Narcissus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BAABCDEFB GHIJKL JMNOPQRSJATR U V D WXYXZA2B2C2AJD2RRRE2 RGF2G2H2I2J2J2K2L2J2 M2JDFN2H2I2BO2P2Q2R2 M2 I2S2JT2U2JXU2ZK2V2RW 2X2D2W2Y2Z2ALD2A3W2W 2JW2W2 B3C3W2W2 W2W2W2W2BK2D3D3| THE MIND IS AN ANCIENT AND FAMOUS CAPITAL | A |
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| The mind is a city like London | B |
| Smoky and populous it is a capital | A |
| Like Rome ruined and eternal | A |
| Marked by the monuments which no one | B |
| Now remembers For the mind like Rome contains | C |
| Catacombs aqueducts amphitheatres palaces | D |
| Churches and equestrian statues fallen broken or soiled | E |
| The mind possesses and is possessed by all the ruins | F |
| Of every haunted hunted generation s celebration | B |
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| Call us what you will we are made such by love | G |
| We are such studs as dreams are made on and | H |
| Our little lives are ruled by the gods by Pan | I |
| Piping of all seeking to grasp or grasping | J |
| All of the grapes and by the bow and arrow god | K |
| Cupid piercing the heart through suddenly and forever | L |
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| Dusk we are to dusk returning after the burbing | J |
| After the gold fall the fallen ash the bronze | M |
| Scattered and rotten after the white null statues which | N |
| Are winter sleep and nothingness when | O |
| Will the houselights of the universe | P |
| Light up and blaze | Q |
| For it is not the sea | R |
| Which murmurs in a shell | S |
| And it is not only heart at harp o clock | J |
| It is the dread terror of the uncontrollable | A |
| Horses of the apocalypse running in wild dread | T |
| Toward Arcturus and returning as suddenly | R |
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| THE FEAR AND DREAD OF THE MIND OF THE OTHERS | U |
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| The others were the despots of despair | V |
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| The river s freshness sailed from unknown sources | D |
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| They snickered giggled laughed aloud at last | W |
| They mocked and marvelled at the statue which was | X |
| A caricature as strained and stiff and yet | Y |
| A statue of self love since self love was | X |
| To them truly my true love how then was I a stillness of nervousness | Z |
| So nervous a caricature did they suppose | A2 |
| Self love was unrequited or betrayed | B2 |
| They thought I had fallen in love with my own face | C2 |
| And this belief became the night like obstacle | A |
| To understanding all my unbroken suffering | J |
| My studious self regard the pain of hope | D2 |
| The torment of possibility | R |
| How then could I have expected them to see me | R |
| As I saw myself within my gaze or see | R |
| That being thus seemed as a toad a frog a wen a mole | E2 |
| Knowing their certainty that I was only | R |
| A monument a monster who had fallen in love | G |
| With himself alone how could I have | F2 |
| Told them what was in me within my heart trembling and passionate | G2 |
| Within the labyrinth and caves of my mind which is | H2 |
| Like every mind partly or wholly hidden from itself | I2 |
| The words for what is in my heart and in my mind | J2 |
| Do not exist But I must seek and search to find | J2 |
| Amid the vines and orchards of the vivid world of day | K2 |
| Approximate images imaginary parallels | L2 |
| For what is my heart and dark within my mind | J2 |
| Comparisons and mere metaphors for all | M2 |
| Of them are substitutes both counterfeit and vague | J |
| They are at most deceptive resemblances | D |
| False in their very likeness like the sons | F |
| Who are alike and kin and more unlike and false | N2 |
| Because they seem the father s very self but each one is | H2 |
| Although begotten by the same forbears himself | I2 |
| The unique self each one is unique like every other one | B |
| And everything older or younger nevertheless | O2 |
| A passionate nonesuch who has before has been | P2 |
| Do you hear do you see Do you understand me now and how | Q2 |
| The words for what is my heart do not exist | R2 |
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| THE RIVER WAS THE EMBLEM OF ALL BEAUTY ALL | M2 |
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| The river was the abundant belly of beauty itself | I2 |
| The river was the dream space where I walked | S2 |
| The river was itself and yet it was flowing and freshening | J |
| A self anew another self or self renewed | T2 |
| At every tick of eternity and by each glint of light | U2 |
| Mounting or sparkling descending to shade and black | J |
| Had I but told them my heart told how it was | X |
| Taunted at noon and pacified at dusk at starfall midnight | U2 |
| Strong in hope once more ever in eagerness | Z |
| Jumping like joy would they have heard How could they | K2 |
| How when what they knew was like the grass | V2 |
| Simple and certain known through the truth of touch another form and fountain of falsehood s fecundity | R |
| Gazing upon their faces as they gazed | W2 |
| Could they have seen my faces as whores who are | X2 |
| Holy and deified as priestesses of hope | D2 |
| the sacred virgins of futurity | W2 |
| Promising dear divinity precisely because | Y2 |
| They were disfigured ducks who might become | Z2 |
| And be and ever beloved white swans noble and beautiful | A |
| Could they have seen how my faces were | L |
| Bonfires of worship and vigil blazes of adoration and hope | D2 |
| Surely they would have laughed again renewed their scorn | A3 |
| Giggled and snickered cruel Surely have said | W2 |
| This is the puerile mania of the obsessed | W2 |
| The living logic of the lunatic | J |
| I was the statue of their merriment | W2 |
| Dead and a death Pharoah and monster forsaken and lost | W2 |
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| My faces were my apes my apes became | B3 |
| Performers in the Sundays of their parks | C3 |
| Buffoons or clowns in the farce or comedy | W2 |
| When they took pleasure in knowing that they were not like me | W2 |
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| I waited like obsession in solitude | W2 |
| The sun s white terror tore and roared at me | W2 |
| The moonlight almond white at night | W2 |
| Whether awake or sleeping arrested me | W2 |
| And sang softly haunted unlike the sun | B |
| But as the sun Withheld from me or took away | K2 |
| Despair or peace making me once more | D3 |
| With thought of what had never been before | D3 |
Delmore Schwartz
(1)
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About Narcissus
Narcissus is a poem by Delmore Schwartz. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.