alcove low she lies | H |
Still candles gleaming at her head and feet | I |
All snow drop white ash cold with closed eyes | H |
Lips smiling hands at rest O God how sweet | I |
How all unutterably sweet she seems | J |
Not dead not dead indeed she dreams she dreams | J |
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II | A |
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Sunshine I called her and she brought I vow | K |
God's blessed sunshine to this life of mine | L |
I was a rover of the breed who plough | K |
Life's furrow in a far flung lonely line | L |
The wilderness my home my fortune cast | M |
In a wild land of dearth barbaric vast | M |
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When did I see her first Long had I lain | N |
Groping my way to life through fevered gloom | O |
Sudden the cloud of darkness left my brain | N |
A velvet bar of sunshine pierced the room | O |
And in that mellow glory aureoled | M |
She stood she stood all golden in its gold | M |
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Sunshine O miracle the earth grew glad | M |
Radiant each blade of grass each living thing | P |
What a huge strength high hope proud will I had | M |
All the wide world with rapture seemed to ring | P |
Would she but wed me YES then fared we forth | Q |
Into the vast unvintageable North | Q |
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III | A |
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In Muskrat Land the conies leap | R |
The wavies linger in their flight | M |
The jewelled snakelike rivers creep | R |
The sun sad rogue is out all night | M |
The great wood bison paws the sand | M |
In Muskrat Land in Muskrat Land | M |
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In Muskrat Land dim streams divide | M |
The tundras belted by the sky | A |
How sweet in slim canoe to glide | M |
And dream and let the world go by | A |
Build gay camp fires on greening strand | M |
In Muskrat Land in Muskrat Land | M |
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IV | K |
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And so we dreamed and drifted she and I | A |
And how she loved that free unfathomed life | K |
There in the peach bloom of the midnight sky | A |
The silence welded us true man and wife | K |
Then North and North invincibly we pressed | M |
Beyond the Circle to the world's white crest | M |
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And on the wind flailed Arctic waste we stayed | M |
Dwelt with the Huskies by the Polar sea | S |
Fur had they white fox marten mink to trade | M |
And we had food stuff bacon flour and tea | S |
So we made snug chummed up with all the band | M |
Sudden the Winter swooped on Husky Land | M |
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V | S |
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What was that ill so sinister and dread | M |
Smiting the tribe with sickness to the bone | T |
So that we waked one morn to find them fled | M |
So that we stood and stared alone alone | T |
Bravely she smiled and looked into my eyes | H |
Laughed at their troubled stern foreboding pain | N |
Gaily she mocked the menace of the skies | H |
Turned to our cheery cabin once again | U |
Saying 'Twill soon be over dearest one | V |
The long long night then O the sun the sun | V |
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VI | A |
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God made a heart of gold of gold | M |
Shining and sweet and true | W |
Gave it a home of fairest mould | M |
Blest it and called it You | W |
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God gave the rose its grace of glow | X |
And the lark its radiant glee | S |
But better than all I know I know | X |
God gave you Heart to me | S |
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VII | A |
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She was all sunshine in those dubious days | E |
Our cabin beaconed with defiant light | M |
We chattered by the friendly drift wood blaze | E |
Closer and closer cowered the hag like night | M |
A wolf howl would have been a welcome sound | M |
And there was none in all that stricken land | M |
Yet with such silence darkness death around | M |
Learned we to love as few can understand | M |
Spirit with spirit fused and soul with soul | G |
There in the sullen shadow of the Pole | G |
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VIII | A |
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What was that haunting horror of the night | M |
Brave was she buoyant full of sunny cheer | Y |
Why was her face so small so strangely white | M |
Then did I turn from her heart sick with fear | Y |
Sought in my agony the outcast snows | B |
Prayed in my pain to that insensate sky | A |
Grovelled and sobbed and cursed and then arose | B |
Sunshine O heart of gold to die to die | A |
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IX | B |
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She died on Christmas day it seems so sad | M |
That one you love should die on Christmas day | M |
