Baby Tortoise Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEF G H IJKLMNH OPNOBQR Q SSTUH VQWXYZPB QA2B2C2 D D2C2E2F2Q G2ND2 SH2F2 D2D2QD D2I2 I2J2A K2L2M2 I2QN2AO2P2Q2 EI2R2 D2I2I2 D2D2You know what it is to be born alone | A |
Baby tortoise | B |
The first day to heave your feet little by little from the shell | C |
Not yet awake | D |
And remain lapsed on earth | E |
Not quite alive | F |
- | |
A tiny fragile half animate bean | G |
- | |
To open your tiny beak mouth that looks as if it would never open | H |
- | |
Like some iron door | I |
To lift the upper hawk beak from the lower base | J |
And reach your skinny little neck | K |
And take your first bite at some dim bit of herbage | L |
Alone small insect | M |
Tiny bright eye | N |
Slow one | H |
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To take your first solitary bite | O |
And move on your slow solitary hunt | P |
Your bright dark little eye | N |
Your eye of a dark disturbed night | O |
Under its slow lid tiny baby tortoise | B |
So indomitable | Q |
No one ever heard you complain | R |
- | |
You draw your head forward slowly from your little wimple | Q |
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And set forward slow dragging on your four pinned toes Rowing slowly forward | S |
Whither away small bird | S |
Rather like a baby working its limbs | T |
Except that you make slow ageless progress | U |
And a baby makes none | H |
- | |
The touch of sun excites you | V |
And the long ages and the lingering chill | Q |
Make you pause to yawn | W |
Opening your impervious mouth | X |
Suddenly beak shaped and very wide like some suddenly gaping pincers | Y |
Soft red tongue and hard thin gums | Z |
Then close the wedge of your little mountain front | P |
Your face baby tortoise | B |
- | |
Do you wonder at the world as slowly you turn your head in its wimple | Q |
And look with laconic black eyes | A2 |
Or is sleep coming over you again | B2 |
The non life | C2 |
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You are so hard to wake | D |
- | |
Are you able to wonder | D2 |
Or is it just your indomitable will and pride of the first life | C2 |
Looking round | E2 |
And slowly pitching itself against the inertia | F2 |
Which had seemed invincible | Q |
- | |
The vast inanimate | G2 |
And the fine brilliance of your so tiny eye | N |
Challenger | D2 |
- | |
Nay tiny shell bird | S |
What a huge vast inanimate it is that you must row against | H2 |
What an incalculable inertia | F2 |
- | |
Challenger | D2 |
Little Ulysses fore runner | D2 |
No bigger than my thumb nail | Q |
Buon viaggio | D |
- | |
All animate creation on your shoulder | D2 |
Set forth little Titan under your battle shield | I2 |
- | |
The ponderous preponderate | I2 |
Inanimate universe | J2 |
And you are slowly moving pioneer you alone | A |
- | |
How vivid your travelling seems now in the troubled sunshine | K2 |
Stoic Ulyssean atom | L2 |
Suddenly hasty reckless on high toes | M2 |
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Voiceless little bird | I2 |
Resting your head half out of your wimple | Q |
In the slow dignity of your eternal pause | N2 |
Alone with no sense of being alone | A |
And hence six times more solitary | O2 |
Fulfilled of the slow passion of pitching through immemorial ages | P2 |
Your little round house in the midst of chaos | Q2 |
- | |
Over the garden earth | E |
Small bird | I2 |
Over the edge of all things | R2 |
- | |
Traveller | D2 |
With your tail tucked a little on one side | I2 |
Like a gentleman in a long skirted coat | I2 |
- | |
All life carried on your shoulder | D2 |
Invincible fore runner | D2 |
David Herbert Lawrence
(1)
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