Waiting For The Barbarians Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCD BEDFGH BIJKBKKKKL BKMB BDNAFO ABIKN| What are we waiting for assembled in the forum | A |
| - | |
| The barbarians are due here today | B |
| Why isn't anything happening in the senate | C |
| Why do the senators sit there without legislating | D |
| - | |
| Because the barbarians are coming today | B |
| What laws can the senators make now | E |
| Once the barbarians are here they'll do the legislating | D |
| Why did our emperor get up so early | F |
| and why is he sitting at the city's main gate | G |
| on his throne in state wearing the crown | H |
| - | |
| Because the barbarians are coming today | B |
| and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader | I |
| He has even prepared a scroll to give him | J |
| replete with titles with imposing names | K |
| Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today | B |
| wearing their embroidered their scarlet togas | K |
| Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts | K |
| and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds | K |
| Why are they carrying elegant canes | K |
| beautifully worked in silver and gold | L |
| - | |
| Because the barbarians are coming today | B |
| and things like that dazzle the barbarians | K |
| Why don't our distinguished orators come forward as usual | M |
| to make their speeches say what they have to say | B |
| - | |
| Because the barbarians are coming today | B |
| and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking | D |
| Why this sudden restlessness this confusion | N |
| How serious people's faces have become | A |
| Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly | F |
| everyone going home so lost in thought | O |
| - | |
| Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come | A |
| And some who have just returned from the border say | B |
| there are no barbarians any longer | I |
| And now what's going to happen to us without barbarians | K |
| They were those people a kind of solution | N |
Constantine P. Cavafy
(1)
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