Orpheus. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFABGHIGGG GJIKFLMNOG PPGGQLGGGGGGRG GGGGGSGTLUVWMXQGYGGG AGZA2B2C2GD2QE2GMGGG IGKGF2G2C2H2A2 GGI2J2K2L2M2N2PPGKO2 GGLLLP2I2Q2R2GPGI2 S2GM2WT2I2U2GGWYLSV2 GW2I2UGGX2GMS2NGG A2A2MGY2T2GB2GZ2A3B3 GGG| About the land I wander all forlorn | A |
| About the land with sorrow quench d eyes | B |
| Seeking my love among the silent woods | C |
| Seeking her by the fountains and the streams | D |
| Calling her name unto lone mountain tops | E |
| Sending it flying on the clouds to heaven | F |
| I drop my tears amid the dews at morn | A |
| I trouble all the night with prayers and sighs | B |
| That like a veil thick set with golden stars | G |
| Hideth my woe but cannot silence it | H |
| Yet never more at morning noon or night | I |
| Cometh there answer back Eurydice | G |
| Thy voice speaks never more Eurydice | G |
| O far death stricken lost Eurydice | G |
| - | |
| Hear'st thou my weary cries Eurydice | G |
| Hearing but answering not from out the past | J |
| Wrapp'd in thy robe of everlasting light | I |
| Round which the accents flutter faintingly | K |
| Like larks slow panting upward to the sun | F |
| Or roll the golden sands of day away | L |
| And never more the voice of my despair | M |
| Trickles among them o'er thine unmoved ear | N |
| Though every grove doth multiply the sound | O |
| And all the land sigh forth Eurydice | G |
| - | |
| My heart is all untamed for evermore | P |
| The strings hang loose and warp'd for evermore | P |
| The rocks resound not with my olden songs | G |
| Nor melt in echoes on the tranc d breeze | G |
| The streams flow on to music all their own | Q |
| The magic of my lyre hath pass'd away | L |
| For Love ne'er sweeps sweet music from its chords | G |
| For thou art pass'd away Eurydice | G |
| Thou tuner of my song Eurydice | G |
| And there is nought to guide the erring tones | G |
| That once breath'd but of thee Eurydice | G |
| That made each breeze sweet with Eurydice | G |
| And taught each fountain and each running stream | R |
| To sing of thee O lost Eurydice | G |
| - | |
| The serpent saw thee O Eurydice | G |
| The serpent slew thee O Eurydice | G |
| Stealing amongst the grass Eurydice | G |
| The long rank grass that stretched Briarian arms | G |
| To clasp thee to itself Eurydice | G |
| And soon they laid thee from the sight of men | S |
| Laid thee beneath the rankly waving grass | G |
| Opening Earth's portals wide to let thee wend | T |
| Forth to Plutonian realms of gloom away | L |
| And never more about the waiting land | U |
| Stray'd thy light steps at morn or shady eve | V |
| No fountain hid thine image in its heart | W |
| No flowers leapt up to wreathe thy golden hair | M |
| No more the fawns within the forest glade | X |
| Follow'd a foot more lightsome than their own | Q |
| The moon stole through the night in dim surprise | G |
| And all the stars look'd pale with wondering | Y |
| For thou cam'st not O lost Eurydice | G |
| Earth found thee not O lost Eurydice | G |
| Love found thee not O lost Eurydice | G |
| - | |
| I could not stay where thou wert not forlorn | A |
| I could not live O lost Eurydice | G |
| Not Acheron itself could fright me back | Z |
| From where thy footsteps wander'd best beloved | A2 |
| And so I sought thee e'en at Hades' gate | B2 |
| Charm'd wide its leaves with melody of woe | C2 |
| And dared the grave to keep me from thine arms | G |
| I flow'd away upon a stream of song | D2 |
| E'en to dark Pluto's grimly guarded throne | Q |
| Melting the cruel Cerberus himself | E2 |
| The Parcae and snake lock'd Eumenides | G |
| To pity of my measureless despair | M |
| I sang thy beauty O Eurydice | G |
| I sigh'd my love forth O Eurydice | G |
| With tears and weary sighs Eurydice | G |
| And at thy name the pains of Hell grew light | I |
