Medea In Athens Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFAGHIJK LMNOPQRSRKT UB OVWXKYBR ZA2 UB2BV KUBKC2MD2E2F2KG2 H2D2AKI2J2K2K2K2 A K2L2M2KGKK2RN2O2P2 VK2S SQ2EK2KSK2K2K SKR2RSKKKKS2ES KT2KSSKGRU2V2S SJKBSSSKSSBSKSS W2KBKSSS SK RKS RX2SS SY2RKZ2R2 EA3B3BKC3 KRNR2KR2D3SKKT2KSNRE 3 RSF3JRK BER2SSSG3 KSKSDead is he Yes our stranger guest said dead | A |
said it by noonday when it seemed a thing | B |
most natural and so indifferent | C |
as if the tale ran that a while ago | D |
there died a man I talked with a chance hour | E |
when he by chance was near me If I spoke | F |
Good news for us but ill news for the dead | A |
when the gods sweep a villain down to them | G |
'twas the prompt trick of words like a pat phrase | H |
from some one other's song found on the lips | I |
and used because 'tis there for through all day | J |
the news seemed neither good nor ill to me | K |
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And now when day with all its useless talk | L |
and useless smiles and idiots' prying eyes | M |
that impotently peer into one's life | N |
when day with all its seemly lying shows | O |
has gone its way and left pleased fools to sleep | P |
while weary mummers taking off the mask | Q |
discern that face themselves forgot anon | R |
and sitting in the lap of sheltering night | S |
learn their own secrets from her even now | R |
does it seem either good or ill to me | K |
No but mere strange | T |
- | |
And this most strange of all | U |
that I care nothing | B |
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Nay how wild thought grows | O |
Meseems one came and told of Jason's death | V |
but 'twas a dream Else should I wondering thus | W |
reck not of him nor with the virulent hate | X |
that should be mine against mine enemy | K |
nor with that weakness which sometimes I feared | Y |
should this day make me not remembering Glauc | B |
envy him to death as though he had died mine | R |
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Can he be dead It were so strange a world | Z |
with him not in it | A2 |
- | |
Dimly I recall | U |
some prophecy a god breathed by my mouth | B2 |
It could not err What was it For I think | B |
it told his death | V |
- | |
Has a god come to me | K |
Is it thou my Hecate How know I all | U |
For I know all as if from long ago | B |
and I know all beholding instantly | K |
Is not that he arisen through the mists | C2 |
a lean and haggard man rough round the eyes | M |
dull and with no scorn left upon his lip | D2 |
decayed out of his goodliness and strength | E2 |
a wanned and broken image of a god | F2 |
dim counterfeit of Jason heavily | K |
wearing the name of him and memories | G2 |
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And lo he rests with lax and careless limbs | H2 |
on the loose sandbed wind heaped round his ship | D2 |
that rots in sloth like him and props his head | A |
on a half buried fallen spar The sea | K |
climbing the beach towards him seethes and frets | I2 |
and on the verge two sunned and shadowed clouds | J2 |
take shapes of notched rock islands and his thoughts | K2 |
drift languid to the steep Symplegades | K2 |
and the sound of waters crashing at their base | K2 |
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Su d wsper eikos katqanei kakos kakws Argous kara son leiyanw peplhgmenos EUR Med | A |
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And now he speaks out to his loneliness | K2 |
I was afraid and careful but she laughed | L2 |
'Love steers' she said and when the rocks were far | M2 |
grey twinkling spots in distance suddenly | K |
her face grew white and looking back to them | G |
she said 'Oh love a god has whispered me | K |
'twere well had we died there for strange mad woes | K2 |
are waiting for us in your Greece' and then | R |
she tossed her head back while her brown hair streamed | N2 |
gold in the wind and sun and her face glowed | O2 |
with daring beauty 'What of woes' she cried | P2 |
'if only they leave time for love enough ' | - |
But what a fire and flush It took one's breath | V |
And then he lay half musing half adoze | K2 |
shadows of me went misty through his sight | S |
- | |
And bye and bye he roused and cried Oh dolt | S |
Glauc was never half so beautiful | Q2 |
Then under part closed lids remembering her | E |
Poor Glauc a sweet face and yet methinks | K2 |
she might have wearied me and suddenly | K |
smiting the sand awhirl with his angry hand | S |
scorned at himself What god befooled my wits | K2 |
to dream my fancy for her yellow curls | K2 |
and milk white softness subtle policy | K |
- | |
