Aforetime Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEFFGHGIJIK LMNOPHQRSRTUVWXNYKFZ A2UFB2C2 FMD2FE2F2G2H2H2H2I2J 2K2H2L2H2QM2N2O2P2H2 Q2R2S2R2O2H2T2H2FH2U 2R2SH2V2W2K2FQO2X2R2 R2DY2H2R2F2Z2N2R2FA3 H2L2FA3Z2B3H2C3D3Z2E 3FK2H2R2F3H2G3LK2H3R 2FSFI3H2Z2QR2R2R2O2H 2R2R2R2J3H2R2H2R2LR2 R2R2K3H2R2L3FH2R2H2R 2H2R2R2H2H2MR2C3F2H2 I3FR2H2H2H2Z2FL3M3R2 H2R2LR2H2R2H2

Dear exile from the hurrying crowdA
At work I muse to you aloudA
Thought on my anvil softens glowsB
And I forget our art has foesB
For life the mother of beauty seemsC
A joyous sleep with waking dreamsC
Then the toy armoury of the brainD
Opining judging looks as vainD
As trowels silver gilt for useE
Of mayors and kings who have to layF
Foundation stones in hope they mayF
Be honoured for walls others buildG
I in amicable museH
With fathomless wonder only filledG
Whisper over to your earI
Listening two hundred odd miles northJ
And give thought chase that were you hereI
Our talk would never run to earthK
-
Man can answer no momentous questionL
Whence comes his spirit Has it lived beforeM
Reason fails hot springs of feeling spoutN
Their snowy columns high in the dim landO
Of his surmise violent divine decisionsP
That often rule him and at times he viewsH
Portraits of places he has never been toQ
Yet more minute and vivid than remembranceR
Of boyhood homes sail between sleep and wakingS
Like some mirage refuting all experienceR
With topsy turvy shipsT
That steals by in dead calms through tropic hazeU
And many a man in his climacteric yearsV
Thoughts and remembered words have roused from sleepW
With knowledge that he lacked on lying downX
And I lapped in a trance of reverie doubtN
Some spore of episodesY
Anterior far beyond this body's birthK
Dispersed like puffs of dust impalpableF
Wind carried round this globe for centuriesZ
May breathed with common air yet swim the bloodA2
And striking root in this or that brain raiseU
Imaginations unaccountableF
One such seems half implied in all I amB2
And many times re pondered shapes like thisC2
-
A child myself I watched a woman lollF
Like to a clot of seaweed thrown ashoreM
Heavy and limp as cloth soaked in black dyeD2
She glooms the noontide dazzle where a bayF
Bites into vineyarded flats close fenced by hillsE2
Over whose tops lap forests of cork and firF2
And reach in places half down their rough slopesG2
Lower some few cleared fields square on the thicketsH2
Of junipers and longer thorns than furzeH2
So clumped that they are trackless even for goatsH2
I know two things about that woman firstI2
She is a slave and I am free and nextJ2
As mothers need their sons' love she needs mineK2
Longings to utter fond compassionate soundsH2
Stir through me checked by knowing wiser folkL2
Reprobate such indulgence Ill at easeH2
Mute yet her captive I thrust brown toes throughQ
Loose sand no daily large tides overwhelmM2
To cake and roll it firm and smooth and cleanN2
As the Atlantic remakes shores you knowO2
But there like trailing skirts long flaws of windP2
Obliterate the prints feet during calmsH2
Track over and over its always lonely stretchQ2
Till some will have it ghosts must rove at nightR2
For folk by day are rare yet a still weekS2
Leaves hardly ten yards anywhere uncrossedR2
Tempest spreads all revirginate like snowO2
Half burying dead wood snapped off from tossed treesH2
Since right along the foreshore out of reachT2
Of furious driven waves three hundred pinesH2
Straggle the marches between sand and soilF
Like maps of stone walled fields their branching rootsH2
Hold the silt still so that thin grass grows thereU2
Its blades whitened with travelling powdery driftR2
The besom of the lightest breeze sets stirringS
That woman's gaze toils worn from remote yearsH2
Yet forward yearns through the bright spacious noonV2
Beyond the farthest isle whose filmy shapeW2
Floats faint on the sea lineK2
I scooping grains up with the frail half shellF
Pale green and white lined of sea urchin knewQ
What her eyes sought as often children knowO2
Of grief or sin they could not name or think ofX2
Yet sooth or shrink from so I saw and longedR2
To heal her tender wound and yet said naughtR2
The energy of bygone joy and painD