| Ixion's wheel stopp'd in its weary rounds | G |
| The rock of Sisyphus forgot to roll | K |
| And draughts of comfort flow'd o'er Tantalus | G |
| Then from old Dis's hands the keys slipp'd down | F2 |
| And words of hope and pity spake he forth | G2 |
| He promised thee again if I would go | C2 |
| Never back looking from those realms of gloom | H2 |
| Those realms of gloom where thou wert best beloved | A2 |
| - | |
| How could I leave thee thus Eurydice | G |
| Without one look one glance Eurydice | G |
| And I perchance no more to gaze on thee | I2 |
| Snared by some fatal falsehood from thy side | J2 |
| Yet strove I hard until at length I came | K2 |
| Where Lethe flow'd before me faint and dim | L2 |
| Ye gods how could I cross it from my love | M2 |
| That might wash out her memory for aye | N2 |
| That I should live and dream of her no more | P |
| That I should live and love her never more | P |
| That I should sing no more Eurydice | G |
| That I should leave her in the grip of Hell | K |
| Nor bear her forth e'en on the wings of thought | O2 |
| And so I turn'd to gaze Eurydice | G |
| I turn'd to clasp thee O Eurydice | G |
| And lo thy form straightway dissolved away | L |
| Thy beauty in the light dissolved away | L |
| And Hades and all things dissolved away | L |
| Until I found me on thy cold cold grave | P2 |
| Amid the grass that I would grew o'er me | I2 |
| Clasping us close within one narrow home | Q2 |
| Where I no more might wake and find thee gone | R2 |
| The earth oped not unto my frantic cries | G |
| The portals closed thee from me evermore | P |
| Else had I melted Hell itself with prayers | G |
| And borne thee back to Earth triumphantly | I2 |
| - | |
| I cried heart stricken on Proserpina | S2 |
| I rent the rocks around with endless prayers | G |
| I told her all the story of our love | M2 |
| I launch'd my sorrows on her woman's heart | W |
| I sought her through the barren winter time | T2 |
| The woful winter time for Earth and me | I2 |
| And Oh I thought her soul will soon relent | U2 |
| And rush in crystal torrents from her eyes | G |
| Till in the joy of sympathetic tears | G |
| She woo my love from Pluto's stony heart | W |
| I waited and I question'd long the Spring | Y |
| I question'd every flower and budding spray | L |
| If thou didst come among them back again | S |
| I conjured each bright blossom each green leaf | V2 |
| That leaving Earth she bears full arm'd to Dis | G |
| But backward flingeth ere her glad return | W2 |
| That every step of glorious liberty | I2 |
| Fall upon flowers throughout the happy land | U |
| But never came response Eurydice | G |
| The flowers were dumb O lost Eurydice | G |
| They would not see thee spring from Earth like them | X2 |
| Outshining all their fainter loveliness | G |
| And so they left me to my lorn despair | M |
| She left me lorn O false Proserpina | S2 |
| And never more may I behold thee here | N |
| In Spring or Summer O Eurydice | G |
| By day or night O lost Eurydice | G |
| - | |
| They shall not keep me from thee O beloved | A2 |
| Dis shall not keep me from thee O beloved | A2 |
| But I shall shake his gates in my despair | M |
| Until they open wide to let me pass | G |
| I'll take my life up like a mighty rock | Y2 |
| And so beat breaches in the walls of Time | T2 |
| I'll cast existence from me like a wrestler's robes | G |
| And with my supple naked soul throw Fate | B2 |
| I'll snap the shackles whose Promethean links | G |
| Bind down my soul unto this narrow earth | Z2 |
| Dost hear my voice dim floating to thee now | A3 |
| Along the waves that ripple at my feet | B3 |
| Thus do I come to thee Eurydice | G |
| Through waving water floods Eurydice | G |
| I come I come beloved Eurydice | G |
Walter R. Cassels
(1)
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