The Wanderer-s Return Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDEFFGHIIJKLLMJ CN OOPPQQII RRSSTTUUVVWWXXYZ A2TB2B2BBPPC2C2D2E2F 2F2MJG2G2 H2I2I2J2K2 LLCCL2L2L2L2L2L2M2M2 TH2PPB2B2N2N2O2O2BBP 2Q2J2R2LLS2S2T2T2 L2L2M2U2L2L2L2L2TTV2 V2L2L2VVW2TQ2VX2X2L2 L2L2L2Y2Y2L2L2Z2A3B3 B3C3D3 E3E3F3F3X2X2CCG3G3H3 CCL2L2I3I3J3J3U2U2A3 Z2F2F2L2L2KKB3B3K3 L2L2TW2L2L3

An old heart's mourning is a hideous thingA
And weeds upon an aged weeper clingA
Like night upon a grave The city thereB
Gaunt as a woman who has once been fairB
Lay black with winter and the silent rainC
Fell thro' the heavens darkly like a stainC
Upon her face The dusky houses roseD
Unlovely shapes laid naked on the oozeE
Grimed with long sooty tears The night fell downF
And gathered all the highways in its frownF
This was my home I saw men pass and passG
Nor stop to look into a neighbour's faceH
I dared not look in their's because my eyesI
Were faint and travel jarred and would not riseI
From the dull earth and hunger made them dimJ
The hunger of a seven years' angry dreamK
Of love and peace and home unsatisfiedL
And now my heart thus grievously deniedL
Rose like a caged bird in the nesting timeM
Who beats against the bars that prison himJ
In all its greenness of youth's wounds and painC
And would not cease till these should bleed againN
-
For I had gone a hunter through the worldO
And set my tent in every land and hurledO
My spears at life because my joys were deadP
And many a fair field of the Earth was redP
Where I had passed and many a wind might tellQ
Of stricken souls that to my arrows fellQ
I would not stop to listen to their criesI
But went my way and thought that I was wiseI
-
A wanderer's life whether his lone chase be manR
Or only those poor outlaws under banR
The creatures of the field his hand destroysS
Through rage of wantonness or need of noiseS
Is the fierce solace of its anger givenT
To a hurt soul which dares not turn to HeavenT
With me it was a vengeance of love lostU
A refuge proved for passions tempest tossedU
An unguent for despairs that could not killV
I wandered in the desert and the hillV
Seeking dry places and behold my griefW
Fled with my footprints and I found reliefW
And it had happened to me as befallsX
Men bred in cities who have left their wallsX
For gain or pleasure that the wildernessY
Grew lastly wearisome I loved it lessZ
-
And once a desperate chase had led me onA2
To an unknown land when daylight was near doneT
And I sat weary by my slaughtered preyB2
And watched the cranes which northward fled awayB2
Rank upon rank into the depths of airB
And still the horizon lifeless vast and bareB
Stretched wide around and like a vault of dreadP
The arch of heaven hemmed me overheadP
And the great eye of the dead beast was setC2
Upon my own I felt my cheek was wetC2
Oh surely then for all man's heart be hardD2
Though he have taken Nature by the beardE2
And lived alone as to the manner bornF2
And though his limbs be strung with toil and wornF2
To all Earth's dangers yet at such a timeM
His coward soul will overmaster himJ
Saying Beware thou child of Earth even nowG2
Look at the world how wide it is and thouG2
How small And thou hast dared to be alone ''-
And lo the last long flight of cranes was goneH2
And darkness with its folding pity creptI2
Over the plain I hid my face and weptI2
Till sleep fell on me But when dawn was comeJ2
I turned my steps to what had been my homeK2
-
The palace gardens I had fled asideL
From the gaunt streets in easement of my prideL
After the lamps were lit for to my brainC
The tumult and the passers by were painC
The gardens where in those far summer timesL2
A boy I came to watch the pantomimesL2
Among a laughing crowd of white capped bonnesL2
And red cheeked children and loud country clownsL2
Or where along the wall in graver senseL2
And screened from winds in their petite ProvenceL2
With the first chestnut blossoms old men satM2
And cheered their melancholy souls with chatM2
Thawing like frozen apples in the sunT
The old men and the children all were goneH2
The leaves their canopy lay torn and deadP
And crushed in spongy heaps beneath my treadP
The fountains recreant to their laughter layB2
Murk pools of silence shrouded from the dayB2
As though no doves had ever at their brinkN2
Stooped in full June to plume themselves and drinkN2
