Cleopatra Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABA CDCDC EFEFE GHGHG IJIJI KLMLK NONON PQRQR STSTS NUNUU EUEUE EVEVE EWEXE EYEYE UGUGU IEIES UYUYU UZUZU AMAMA ZEZEZ| HER mouth is fragrant as a vine | A |
| A vine with birds in all its boughs | B |
| Serpent and scarab for a sign | A |
| Between the beauty of her brows | B |
| And the amorous deep lids divine | A |
| - | |
| Her great curled hair makes luminous | C |
| Her cheeks her lifted throat and chin | D |
| Shall she not have the hearts of us | C |
| To shatter and the loves therein | D |
| To shred between her fingers thus | C |
| - | |
| Small ruined broken strays of light | E |
| Pearl after pearl she shreds them through | F |
| Her long sweet sleepy fingers white | E |
| As any pearl's heart veined with blue | F |
| And soft as dew on a soft night | E |
| - | |
| As if the very eyes of love | G |
| Shone through her shutting lids and stole | H |
| The slow looks of a snake or dove | G |
| As if her lips absorbed the whole | H |
| Of love her soul the soul thereof | G |
| - | |
| Lost all the lordly pearls that were | I |
| Wrung from the sea's heart from the green | J |
| Coasts of the Indian gulf river | I |
| Lost all the loves of the world so keen | J |
| Towards this queen for love of her | I |
| - | |
| You see against her throat the small | K |
| Sharp glittering shadows of them shake | L |
| And through her hair the imperial | M |
| Curled likeness of the river snake | L |
| Whose bite shall make an end of all | K |
| - | |
| Through the scales sheathing him like wings | N |
| Through hieroglyphs of gold and gem | O |
| The strong sense of her beauty stings | N |
| Like a keen pulse of love in them | O |
| A running flame through all his rings | N |
| - | |
| Under those low large lids of hers | P |
| She hath the histories of all time | Q |
| The fruit of foliage stricken years | R |
| The old seasons with their heavy chime | Q |
| That leaves its rhyme in the world's ears | R |
| - | |
| She sees the hand of death made bare | S |
| The ravelled riddle of the skies | T |
| The faces faded that were fair | S |
| The mouths made speechless that were wise | T |
| The hollow eyes and dusty hair | S |
| - | |
| The shape and shadow of mystic things | N |
| Things that fate fashions or forbids | U |
| The staff of time forgotten Kings | N |
| Whose name falls off the Pyramids | U |
| Their coffin lids and grave clothings | U |
| - | |
| Dank dregs the scum of pool or clod | E |
| God spawn of lizard footed clans | U |
| And those dog headed hulks that trod | E |
| Swart necks of the old Egyptians | U |
| Raw draughts of man's beginning God | E |
| - | |
| The poised hawk quivering ere he smote | E |
| With plume like gems on breast and back | V |
| The asps and water worms afloat | E |
| Between the rush flowers moist and slack | V |
| The cat's warm black bright rising throat | E |
| - | |
| The purple days of drouth expand | E |
| Like a scroll opened out again | W |
| The molten heaven drier than sand | E |
| The hot red heaven without rain | X |
| Sheds iron pain on the empty land | E |
| - | |
| All Egypt aches in the sun's sight | E |
| The lips of men are harsh for drouth | Y |
| The fierce air leaves their cheeks burnt white | E |
| Charred by the bitter blowing south | Y |
| Whose dusty mouth is sharp to bite | E |
| - | |
| All this she dreams of and her eyes | U |
| Are wrought after the sense hereof | G |
| There is no heart in her for sighs | U |
| The face of her is more than love | G |
| A name above the Ptolemies | U |
| - | |
| Her great grave beauty covers her | I |
| As that sleek spoil beneath her feet | E |
| Clothed once the anointed soothsayer | I |
| The hallowing is gone forth from it | E |
| Now made unmeet for priests to wear | S |
| - | |
| She treads on gods and god like things | U |
| On fate and fear and life and death | Y |
| On hate that cleaves and love that clings | U |
| All that is brought forth of man's breath | Y |
| And perisheth with what it brings | U |
| - | |
| She holds her future close her lips | U |
| Hold fast the face of things to be | Z |
| Actium and sound of war that dips | U |
| Down the blown valleys of the sea | Z |
| Far sails that flee and storms of ships | U |
| - | |
| The laughing red sweet mouth of wine | A |
| At ending of life's festival | M |
| That spice of cerecloths and the fine | A |
| White bitter dust funereal | M |
| Sprinkled on all things for a sign | A |
| - | |
| His face who was and was not he | Z |
| In whom alive her life abode | E |
| The end when she gained heart to see | Z |
| Those ways of death wherein she trod | E |
| Goddess by god with Antony | Z |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1)
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