The Last Meeting Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFG HIJKLMNOPQRS TUVDW BXYZA2B2C2D2E2F2 G2H2I2J2K2PH L2M2DN2O2DP2H2Q2R2S2 T2HU2V2W2 X2Y2P2 RZ2B A FA3B3C3D3ZA A3N2Q2E3PZ2F3G3H3I3J 3 K3L3D3K3M3N3K3 K3O3P3Q3S2 K3K3R3ZA3S3P2T3 U3GS2H2K3XM2S3K3K3V3 A R2K3W3K3X3Y3Z3U3 PQ2S3A4B4 K3HC4GI | A |
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Because the night was falling warm and still | B |
Upon a golden day at April's end | C |
I thought I will go up the hill once more | D |
To find the face of him that I have lost | E |
And speak with him before his ghost has flown | F |
Far from the earth that might not keep him long | G |
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So down the road I went pausing to see | H |
How slow the dusk drew on and how the folk | I |
Loitered about their doorways well content | J |
With the fine weather and the waxing year | K |
The miller's house that glimmered with grey walls | L |
Turned me aside and for a while I leaned | M |
Along the tottering rail beside the bridge | N |
To watch the dripping mill wheel green with damp | O |
The miller peered at me with shadowed eyes | P |
And pallid face I could not hear his voice | Q |
For sound of the weir's plunging He was old | R |
His days went round with the unhurrying wheel | S |
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Moving along the street each side I saw | T |
The humble kindly folk in lamp lit rooms | U |
Children at table simple homely wives | V |
Strong grizzled men and soldiers back from war | D |
Scaring the gaping elders with loud talk | W |
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Soon all the jumbled roofs were down the hill | B |
And I was turning up the grassy lane | X |
That goes to the big empty house that stands | Y |
Above the town half hid by towering trees | Z |
I looked below and saw the glinting lights | A2 |
I heard the treble cries of bustling life | B2 |
And mirth and scolding and the grind of wheels | C2 |
An engine whistled piercing shrill and called | D2 |
High echoes from the sombre slopes afar | E2 |
Then a long line of trucks began to move | F2 |
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It was quite still the columned chestnuts stood | G2 |
Dark in their noble canopies of leaves | H2 |
I thought 'A little longer I'll delay | I2 |
And then he'll be more glad to hear my feet | J2 |
And with low laughter ask me why I'm late | K2 |
The place will be too dim to show his eyes | P |
But he will loom above me like a tree | H |
With lifted arms and body tall and strong ' | - |
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There stood the empty house a ghostly hulk | L2 |
Becalmed and huge massed in the mantling dark | M2 |
As builders left it when quick shattering war | D |
Leapt upon France and called her men to fight | N2 |
Lightly along the terraces I trod | O2 |
Crunching the rubble till I found the door | D |
That gaped in twilight framing inward gloom | P2 |
An owl flew out from under the high eaves | H2 |
To vanish secretly among the firs | Q2 |
Where lofty boughs netted the gleam of stars | R2 |
I stumbled in the dusty floors were strewn | S2 |
With cumbering piles of planks and props and beams | T2 |
Tall windows gapped the walls the place was free | H |
To every searching gust and jousting gale | U2 |
But now they slept I was afraid to speak | V2 |
And heavily the shadows crowded in | W2 |
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I called him once then listened nothing moved | X2 |
Only my thumping heart beat out the time | Y2 |
Whispering his name I groped from room to room | P2 |
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Quite empty was that house it could not hold | R |
His human ghost remembered in the love | Z2 |
That strove in vain to be companioned still | B |
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II | A |
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Blindly I sought the woods that I had known | F |
So beautiful with morning when I came | A3 |
Amazed with spring that wove the hazel twigs | B3 |
With misty raiment of awakening green | C3 |
I found a holy dimness and the peace | D3 |
Of sanctuary austerely built of trees | Z |
And wonder stooping from the tranquil sky | A |
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Ah but there was no need to call his name | A3 |
He was beside me now as swift as light | N2 |
I knew him crushed to earth in scentless flowers | Q2 |
And lifted in the rapture of dark pines | E3 |
'For now ' he said 'my spirit has more eyes | P |
Than heaven has stars and they are lit by love | Z2 |
My body is the magic of the world | F3 |
And dawn and sunset flame with my spilt blood | G3 |
My breath is the great wind and I am filled | H3 |
With molten power and surge of the bright waves | I3 |
That chant my doom along the ocean's edge | J3 |
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'Look in the faces of the flowers and find | K3 |
The innocence that shrives me stoop to the stream | L3 |
That you may share the wisdom of my peace | D3 |
For talking water travels undismayed | K3 |
The luminous willows lean to it with tales | M3 |
Of the young earth and swallows dip their wings | N3 |
Where showering hawthorn strews the lanes of light | K3 |
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'I can remember summer in one thought | K3 |
Of wind swept green and deeps of melting blue | O3 |
And scent of limes in bloom and I can hear | P3 |
Distinct the early mower in the grass | Q3 |
Whetting his blade along some morn of June | S2 |
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'For I was born to the round world's delight | K3 |
And knowledge of enfolding motherhood | K3 |
Whose tenderness that shines through constant toil | R3 |
Gathers the naked children to her knees | Z |
In death I can remember how she came | A3 |
To kiss me while I slept still I can share | S3 |
The glee of childhood and the fleeting gloom | P2 |
When all my flowers were washed with rain of tears | T3 |
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'I triumph in the choruses of birds | U3 |
Bursting like April buds in gyres of song | G |
My meditations are the blaze of noon | S2 |
On silent woods where glory burns the leaves | H2 |
I have shared breathless vigils I have slaked | K3 |
The thirst of my desires in bounteous rain | X |
Pouring and splashing downward through the dark | M2 |
Loud storm has roused me with its winking glare | S3 |
And voice of doom that crackles overhead | K3 |
I have been tired and watchful craving rest | K3 |
Till the slow footed hours have touched my brows | V3 |
And laid me on the breast of sundering sleep ' | - |
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III | A |
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I know that he is lost among the stars | R2 |
And may return no more but in their light | K3 |
Though his hushed voice may call me in the stir | W3 |
Of whispering trees I shall not understand | K3 |
Men may not speak with stillness and the joy | X3 |
Of brooks that leap and tumble down green hills | Y3 |
Is faster than their feet and all their thoughts | Z3 |
Can win no meaning from the talk of birds | U3 |
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My heart is fooled with fancies being wise | P |
For fancy is the gleaming of wet flowers | Q2 |
When the hid sun looks forth with golden stare | S3 |
Thus when I find new loveliness to praise | A4 |
And things long known shine out in sudden grace | B4 |
Then will I think 'He moves before me now ' | - |
So he will never come but in delight | K3 |
And as it was in life his name shall be | H |
Wonder awaking in a summer dawn | C4 |
And youth that dying touched my lips to song | G |
Siegfried Sassoon
(1)
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