Wealth and a royal bride but what beyond | S |
Medea with her skills her presciences | K |
man's wisdom woman's craft her rage of love | R2 |
that gave her to serve me strength next divine | R |
Medea would have made me what I would | S |
Glauc but what she could I schemed amiss | K |
and earned the curses the gods send on fools | K |
Ruined ruined A laughing stock to foes | K |
No man so mean but he may pity me | K |
no man so wretched but will keep aloof | S2 |
lest the curse upon me make him wretcheder | E |
Ruined | S |
- | |
And lo I see him hide his face | K |
like a man who'll weep with passion but to him | T2 |
the passion comes not only slow few tears | K |
of one too weary And from the great field | S |
where the boys race he hears their jubilant shout | S |
hum through the distance and he sighs Ah me | K |
she might have spared the children left me them | G |
no sons no sons to stand about me now | R |
and prosper me and tend me bye and bye | U2 |
in faltering age and keep my name on earth | V2 |
when I shall be departed out of sight | S |
- | |
And the shout hummed louder forth and whirring past | S |
a screaming sea bird flapped out to the bay | J |
and listlessly he watched it dip and rise | K |
till it skimmed out of sight so small a speck | B |
as a mayfly on the brook and then he said | S |
Fly forth fly forth bird fly to fierce Medea | S |
where by great geus she sits queening it | S |
belike a joyful mother of new sons | K |
tell her she never loved me as she talked | S |
else had no wrong at my hand shewn so great | S |
tell her that she breaks oaths more than I broke | B |
even so much as she seemed to love most | S |
she who fits fondling in a husband's arms | K |
while I am desolate And again he said | S |
My house is perished with me ruined ruined | S |
- | |
At that he rose and muttering in his teeth | W2 |
still ruined ruined slowly paced the sands | K |
then stood and gazing on the ragged hulk | B |
cried Oh loathed tool of fiends that through all storms | K |
and sundering waters borest me to Medea | S |
rot rot accursed thing and petulant | S |
pashed at the side | S |
- | |
Lo lo I see it part | S |
a tottering spar it parts it falls it strikes | K |
- | |
He is prone on the sand the blood wells from his brow | R |
he moans he speaks Medea's prophecy | K |
See he has fainted | S |
- | |
Hush hush he has lain | R |
with death and silence long now he wakes up | X2 |
Where is Medea Let her bind my head | S |
Hush hush A sigh a breath He is dead | S |
- | |
- | |
- | |
- | |
Medea | S |
What is it thou What thou this whimpering fool | Y2 |
this kind meek coward Sick for pity art thou | R |
Or did the vision scare thee Out on me | K |
do I drivel like a slight disconsolate girl | Z2 |
wailing her love | R2 |
- | |
No not one foolish tear | E |
that shamed my cheek welled up for any grief | A3 |
at his so pitiful lone end The touch | B3 |
of ancient memories and the woman's trick | B |
of easy weeping took me unawares | K |
but grief Why should I grieve | C3 |
- | |
And yet for this | K |
that he is dead He should still pine and dwine | R |
hungry for his old lost strong food of life | N |
vanished with me hungry for children's love | R2 |
hungry for me Ever to think of me | K |
with love with hate what care I hate is love | R2 |
Ever to think and long Oh it was well | D3 |
Yea my new marriage hope has been achieved | S |
for he did count me happy picture me | K |
happy with geus he did dream of me | K |
as all to geus that I was to him | T2 |
and to him nothing and did yearn for me | K |
and know me lost we two so far apart | S |
as dead and living I an envied wife | N |
and he alone and childless Jason Jason | R |
come back to earth live live for my revenge | E3 |
- | |
But lo the man is dead I am forgotten | R |
Forgotten something goes from life in that | S |
as if oneself had died when the half self | F3 |
of one's true living time has slipped away | J |
from reach of memories has ceased to know | R |
that such a woman is | K |
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A wondrous thing | B |
to be so separate having been so near | E |
near by hate last and once by so strong love | R2 |
Would love have kept us near if he had died | S |
in the good days Tush I should have died too | S |
we should have gone together hand in hand | S |
and made dusk Hades glorious each to each | G3 |
- | |
Ah me if then when through the fitful seas | K |
we saw the great rocks glimmer and the crew | S |
howled We are lost lo the Symplegades | K |
too late to shu | S |
Augusta Davies Webster
(1)
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