Heritage Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDEAA FFGGHHIIJJKKLLMMNNOO PPQQRRSSTTUKUAAUKOOV VAAOIWWKKDEAA XXYYYBBZZA2A2B2B2C2C 2D2D2E2F2G2G2 H2H2I2I2J2J2AA K2K2L2L2M2M2N2N2BBO2 O2P2P2Q2Q2KKR2S2T2T2 U2U2 Q2Q2V2V2OOW2W2X2X2Y2 Y2What is Africa to me | A |
Copper sun or scarlet sea | A |
Jungle star or jungle track | B |
Strong bronzed men or regal black | B |
Women from whose loins I sprang | C |
When the birds of Eden sang | C |
One three centuries removed | D |
From the scenes his fathers loved | E |
Spicy grove cinnamon tree | A |
What is Africa to me | A |
- | |
So I lie who all day long | F |
Want no sound except the song | F |
Sung by wild barbaric birds | G |
Goading massive jungle herds | G |
Juggernauts of flesh that pass | H |
Trampling tall defiant grass | H |
Where young forest lovers lie | I |
Plighting troth beneath the sky | I |
So I lie who always hear | J |
Though I cram against my ear | J |
Both my thumbs and keep them there | K |
Great drums throbbing through the air | K |
So I lie whose fount of pride | L |
Dear distress and joy allied | L |
Is my somber flesh and skin | M |
With the dark blood dammed within | M |
Like great pulsing tides of wine | N |
That I fear must burst the fine | N |
Channels of the chafing net | O |
Where they surge and foam and fret | O |
- | |
Africa A book one thumbs | P |
Listlessly till slumber comes | P |
Unremembered are her bats | Q |
Circling through the night her cats | Q |
Crouching in the river reeds | R |
Stalking gentle flesh that feeds | R |
By the river brink no more | S |
Does the bugle throated roar | S |
Cry that monarch claws have leapt | T |
From the scabbards where they slept | T |
Silver snakes that once a year | U |
Doff the lovely coats you wear | K |
Seek no covert in your fear | U |
Lest a mortal eye should see | A |
What's your nakedness to me | A |
Here no leprous flowers rear | U |
Fierce corollas in the air | K |
Here no bodies sleek and wet | O |
Dripping mingled rain and sweat | O |
Tread the savage measures of | V |
Jungle boys and girls in love | V |
What is last year's snow to me | A |
Last year's anything The tree | A |
Budding yearly must forget | O |
How its past arose or set shy shy | I |
Bough and blossom flower fruit | W |
Even what shy bird with mute | W |
Wonder at her travail there | K |
Meekly labored in its hair | K |
One three centuries removed | D |
From the scenes his fathers loved | E |
Spicy grove cinnamon tree | A |
What is Africa to me | A |
- | |
So I lie who find no peace | X |
Night or day no slight release | X |
From the unremittent beat | Y |
Made by cruel padded feet | Y |
Walking through my body's street | Y |
Up and down they go and back | B |
Treading out a jungle track | B |
So I lie who never quite | Z |
Safely sleep from rain at night | Z |
I can never rest at all | A2 |
When the rain begins to fall | A2 |
Like a soul gone mad with pain | B2 |
I must match its weird refrain | B2 |
Ever must I twist and squirm | C2 |
Writhing like a baited worm | C2 |
While its primal measures drip | D2 |
Through my body crying Strip | D2 |
Doff this new exuberance | E2 |
Come and dance the Lover's Dance | F2 |
In an old remembered way | G2 |
Rain works on me night and day | G2 |
- | |
Quaint outlandish heathen gods | H2 |
Black men fashion out of rods | H2 |
Clay and brittle bits of stone | I2 |
In a likeness like their own | I2 |
My conversion came high priced | J2 |
I belong to Jesus Christ | J2 |
Preacher of humility | A |
Heathen gods are naught to me | A |
- | |
Father Son and Holy Ghost | K2 |
So I make an idle boast | K2 |
Jesus of the twice turned cheek | L2 |
Lamb of God although I speak | L2 |
With my mouth thus in my heart | M2 |
Do I play a double part | M2 |
Ever at Thy glowing altar | N2 |
Must my heart grow sick and falter | N2 |
Wishing He I served were black | B |
Thinking then it would not lack | B |
Precedent of pain to guide it | O2 |
Let who would or might deride it | O2 |
Surely then this flesh would know | P2 |
Yours had borne a kindred woe | P2 |
Lord I fashion dark gods too | Q2 |
Daring even to give You | Q2 |
Dark despairing features where | K |
Crowned with dark rebellious hair | K |
Patience wavers just so much as | R2 |
Mortal grief compels while touches | S2 |
Quick and hot of anger rise | T2 |
To smitten cheek and weary eyes | T2 |
Lord forgive me if my need | U2 |
Sometimes shapes a human creed | U2 |
- | |
All day long and all night through | Q2 |
One thing only must I do | Q2 |
Quench my pride and cool my blood | V2 |
Lest I perish in the flood | V2 |
Lest a hidden ember set | O |
Timber that I thought was wet | O |
Burning like the dryest flax | W2 |
Melting like the merest wax | W2 |
Lest the grave restore its dead | X2 |
Not yet has my heart or head | X2 |
In the least way realized | Y2 |
They and I are civilized | Y2 |
Countee Cullen
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