Head bowed I knelt by her O God I had | M |
No tears to shed no moan no prayer to pray | M |
I heard her whisper Call me will you dear | Y |
They say Death parts but I won't go away | M |
I will be with you in the cabin here | Z |
Oh I will plead with God to let me stay | M |
Stay till the Night is gone till Spring is nigh | A |
Till sunshine comes be brave I'm tired good bye | A |
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X | B |
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For weeks for months I have not seen the sun | V |
The minatory dawns are leprous pale | A2 |
The felon days malinger one by one | V |
How like a dream Life is how vain how stale | A2 |
I too am faint that vampire like disease | B |
Has fallen on me weak and cold am I | A |
Hugging a tiny fire in fear I freeze | B |
The cabin must be cold and so I try | A |
To bear the frost the frost that fights decay | M |
The frost that keeps her beautiful alway | M |
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XI | B |
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She lies within an icy vault | M |
It glitters like a cave of salt | M |
All marble pure and angel sweet | M |
With candles at her head and feet | M |
Under an ermine robe she lies | B |
I kiss her hands I kiss her eyes | B |
Come back come back O Love I pray | M |
Into this house this house of clay | M |
Answer my kisses soft and warm | B2 |
Nestle again within my arm | C2 |
Come for I know that you are near | Y |
Open your eyes and look my dear | Y |
Just for a moment break the mesh | D2 |
Back from the spirit leap to flesh | D2 |
Weary I wait the night is black | E2 |
Love of my life come back come back | E2 |
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XII | B |
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Last night maybe I was a little mad | M |
For as I prayed despairful by her side | M |
Such a strange antic visioning I had | M |
Lo it did seem her eyes were open wide | M |
Surely I must have dreamed I stared once more | F2 |
No 'twas a candle's trick a shadow cast | M |
There were her lashes locking as before | F2 |
Oh but it filled me with a joy so vast | M |
No 'twas a freak a fancy of the brain | N |
Oh but to night I'll try again again | U |
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XIII | B |
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It was no dream now do I know that Love | A |
Leapt from the starry battlements of Death | G2 |
For in my vigil as I bent above | A |
Calling her name with eager burning breath | G2 |
Sudden there came a change again I saw | B |
The radiance of the rose leaf stain her cheek | H2 |
Rivers of rapture thrilled in sunny thaw | B |
Cleft were her coral lips as if to speak | H2 |
Curved were her tender arms as if to cling | P |
Open the flower like eyes of lucent blue | W |
Looking at me with love so pitying | P |
That I could fancy Heaven shining through | W |
Sunshine I faltered stay with me oh stay | M |
Yet ere I finished in a moment's flight | M |
There in her angel purity she lay | M |
Ah but I know she'll come again to night | M |
Even as radiant sword leaps from the sheath | I2 |
Soul from the body leaps we call it Death | G2 |
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XIV | A |
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Even as this line I write | M |
Do I know that she is near | Y |
Happy am I every night | M |
Comes she back to bid me cheer | Y |
Kissing her I hold her fast | M |
Win her into life at last | M |
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Did I dream that yesterday | M |
On yon mountain ridge a glow | X |
Soft as moonstone paled away | M |
Leaving less forlorn the snow | X |
Could it be the sun Oh fain | N |
Would I see the sun again | U |
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Oh to see a coral dawn | J2 |
Gladden to a crocus glow | X |
Day's a spectre dim and wan | K2 |
Dancing on the furtive snow | X |
Night's a cloud upon my brain | N |
Oh to see the sun again | U |
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You who find us in this place | B |
Have you pity in your breast | M |
Let us in our last embrace | B |
Under earth sun hallowed rest | M |
Night's a claw upon my brain | N |
Oh to see the sun again | U |
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XV | A |
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The Sun at last the Sun I write these lines | B |
Here on my knees with feeble fumbling hand | M |
Look in yon mountain cleft a radiance shines | B |
Gleam of a primrose see it thrill expand | M |
Grow glorious Dear God be praised it streams | B |
Into the cabin in a gush of gold | M |
Look there she stands the angel of my dreams | B |
All in the radiant shimmer aureoled | M |
First as I saw her from my bed of pain | N |
First as I loved her when the darkness passed | M |
Now do I know that Life is not in vain | N |
Now do I know God cares at last at last | M |
Light outlives dark joy grief and Love's the sum | L2 |
Heart of my heart Sunshine I come I come | L2 |
Robert Service
(1)
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