The Revisitation Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH EIEI GJGJ KLKM NMNM OPOP BBBB BQBQ BRBR BSBS MGMG MTMT MUMU UMUM K KV MGMG UWUW MUMU MXMX OUOU MBMB UBUB GUGU GUGU GGGG OYOY MZMZ OGOG MMMM UAUA BA2BA2 MBMBAs I lay awake at night time | A |
In an ancient country barrack known to ancient cannoneers | B |
And recalled the hopes that heralded each seeming brave and bright time | A |
Of my primal purple years | B |
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Much it haunted me that nigh there | C |
I had borne my bitterest loss when One who went came not again | D |
In a joyless hour of discord in a joyless hued July there | C |
A July just such as then | D |
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And as thus I brooded longer | E |
With my faint eyes on the feeble square of wan lit window frame | F |
A quick conviction sprung within me grew and grew yet stronger | E |
That the month night was the same | F |
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Too as that which saw her leave me | G |
On the rugged ridge of Waterstone the peewits plaining round | H |
And a lapsing twenty years had ruled that as it were to grieve me | G |
I should near the once loved ground | H |
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Though but now a war worn stranger | E |
Chance had quartered here I rose up and descended to the yard | I |
All was soundless save the troopers' horses tossing at the manger | E |
And the sentry keeping guard | I |
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Through the gateway I betook me | G |
Down the High Street and beyond the lamps across the battered bridge | J |
Till the country darkness clasped me and the friendly shine forsook me | G |
And I bore towards the Ridge | J |
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With a dim unowned emotion | K |
Saying softly Small my reason now at midnight to be here | L |
Yet a sleepless swain of fifty with a brief romantic notion | K |
May retrace a track so dear | M |
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Thus I walked with thoughts half uttered | N |
Up the lane I knew so well the grey gaunt lonely Lane of Slyre | M |
And at whiles behind me far at sea a sullen thunder muttered | N |
As I mounted high and higher | M |
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Till the upper roadway quitting | O |
I adventured on the open drouthy downland thinly grassed | P |
While the spry white scuts of conies flashed before me earthward flitting | O |
And an arid wind went past | P |
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Round about me bulged the barrows | B |
As before in antique silence immemorial funeral piles | B |
Where the sleek herds trampled daily the remains of flint tipt arrows | B |
Mid the thyme and chamomiles | B |
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And the Sarsen stone there dateless | B |
On whose breast we had sat and told the zephyrs many a tender vow | Q |
Held the heat of yester sun as sank thereon one fated mateless | B |
From those far fond hours till now | Q |
- | |
Maybe flustered by my presence | B |
Rose the peewits just as all those years back wailing soft and loud | R |
And revealing their pale pinions like a fitful phosphorescence | B |
Up against the cope of cloud | R |
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Where their dolesome exclamations | B |
Seemed the voicings of the self same throats I had heard when life was green | S |
Though since that day uncounted frail forgotten generations | B |
Of their kind had flecked the scene | S |
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And so living long and longer | M |
In a past that lived no more my eyes discerned there suddenly | G |
That a figure broke the skyline first in vague contour then stronger | M |
And was crossing near to me | G |
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Some long missed familiar gesture | M |
Something wonted struck me in the figure's pause to list and heed | T |
Till I fancied from its handling of its loosely wrapping vesture | M |
That it might be She indeed | T |
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'Twas not reasonless below there | M |
In the vale had been her home the nook might hold her even yet | U |
And the downlands were her father's fief she still might come and go there | M |
So I rose and said Agnette | U |
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With a little leap half frightened | U |
She withdrew some steps then letting intuition smother fear | M |
In a place so long accustomed and as one whom thought enlightened | U |
She replied What THAT voice here | M |
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Yes Agnette And did the occasion | K |
Of our marching hither make you think I MIGHT walk where we two ' | - |
O I often come she murmured with a moment's coy evasion | K |
'Tis not far and think of you | V |
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Then I took her hand and led her | M |
To the ancient people's stone whereon I had sat There now sat we | G |
And together talked until the first reluctant shyness fled her | M |
And she spoke confidingly | G |
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It is JUST as ere we parted | U |
Said she brimming high with joy And when then came you here and why | W |
Dear I could not sleep for thinking of our trystings when twin hearted | U |
She responded Nor could I | W |
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There are few things I would rather | M |
Than be wandering at this spirit hour lone lived my kindred dead | U |
On this wold of well known feature I inherit from my father | M |
Night or day I have no dread | U |
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O I wonder wonder whether | M |
Any heartstring bore a signal thrill between us twain or no | X |
Some such influence can at times they say draw severed souls together | M |
I said Dear we'll dream it so | X |
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Each one's hand the other's grasping | O |
And a mutual forgiveness won we sank to silent thought | U |
A large content in us that seemed our rended lives reclasping | O |
And contracting years to nought | U |
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Till I maybe overweary | M |
From the lateness and a wayfaring so full of strain and stress | B |
For one no longer buoyant to a peak so steep and eery | M |
Sank to slow unconsciousness | B |
- | |
How long I slept I knew not | U |
But the brief warm summer night had slid when to my swift surprise | B |
A red upedging sun of glory chambered mortals view not | U |
Was blazing on my eyes | B |
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From the Milton Woods to Dole Hill | G |
All the spacious landscape lighting and around about my feet | U |
Flinging tall thin tapering shadows from the meanest mound and mole hill | G |
And on trails the ewes had beat | U |
- | |
She was sitting still beside me | G |
Dozing likewise and I turned to her to take her hanging hand | U |
When the more regarding that which like a spectre shook and tried me | G |
In her image then I scanned | U |
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That which Time's transforming chisel | G |
Had been tooling night and day for twenty years and tooled too well | G |
In its rendering of crease where curve was where was raven grizzle | G |
Pits where peonies once did dwell | G |
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She had wakened and perceiving | O |
I surmise my sigh and shock my quite involuntary dismay | Y |
Up she started and her wasted figure all throughout it heaving | O |
Said Ah yes I am THUS by day | Y |
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Can you really wince and wonder | M |
That the sunlight should reveal you such a thing of skin and bone | Z |
As if unaware a Death's head must of need lie not far under | M |
Flesh whose years out count your own | Z |
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Yes that movement was a warning | O |
Of the worth of man's devotion Yes Sir I am OLD said she | G |
And the thing which should increase love turns it quickly into scorning | O |
And your new won heart from me | G |
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Then she went ere I could call her | M |
With the too proud temper ruling that had parted us before | M |
And I saw her form descend the slopes and smaller grow and smaller | M |
Till I caught its course no more | M |
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True I might have dogged her downward | U |
But it MAY be though I know not that this trick on us of Time | A |
Disconcerted and confused me Soon I bent my footsteps townward | U |
Like to one who had watched a crime | A |
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Well I knew my native weakness | B |
Well I know it still I cherished her reproach like physic wine | A2 |
For I saw in that emaciate shape of bitterness and bleakness | B |
A nobler soul than mine | A2 |
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Did I not return then ever | M |
Did we meet again mend all Alas what greyhead perseveres | B |
Soon I got the Route elsewhither Since that hour I have seen her never | M |
Love is lame at fifty years | B |
Thomas Hardy
(1)
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