Love-laurel Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDACEFGGFEG HFIIFHI JIKKIJK LIMMILM EINNIEN HIAAICA EFOPFEO QIRRIQRSDCCDSC TIUUIUU DVCCVDCCFWWFCW| Ah that God once would touch my lips with song | A |
| To pierce as prayer doth heaven earth s breast of iron | B |
| So that with sweet mouth I might sing to thee | C |
| O sweet dead singer buried by the sea | C |
| A song to woo thee as a wooing siren | D |
| Out of that silent sleep which seals too long | A |
| Thy mouth of melody | C |
| For if live lips might speak awhile to dead | E |
| Or any speech could reach the sad world under | F |
| This world of ours song surely should awake | G |
| Thee who didst dwell in shadow for song s sake | G |
| Alas thou canst not hear the voice of thunder | F |
| Nor low dirge over thy low lying head | E |
| The winds of morning make | G |
| - | |
| Down through the clay there comes no sound of these | H |
| Down in the grave there is no sign of Summer | F |
| Nor any knowledge of the soft eyed Spring | I |
| But Death sits there with outspread ebon wing | I |
| Closing with dust the mouth of each new comer | F |
| To that mute land where never sound of seas | H |
| Is heard and no birds sing | I |
| - | |
| Now thou hast found the end of all thy days | J |
| Hast thou found any heart a vigil keeping | I |
| For thee among the dead some heart that heard | K |
| Thy singing when thou wert a brown sweet bird | K |
| Gray ons gone in some old forest sleeping | I |
| Beneath the seas long since in Death s dim ways | J |
| Has thy heart any word | K |
| - | |
| For surely those in whom the deathless spark | L |
| Of song is kindled sang from the beginning | I |
| If life were always But the old desires | M |
| Do they exist when sad eyed Hope expires | M |
| How live the dead what crowns have they for winning | I |
| Have they to warm them in the dreamless dark | L |
| For sun earth s central fires | M |
| - | |
| Are the dead dead indeed whom we call dead | E |
| Has God no life but this of ours for giving | I |
| When that they took thee by each well known place | N |
| Stark in thy coffin with a cold white face | N |
| What thought O Brother hadst thou of the living | I |
| What of the sun that round thee glory shed | E |
| What of the fair day s grace | N |
| - | |
| Is thy new life made up of memories | H |
| Or dreams that lull the dead bright visions bringing | I |
| Of Spring above Are thy days short or long | A |
| Thou who wert master of our singing throng | A |
| Mayhap in death thou hast not lost thy singing | I |
| But chauntst unheard beside the moaning sea | C |
| A solitary song | A |
| - | |
| The chance spade turns up skulls God help the dead | E |
| And thee whose singing days have all passed over | F |
| Thee whom the gold haired Spring shall seek in vain | O |
| When at the glad year s doors she stands again | P |
| Remembering the song garlands thou hast wove her | F |
| In years gone by but all these years have fled | E |
| With all their joy and pain | O |
| - | |
| My soul laughed out to hear my heart speak so | Q |
| And sprang forth skyward as an eagle hoping | I |
| To look upon thy soul with living eyes | R |
| Until it came to where our dim life dies | R |
| And dead suns darkly for a grave are groping | I |
| Through cycles of immeasurable woe | Q |
| Stone blind in the blind skies | R |
| The stars walk shuddering on that awful verge | S |
| From which my soul with swift and fearless motion | D |
| Clove the black depths and sought for God and thee | C |
| But God dwells where nor stars nor suns there be | C |
| No shore there is to His Eternal Ocean | D |
| A thousand systems are a fringe of surge | S |
| On that great starless sea | C |
| - | |
| And thou wert not So that with weary plumes | T |
| My soul through the great void its way came winging | I |
| To earth again What hope for him who sings | U |
| Is there it sighed Death ends all sweetest things | U |
| When lo there came a swell of mighty singing | I |
| Flooding all space and swift athwart the glooms | U |
| A flash of sudden wings | U |
| - | |
| - | |
| Dreamer of dreams thy songs and dreams are done | D |
| Down where thou sleepest in earth s secret bosom | V |
| There is no sorrow and no joy for thee | C |
| Who canst not see what stars at eve there be | C |
| Nor evermore at morn the green dawn blossom | V |
| Into the golden king flower of the sun | D |
| Across the golden sea | C |
| But haply there shall come in days to be | C |
| One who shall hear his own heart beating faster | F |
| Plucking a rose sprung from thy heart beneath | W |
| And from his soul as sword from out its sheath | W |
| Song shall leap forth where now O silent master | F |
| On thy lone grave beside the sounding sea | C |
| I lay this laurel wreath | W |
Victor James Daley
(1)
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About Love-laurel
Love-laurel is a poem by Victor James Daley. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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