The Butterfly Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDB DEED FDDF GHHG FIIF A JKKJ DLLD ADDA DKKD A DMMD NDDN OPPO DQQD RSSR DKKD HFFH F STTU DVBD TWWT DXXD

IA
-
O wonderful and wing d flowerB
That hoverest in the garden closeC
Finding in mazes of the roseD
The rapture of a summer hourB
-
O symbol of ImpermanenceD
Thou art a word of Beauty's tongueE
A word that in her song is sungE
Appealing to the inner senseD
-
Of that high mystic harmonyF
All lovely things are notes and wordsD
The growth of flowers the flight of birdsD
The figured Signs the foam wrought seaF
-
The whitening gold of sudden dawnG
The sunset's garnet afterglowH
The cumulus the noonlit snowH
The moon in irised clouds withdrawnG
-
Lacking who knows a cloud a treeF
A streamlet's purl the ocean's roarI
From Nature's multidinous storeI
Imperfect were the melodyF
-
IIA
-
O Beauty why so sad my heartJ
Why stirs in me a nameless painK
Which seems like some remembered strainK
As on this product of thine artJ
-
Enraptured marvelling I gazeD
And note how airily 'tis wroughtL
A wing d dream a bodied thoughtL
The spirit of the summer daysD
-
Thy Beauty opes O butterflyA
The doors of being with subtle senseD
Of Beauty's frail impermanenceD
And grief of knowing it must dieA
-
Again I seem to know the tearsD
Of other lives the woe and painK
Of days that died resurgent waneK
The moons of countless bygone yearsD
-
IIIA
-
On other worlds on other starsD
To us but tiny motes of lightM
Or lost in distances of nightM
Beyond our system's farthest barsD
-
A priest to Beauty's service swornN
I sought and served her all my daysD
With music and with hymns of praiseD
In star fall and the suns of mornN
-
With thrilling heart her gaze I knewO
In other moons her bosom gleamedP
And all the golden planet seemedP
To shadow forth her shape and hueO
-
I grieved to watch the summers passD
With sun led pageantries of bloomQ
And sad aphelions assumeQ
Their realm with crisping leaves and grassD
-
Mine was the grief of change and deathR
Of fair things gone beyond recallS
The paling light of dawns and allS
The flowers' vanished hues and breathR
-
IV-
-
From out the web of former livesD
The ancient never broken chainK
Of love and sorrow loss and gainK
One certain truth my heart derivesD
-
Though Beauty passes this I knowH
From change and death this verityF
Her spirit lives eternallyF
'Tis but her forms that come and goH
-
VF
-
Lo I am Beauty's constant thrallS
Must ever on her voice awaitT
And follow through the maze of FateT
Her luring strange and mysticalU
-
Obedient to her summoningsD
Forever must my heart aspireV
And seek on wings of lyric fireB
To penetrate the heart of thingsD
-
Wherein she sits augustly thronedT
In loveliness that renders dumbW
The Essence and the final SumW
With peril and with wonder zonedT
-
What though I fail my duller senseD
Baffled as by a wall of stoneX
The high desire the search aloneX
Are their own prize and recompenseD

Clark Ashton Smith



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