To E. Fitzgerald: Tiresias Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGHGHHIHI JHJHGHGHHGHGKLKLMHMH NONOPHPHQRQRGGGG G HSTUGGVGWGX YHHHHKDHZVA2GIB2C2HG HKW GD2HE2GGF2GG2HHHH2GG I2HJ2K2GXL2HGHDGHM2H KHNN2HGO2TP2GQ2KR2R2 KGGS2DHHR2DO2GHZGQ2T 2NGGGU2QGV2W2X2GY2HG G DL2GV2

OLD FITZ who from your suburb grangeA
Where once I tarried for a whileB
Glance at the wheeling orb of changeA
And greet it with a kindly smileB
Whom yet I see as there you sitC
Beneath your sheltering garden treeD
And watch your doves about you flitC
And plant on shoulder hand and kneeD
Or on your head their rosy feetE
As if they knew your diet sparesF
Whatever moved in that full sheetE
Let down to Peter at his prayersF
Who live on milk and meal and grassG
And once for ten long weeks I triedH
Your table of PythagorasG
And seem'd at first a thing enskiedH
As Shakespeare has it airy lightH
To float above the ways of menI
Then fell from that half spiritual heightH
Chill'd till I tasted flesh againI
One night when earth was winter b ackJ
And all the heavens flash'd in frostH
And on me half asleep came backJ
That wholesome heat the blood had lostH
And set me climbing icy capesG
And glaciers over which there roll'dH
To meet me long arm'd vines with grapesG
Of Eshcol hugeness for the coldH
Without and warmth within me wroughtH
To mould the dream but none can sayG
That Lenten fare makes Lenten thoughtH
Who reads your golden Eastern layG
Than which I know no version doneK
In English more divinely wellL
A planet equal to the sunK
Which cast it that large infidelL
Your Omar and your Omar drewM
Full handed plaudits from our bestH
In modern letters and from twoM
Old friends outvaluing all the restH
Two voices heard on earth no moreN
But we old friends are still aliveO
And I am nearing seventy fourN
While you have touch'd at seventy fiveO
And so I send a birthday lineP
Of greeting and my son who diptH
In some forgotten book of mineP
With sallow scraps of manuscriptH
And dating many a year agoQ
Has hit on this which you will takeR
My Fitz and welcome as I knowQ
Less for its own than for the sakeR
Of one recalling gracious timesG
When in our younger London daysG
You found some merit in my rhymesG
And I more pleasure in your praiseG
-
TIRESIASG
-
I WISH I were as in the years of oldH
While yet the blessed daylight made itselfS
Ruddy thro' both the roofs of sight and wokeT
These eyes now dull but then so keen to seekU
The meanings ambush'd under all they sawG
The flight of birds the flame of sacrificeG
What omens may foreshadow fate to manV
And woman and the secret of the GodsG
My son the Gods despite of human prayerW
Are slower to forgive than human kingsG
The great God Ares burns in anger stillX
-
Against the guiltless heirs of him from TyreY
Our Cadmus out of whom thou art who foundH
Beside the springs of Dirce smote and still'dH
Thro' all its folds the multitudinous beastH
The dragon which our trembling fathers call'dH
The God's own sonK
A tale that told to meD
When but thine age by age as winter whiteH
As mine is now amazed but made me yearnZ
For larger glimpses of that more than manV
Which rolls the heavens and lifts and lays the deepA2
Yet loves and hates with mortal hates and lovesG
And moves unseen among the ways of menI
Then in my wanderings all the lands that lieB2
Subjected to the Heliconian ridgeC2
Have heard this footstep fall altho' my wontH
Was more to scale the highest of the heightsG
With some strange hope to see the nearer GodH
One naked peak the sister of the SunK
Would climb from out the dark and linger thereW
-
-
To silver all the valleys with her shaftsG
There once but long ago five fold thy termD2
Of years I lay the winds were dead for heatH
The noonday crag made the hand burn and sickE2
For shadow not one bush was near I roseG
Following a torrent till its myriad fallsG
Found silence in the hollows underneathF2
There in a secret olive glade I sawG
Pallas Athene climbing from the bathG2
In anger yet one glittering foot disturb'dH
The lucid well one snowy knee was prestH
Against the margin flowers a dreadful lightH
Came from her golden hair her golden helmH2
And all her golden armor on the grassG
And from her virgin breast and virgin eyesG
Remaining fixt on mine till mine grew darkI2
For ever and I heard a voice that saidH
Henceforth be blind for thou hast seen too muchJ2
And speak the truth that no man may believeK2
Son in the hidden world of sight that livesG
Behind this darkness I behold her stillX
Beyond all work of those who carve the stoneL2
Beyond all dreams of Godlike womanhoodH
Ineffable beauty out of whom at a glanceG
And as it were perforce upon me flash'dH
The power of prophesying but to meD
No power so chain'd and coupled with the curseG
Of blindness and their unbelief who heardH
And heard not when I spake of famine plagueM2
Shrine shattering earthquake fire flood thunderboltH
And angers of the Gods for evil doneK
And expiation lack'd no power on FateH
Theirs or mine own for when the crowd would roarN
For blood for war whose issue was their doomN2
To cast wise words among the multitudeH
Was fiinging fruit to lions nor in hoursG
Of civil outbreak when I knew the twainO2
Would each waste each and bring on both the yokeT
Of stronger states was mine the voice to curbP2
The madness of our cities and their kingsG
Who ever turn'd upon his heel to hearQ2
My warning that the tyranny of oneK
Was prelude to the tyranny of allR2
My counsel that the tyranny of allR2
Led backward to the tyranny of oneK
This power hath work'd no good to aught that livesG
And these blind hands were useless in their warsG
O therefore that the unfulfill'd desireS2
The grief for ever born from griefs to beD
The boundless yearning of the prophet's heartH
Could that stand forth and like a statue rear'dH
To some great citizen wim all praise from allR2
Who past it saying That was heD
In vainO2
Virtue must shape itself im deed and thoseG
Whom weakness or necessity have cramp'dH
Withm themselves immerging each his urnZ
In his own well draws solace as he mayG
Menceceus thou hast eyes and I can hearQ2
Too plainly what full tides of onset sapT2
Our seven high gates and what a weight of warN
Rides on those ringing axlesl jingle of bitsG
Shouts arrows tramp of the horn footed horseG
That grind the glebe to powder Stony showersG
Of that ear stunning hail of Ares crashU2
Along the sounding walls Above belowQ
Shock after shock the song built towers and gatesG
Reel bruised and butted with the shudderingV2
War thunder of iron rams and from withinW2
The city comes a murmur void of joyX2
Lest she be taken captive maidens wivesG
And mothers with their babblers of the dawnY2
And oldest age in shadow from the nightH
Falling about their shrines before their GodsG
And wailing Save usG
-
And they wail to theeD
These eyeless eyes that cannot see thine ownL2
See this that only in thy virtue liesG
The savingV2

Alfred Lord Tennyson



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