Had left her listless figure charged with magicY2
That caught and held my idleness near hersH2
Resentful of her power my spirit chafedR2
Against its own deep pity as though it wereF2
Raised ghost and she the witch had bid it haunt meZ2
What's more I knew this slave by rights should gleanN2
And faggot drift wood not lounge there and wasteR2
My father's food dreaming his time awayF
For then as now the common minded richA3
Grudged ease to those whose toil brought them in meansH2
For every waste of life At length I spokeL2
Insulting both my inarticulate soulF
And her with acted anger 'Lazy wretchA3
Is it for eyes like yours to watch the seaZ2
As though you waited for a homing shipB3
My father might with reason spend his hoursH2
Scanning the far horizon for his SwanC3
Whose outward lading was full half a vintageD3
Is now months overdue ' She turned on meZ2
Her languor knit and through its homespun wrapE3
Her muscular frame gave hints of rebel willF
While those great caves of night her eyes faced mineK2
Dread with the silence of unuttered wrongsH2
At last she spoke as one who must be heededR2
Truly I am not clearF3
Whether her meaning was conveyed in wordsH2
She mingled accents of an eastern tongueG3
With deformed phrases of our native LatinL
Or whether thought from her gaze poured through mineK2
The gravity of recollected lifeH3
Was hers condensed and like a vision flashedR2
Suddenly on the guilty mind a wholeF
Compact no longer a mere tedious stringS
Of moments negligible each so smallF
As they were lived but stark like a slain manI3
Who would alive have been ourself with twiceH2
The skill the knowledge the vitalityZ2
Actually ours Yea as a tree may viewQ
With fingerless boughs and lorn pole impotentR2
An elephant gorged upon its leaves departR2
Men often have reviewed an unwieldy pastR2
That like a feasted Mammoth leisured and slowO2
Turned its back on their warped bones Even thusH2
Momentous with reproach her grave regardR2
Made me feel mean cashiered of rank and rightR2
My limbs that twelve good years had nursed were numbedR2
And all their fidgety quicksilver grew stiffJ3
Novel and fevering hallucinationsH2
Invaded my attention So daylightR2
When shutters are thrown back spreads through a houseH2
As then the dreams and terrors of the nightR2
Decamp so from my mind were drivenL
All its own thoughts and feelings Close she leantR2
Propped on a swarthy arm while the other helpedR2
With eloquent gesture potent as wizard wandR2
Veil the world off as with an airy webK3
Or flowing tent a gleam with pictured foldsH2
These tauten and distend one sea of wheatR2
Islanded with black cities borders nowL3
The voluminous blue pavilion of dayF
There under to the nearest of those townsH2
This woman younger by ten years made hasteR2
While at her side ran a small boy of sixH2
They neared the walls half a huge double gateR2
Lay prostrate though the other by stone hingesH2
Hung to its flanking tower The path they followedR2
Threaded an old paved road whose flags were edgedR2
With dry grass and dry weeds even cactusesH2
Had pushed the stones up or found root in muck heapsH2
The path struck up the slope of the fallen doorM
Basalt like midnight o'er which dusty feetR2
Had greyed a passage for it rested onC3
Some d bris fallen from the left hand towerF2
And from its upper edge rude blocks like stepsH2
Led down into the straight main street that ranI3
Past eyeless buildings mined as it were from coalF
And earthquake raised to light Palaces andR2
Roofless wide flighted colonnaded templesH2
The uncemented walls piled plumb with blocksH2
Squared polished fitted with daemonic patienceH2
Each gaping threshold high again as need beZ2
Waited a nine foot lord to enter hallF
Where the least draughty corner sheltered nowL3
Half tented hut or improvised small homeM3
For Arab brown light footed and proud neckedR2
As was this woman with the compelling voiceH2
Their present hutched and hived within that pastR2
As bees in the parchment chest of Samson's lionL
And all seem conscious that their life was sweetR2
Like mice who clean their faces after mealsH2
And have such grace of movement when unscaredR2
AsH2

Thomas Sturge Moore



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