Voyage To Cythera Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD EFFE GHIJ DKDK ELME NOON PQPQ RSTS UVWU XYZA2 B2C2D2B2 CE2F2G2 H2RTX I2J2K2I2 EEH2H2Free as a bird and joyfully my heart | A |
Soared up among the rigging in and out | B |
Under a cloudless sky the ship rolled on | C |
Like an angel drunk with brilliant sun | D |
- | |
That dark grim island there which would that be | E |
Cythera we're told the legendary isle | F |
Old bachelors tell stories of and smile | F |
There's really not much to it you can see | E |
- | |
O place of many a mystic sacrament | G |
Archaic Aphrodite's splendid shade | H |
Lingers above your waters like a scent | I |
Infusing spirits with an amorous mood | J |
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Worshipped from of old by every nation | D |
Myrtle green isle where each new bud discloses | K |
Sighs of souls in loving adoration | D |
Breathing like incense from a bank of roses | K |
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Or like a dove roo cooing endlessly | E |
No Cythera was a poor infertile rock | L |
A stony desert harrowed by the shriek | M |
Of gulls And yet there was something to see | E |
- | |
This was no temple deep in flowers and trees | N |
With a young priestess moving to and fro | O |
Her body heated by a secret glow | O |
Her robe half opening to every breeze | N |
- | |
But coasting nearer close enough to land | P |
To scatter flocks of birds as we passed by | Q |
We saw a tall cypress shaped thing at hand | P |
A triple gibbet black against the sky | Q |
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Ferocious birds each perched on its own meal | R |
Were madly tearing at the thing that hung | S |
And ripened each its filthy beak a drill | T |
Made little bleeding holes to root among | S |
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The eyes were hollowed Heavy guts cascading | U |
Flowed like water halfway down the thighs | V |
The torturers though gorged on these vile joys | W |
Had also put their beaks to use castrating | U |
- | |
The corpse A pack of dogs beneath its feet | X |
Their muzzles lifted whirled and snapped and gnawed | Y |
One bigger beast amidst this jealous lot | Z |
Looked like an executioner with his guard | A2 |
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O Cytherean child of this fair clime | B2 |
Silently you suffered these attacks | C2 |
Paying the penalty for whatever acts | D2 |
Of infamy had kept you from a tomb | B2 |
- | |
Grotesquely dangling somehow you brought on | C |
Violent as vomit rising from the chest | E2 |
Strong as a river bilious to taste | F2 |
A flow of sufferings I'd thought long gone | G2 |
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Confronted with such dear remembered freight | H2 |
Poor devil now it was my turn to feel | R |
A panther's slavering jaws a beak's cruel drill | T |
Once it was my flesh they loved to eat | X |
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The sky was lovely and the sea divine | I2 |
but something thick and binding like a shroud | J2 |
Wrapped my heart in layers of black and blood | K2 |
Henceforth this allegory would be mine | I2 |
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O Venus On your isle what did I see | E |
But my own image on the gallows tree | E |
O God give me the strength to contemplate | H2 |
My own heart my own body without hate | H2 |
Charles Baudelaire
(1)
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