Years Ago Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCD EDED FGGG DHDH DIDI EJEJ GKGK LGLG DGDG MDMD NONO CGCG LPLP QGQG DDDD EGEG CDCD RGRG STST GGGG SQSQ EDED CGCGTHE old dead flowers of bygone summers | A |
The old sweet songs that are no more sung | B |
The rose red dawns that were welcome comers | A |
When you and I and the world were young | B |
Are lost O love to the light for ever | C |
And seen no more of the moon or sun | D |
For seas divide and the seasons sever | C |
And twain are we that of old were one | D |
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O fair lost love when the ship went sailing | E |
Across the seas in the years agone | D |
And seaward set were the eyes unquailing | E |
And landward looking the faces wan | D |
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My heart went back as a dove goes homeward | F |
With wings aweary to seek its nest | G |
While fierce sea eagles are flying foamward | G |
And storm winds whiten the surge s crest | G |
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And far inland for a farewell pardon | D |
Flew on and on while the ship went South | H |
The rose was red in the red rose garden | D |
And red the rose of your laughing mouth | H |
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But no word came on the wind in token | D |
Of love that lasts till the end and so | I |
My heart returned to me bruised and broken | D |
From you my love of the long ago | I |
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The green fields seemed in the distance growing | E |
To silken squares on a weaver s loom | J |
As oversea came the land wind blowing | E |
The faint sweet scent of the clover bloom | J |
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A rarer odour to me it carried | G |
In subtle delicate way to tell | K |
Of you ere you and the world were married | G |
The lilac odour you loved so well | K |
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Again I saw you beneath the blooms of | L |
Those lilac trees in the garden old | G |
Ah me each tree is a mark for tombs of | L |
Dead dreams and memories still and cold | G |
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And Death comes there with his breath scent laden | D |
And gathering gently the blossoms shed | G |
In guise of Autumn the brown browed maiden | D |
With your and my dead buries his dead | G |
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O fairer far than the fair ideal | M |
Of him who imaged the foam born Queen | D |
In foam white marble a dream made real | M |
To me were you in those years I ween | D |
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Your lips were redder than night shade berries | N |
That burn in borders of hedgerowed lanes | O |
And sweeter far than the sweet wild cherries | N |
The June sun flushes with crimson stains | O |
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And gray your eyes as a gray dove s wings were | C |
A gray soft shadowing deeps profound | G |
Where thoughts that reached to the heart of things were | C |
And love lay dreaming though seeming drowned | G |
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Twin tulip breasted like her the tread of | L |
Whose feet made music in Paphos fair | P |
The world to me was not worth a thread of | L |
Your brown ambrosial braided hair | P |
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Mayhap you loved me at one time truly | Q |
And I was jealous and you were proud | G |
But mine the love of the king in Thule | Q |
Till death and yours sleeps well in shroud | G |
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So night came down like a sombre raven | D |
And southward ever the ship was borne | D |
Till glad green fields and lessening haven | D |
Grew faint and faded like ghosts at morn | D |
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As fields of Heaven eternal blooming | E |
Those flowerful fields of my mother land | G |
In midnight visions are still perfuming | E |
All wild waste places and seas of sand | G |
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And still in seasons of storm and thunder | C |
In strange lands under your land and mine | D |
And though our ways have been wide asunder | C |
In calm and tempest and shade and shine | D |
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Your face I see as I saw the last time | R |
As one borne space ward on wings of light | G |
With eyes turned back to a sight of past time | R |
Beholds for ever that self same sight | G |
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But scorn has died on your lips and through you | S |
Shines out star bright an immortal grace | T |
As though God then to His heaven drew you | S |
And sent an angel to take your place | T |
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I plucked one rose from the tree you cherished | G |
My heart s blood ebbing has kept it red | G |
And all my hopes with its scent have perished | G |
Why mourn them now are the dead not dead | G |
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And yet God knows as this rose I kiss you | S |
May feel the kisses across the sea | Q |
And soul to soul for the larger issue | S |
Your soul may stand with the soul of me | Q |
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Unknown to you for the strings of Being | E |
Are not so easily snapped or torn | D |
And we may journey with eyes unseeing | E |
On paths that meet in the years unborn | D |
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Farewell dear heart Warm sighs may sever | C |
Ripe lips of love like a rose leaf curled | G |
But you remain unto me for ever | C |
The one fair woman in all the world | G |
Victor James Daley
(1)
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