Rhyme Scheme in Lycidas

After the first read of Milton's poem, after I was bombarded with images and references that I slowly cleared up, I was caught by the rhyme scheme of the work. The differences between the last two stanzas alone are quite major. At first, there seems to a pattern two the second to last stanza, beginning with "Weep no more" - it's a typical ABAB, but then it veers off from there.

A/ B/ A/ B/ B/ A/ C/ C/ D/ E/ D/ E/ G/ F/ G /H/ I/ A/ A/ J/ K

While I found that the repetition of certain end rhymes, like the two 'A's at the end of the stanza sort of pull the stanza together, at the same time it made it even more difficult to process. But I feel that this is a bard's song, and when one listens to a song you don't sit there and pick out and write down the end rhymes, but you listen to the story and the imagery.

The last stanza was more easily identified.

A/ B/ A/ B/ A/ B/ C/ C

When I read aloud the last two stanzas, focusing on the end rhymes (probably a bit too much), I found that the bard-like quality of the poem ended with the second to last stanza. The last one almost forces the reader back into the lilt that it's best to stay away from. Conceptually, the interpretation of the last stanza allows for hope, something absent in a story of a tragic drowning. "At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue:/ Tomorrow to fresh woods, and pastures new." The three words in the last line: 'tomorrow', 'fresh' and 'new', can only imply a brighter future, one brighter than the sad past.

I also really enjoyed the images in the second to last stanza. Starting from line 168 specifically, there is a feeling of hidden strength in the lines and rhythm that Milton creates. Each line becomes progressively more powerful. "...yet anon repairs", then "...and with new-spangled ore", then "Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:" and it continues with the image of Lycidas "mounted high", perhaps next to Apollo on his chariot. It ends with the hope that Lycidas is now among other talented like he, and even though he is lost to mortal mankind, he has become immortal through his afterlife. It reminds me of the theme from Yeats' Sailing to Byzantium; the theme of the conflict of the immortality of the sou and the mortality of the human flesh.