Podas Okus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCE FGFFHIJI KLKLAMAM JFJFNFNF OPOPQJQJ JJJJIRIR ISISNJNJ QIQITFTF JIJIAUAU IFIFNFNF QFQFAOAO AVAVAWAW OFOFIPIP OJOJOXAX JFJFJYJY OOAOQKQK IZIA2QB2QB2 QOQOQFQF JOJOJC2JC2 QD2QD2IQIQ JFJFIJIJAm I waking Was I sleeping | A |
Dearest are you watching yet | B |
Traces on your cheeks of weeping | A |
Glitter 'tis in vain you fret | B |
Drifting ever drifting onward | C |
In the glass the bright sand runs | D |
Steadily and slowly downward | C |
Hushed are all the Myrmidons | E |
- | |
Has Automedon been banish'd | F |
From his post beside my bed | G |
Where has Agamemnon vanished | F |
Where is warlike Diomed | F |
Where is Nestor where Ulysses | H |
Menelaus where is he | I |
Call them not more dear your kisses | J |
Than their prosings are to me | I |
- | |
Daylight fades and night must follow | K |
Low where sea and sky combine | L |
Droops the orb of great Apollo | K |
Hostile god to me and mine | L |
Through the tent's wide entrance streaming | A |
In a flood of glory rare | M |
Glides the golden sunset gleaming | A |
On your golden gleaming hair | M |
- | |
Chide him not the leech who tarries | J |
Surest aid were all too late | F |
Surer far the shaft of Paris | J |
Winged by Phoebus and by fate | F |
When he crouch'd behind the gable | N |
Had I once his features scann'd | F |
Phoebus' self had scarce been able | N |
To have nerved his trembling hand | F |
- | |
Blue eyed maiden dear Athena | O |
Goddess chaste and wise and brave | P |
From the snares of Polyxena | O |
Thou would'st fain thy favourite save | P |
Tell me is it not far better | Q |
That it should be as it is | J |
Jove's behest we cannot fetter | Q |
Fate's decrees are always his | J |
- | |
Many seek for peace and riches | J |
Length of days and life of ease | J |
I have sought for one thing which is | J |
Fairer unto me than these | J |
Often too I've heard the story | I |
In my boyhood of the doom | R |
Which the fates assigned me Glory | I |
Coupled with an early tomb | R |
- | |
Swift assault and sudden sally | I |
Underneath the Trojan wall | S |
Charge and countercharge and rally | I |
War cry loud and trumpet call | S |
Doubtful strain of desp'rate battle | N |
Cut and thrust and grapple fierce | J |
Swords that ring on shields that rattle | N |
Blades that gash and darts that pierce | J |
- | |
I have done with these for ever | Q |
By the loud resounding sea | I |
Where the reedy jav'lins quiver | Q |
There is now no place for me | I |
Day by day our ranks diminish | T |
We are falling day by day | F |
But our sons the strife will finish | T |
Where man tarries man must slay | F |
- | |
Life 'tis said to all men sweet is | J |
Death to all must bitter be | I |
Wherefore thus oh mother Thetis | J |
None can baffle Jove's decree | I |
I am ready I am willing | A |
To resign my stormy life | U |
Weary of this long blood spilling | A |
Sated with this ceaseless strife | U |
- | |
Shorter doom I've pictured dimly | I |
On a bed of crimson sand | F |
Fighting hard and dying grimly | I |
Silent lips and striking hand | F |
But the toughest lives are brittle | N |
And the bravest and the best | F |
Lightly fall it matters little | N |
Now I only long for rest | F |
- | |
I have seen enough of slaughter | Q |
Seen Scamander's torrent red | F |
Seen hot blood poured out like water | Q |
Seen the champaign heaped with dead | F |
Men will call me unrelenting | A |
Pitiless vindictive stern | O |
Few will raise a voice dissenting | A |
Few will better things discern | O |
- | |
Speak the fires of life are reeling | A |
Like the wildfires on the marsh | V |
Was I to a friend unfeeling | A |
Was I to a mistress harsh | V |
Was there nought save bloodshed throbbing | A |
In this heart and on this brow | W |
Whisper girl in silence sobbing | A |
Dead Patroclus answer thou | W |
- | |
Dry those violet orbs that glisten | O |
Darling I have had my day | F |
Place your hand in mine and listen | O |
Ere the strong soul cleaves its way | F |
Through the death mist hovering o'er me | I |
As the stout ship cleaves the wave | P |
To my fathers gone before me | I |
To the gods who love the brave | P |
- | |
Courage we must part for certain | O |
Shades that sink and shades that rise | J |
Blending in a shroud like curtain | O |
Gather o'er these weary eyes | J |
O'er the fields we used to roam in | O |
Brighter days and lighter cheer | X |
Gathers thus the quiet gloaming | A |
Now I ween the end is near | X |
- | |
For the hand that clasps your fingers | J |
Closing in the death grip tight | F |
Scarcely feels the warmth that lingers | J |
Scarcely heeds the pressure light | F |
While the failing pulse that alters | J |
Changing 'neath a death chill damp | Y |
Flickers flutters flags and falters | J |
Feebly like a waning lamp | Y |
- | |
Think'st thou love 'twill chafe my ghost in | O |
Hades' realm where heroes shine | O |
Should I hear the shepherd boasting | A |
To his Argive concubine | O |
Let him boast the girlish victor | Q |
Let him brag not thus I trow | K |
Were the laurels torn from Hector | Q |
Not so very long ago | K |
- | |
Does my voice sound thick and husky | I |
Is my hand no longer warm | Z |
Round that neck where pearls look dusky | I |
Let me once more wind my arm | A2 |
Rest my head upon that shoulder | Q |
Where it rested oft of yore | B2 |
Warm and white yet seeming colder | Q |
Now than e'er it seem'd before | B2 |
- | |
'Twas the fraud of Priam's daughter | Q |
Not the force of Priam's son | O |
Slew me ask not why I sought her | Q |
'Twas my doom her work is done | O |
Fairer far than she and dearer | Q |
By a thousandfold thou art | F |
Come my own one nestle nearer | Q |
Cheating death of half his smart | F |
- | |
Slowly while your amber tresses | J |
Shower down their golden rain | O |
Let me drink those last caresses | J |
Never to be felt again | O |
Yet th' Elysian halls are spacious | J |
Somewhere near me I may keep | C2 |
Room who knows The gods are gracious | J |
Lay me lower let me sleep | C2 |
- | |
Lower yet my senses wander | Q |
And my spirit seems to roll | D2 |
With the tide of swift Scamander | Q |
Rushing to a viewless goal | D2 |
In my ears like distant washing | I |
Of the surf upon the shore | Q |
Drones a murmur faintly splashing | I |
'Tis the splash of Charon's oar | Q |
- | |
Lower yet my own Briseis | J |
Denser shadows veil the light | F |
Hush what is to be to be is | J |
Close my eyes and say good night | F |
Lightly lay your red lips kissing | I |
On this cold mouth while your thumbs | J |
Lie on these cold eyelids pressing | I |
Pallas thus thy soldier comes | J |
Adam Lindsay Gordon
(1)
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