Tortoise Family Connections Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDE FG HIJ KE DLMDNOP QPRSS ISAS SS SS HTN A NUNV SNSPNSSWV SNPP WNXSSDDOn he goes the little one | A |
Bud of the universe | B |
Pediment of life | C |
Setting off somewhere apparently | D |
Whither away brisk egg | E |
- | |
His mother deposited him on the soil as if he were no more than droppings | F |
And now he scuffles tinily past her as if she were an old rusty tin | G |
- | |
A mere obstacle | H |
He veers round the slow great mound of her | I |
Tortoises always foresee obstacles | J |
- | |
It is no use my saying to him in an emotional voice | K |
This is your Mother she laid you when you were an egg | E |
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He does not even trouble to answer Woman what have I to do with thee | D |
He wearily looks the other way | L |
And she even more wearily looks another way still | M |
Each with the utmost apathy | D |
Incognisant | N |
Unaware | O |
Nothing | P |
- | |
As for papa | Q |
He snaps when I offer him his offspring | P |
Just as he snaps when I poke a bit of stick at him | R |
Because he is irascible this morning an irascible tortoise | S |
Being touched with love and devoid of fatherliness | S |
- | |
Father and mother | I |
And three little brothers | S |
And all rambling aimless like little perambulating pebbles scattered in the garden | A |
Not knowing each other from bits of earth or old tins | S |
- | |
Except that papa and mama are old acquaintances of course | S |
Though family feeling there is none not even the beginnings | S |
- | |
Fatherless motherless brotherless sisterless | S |
Little tortoise | S |
- | |
Row on then small pebble | H |
Over the clods of the autumn wind chilled sunshine | T |
Young gaiety | N |
- | |
Does he look for a companion | A |
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No no don't think it | N |
He doesn't know he is alone | U |
Isolation is his birthright | N |
This atom | V |
- | |
To row forward and reach himself tall on spiny toes | S |
To travel to burrow into a little loose earth afraid of the night | N |
To crop a little substance | S |
To move and to be quite sure that he is moving | P |
Basta | N |
To be a tortoise | S |
Think of it in a garden of inert clods | S |
A brisk brindled little tortoise all to himself | W |
Adam | V |
- | |
In a garden of pebbles and insects | S |
To roam and feel the slow heart beat | N |
Tortoise wise the first bell sounding | P |
From the warm blood in the dark creation morning | P |
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Moving and being himself | W |
Slow and unquestioned | N |
And inordinately there O stoic | X |
Wandering in the slow triumph of his own existence | S |
Ringing the soundless bell of his presence in chaos | S |
And biting the frail grass arrogantly | D |
Decidedly arrogantly | D |
D. H. Lawrence
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