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 ZEZEZHER 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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