Only the trees stood witness of the pastO2
Sad trees I greeted them I held them fastO2
Like a friend's hands They were as changed and bareB
As my own life but calm in the despairB
Of their long winter's martyrdom and IP2
A very child in my philosophyQ2
Till I remembered that no Spring would comeJ2
To mock the winter of my own long doomR2
With any merriment And Trees'' I criedL
Your hearts within are all too greenly dyedL
To match with mine '' I let their branches goS2
And sat upon a bench to feed my woeS2
With memories long hidden out of mindT2
But which trooped back that night and rode the windT2
-
These wooden benches what sad ghosts of pleasuresL2
Had used them nightly crouching o'er their treasuresL2
My own long murdered joys since there we satM2
Blind in our love and insolent to FateU2
Each one a witness proved of our lost vowsL2
Our prayers our protests all our souls' carouseL2
Each one inscribed through the unheeding yearsL2
With letters of a name I wrote in tearsL2
'Twas here I saw her first a pure sweet womanT
Fair as a goddess but with smile all humanT
Her children at her knees who went and cameV2
At each new wayward impulse of their gameV2
And she reproving with her quiet eyesL2
Veiling the mirth they could not all disguiseL2
The echo of her voice with its mute thrillV
Lived in these glades and stirred my pulses stillV
Though I had lived to hear it in what toneW2
Of passionate grief and souls' disunionT
She stood a broken lily by that treeQ2
Sunlight and shade for ever changinglyV
Chequering the robe she wore of virgin whiteX2
When first I touched the goal of my delightX2
Her woman's hand and hid it in my handsL2
Here shone the glory of her countenanceL2
Nobler for tears when weakness for a spaceL2
Held full dominion in that heaven her faceL2
And she confessed herself of grief divineY2
And love grown young a vintage of new wineY2
And I was crowned her king O silent treesL2
You heard it and you know how to the leesL2
We drained the cup of life and found it goodZ2
Gathering love's manna for our daily foodA3
In scorn of the vain rest You heard and knewB3
What the world only guessed where all was trueB3
And have you dreamed on in your quiet groveC3
While seven years were built against our loveD3
-
'Twas on this bench I sat that day of JuneE3
Thinking of death a whole sweet afternoonE3
Till I was sick of sorrow and my tongueF3
Weary of its long silence I was youngF3
And the birds sang so loud and when the nightX2
Came as it now came and the lamps grew brightX2
In the long street lit like a diamond chainC
I rose and said I will not bear the painC
What is my pride worth that for it this smartG3
Should harrow up the green things of my heartG3
For twelve importunate hours in such a sortH3
And pleasure is so sweet and life so short ''-
And as a martyr who long time has lainC
Frozen in a dungeon sees amid his painC
When he has fasted on for many daysL2
Bright visions of hot feasts and hearths ablazeL2
With welcome and who sells his gloomy creedI3
And is overcome of pleasure so my needI3
Conquered my pride and I arose and wentJ3
Striding with smiles at my new found intentJ3
Down these same gravel alleys to the gateU2
And so beyond like one inebriateU2
Thinking the while of the brave baths and foodA3
Set for the renegade until I stoodZ2
Once more before her door I had forswornF2
I did not stop to question thoughts forlornF2
But knocked as I had knocked a thousand timesL2
St Roch's was ringing its last evening chimesL2
And I still thought about the martyr's dreamK
I saw the light within the threshold gleamK
Which opened to me and the voice I knewB3
Said in all sweetness as the door swung toB3
Come We are just in time How fortunateK3
You too like me have happened to be late ''-
I swear I said no word of the sad plansL2
I had plotted on this bench of ignoranceL2
There have been kings called happy but not oneT
As I that night Ah God to be aloneW2
Alone and never more to hear her voiceL2
Calling me baL3

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt



Rate:
(1)



Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation


Write your comment about The Wanderer-s Return poem by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt


 

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 0 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Popular Poets