At Last Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFFGHHHFIJI FH HHKLMLNOFOHPFP HQRQHSQS TUVWHRTRFFRFXYHYFZA2 ZHPFP XFFFHFOFB2PHPEach race has died and lived and fought for the | A |
true gods of that poor race | B |
Unconsciously divinest thought of each race gild | C |
ing its god's face | B |
And every race that lives and dies shall make itself | D |
some other gods | E |
Shall build with mingled truth and lies new icons | F |
from the world old clods | F |
Through all the tangled creeds and dreams and | G |
shifting shibboleths men hold | H |
The false and true inwoven gleams a matted | H |
mass of dross and gold | H |
Prove then thy gods in thine own soul all others' | F |
gods for thee are vain | I |
Nor swerved be struggling for the goal by bribe | J |
of joy nor threat of pain | I |
- | |
As skulls grow broader so do faiths as old tongues | F |
die old gods die too | H |
- | |
And only ghosts of gods and wraiths may meet | H |
the backward gazer's view | H |
Where where the faiths of yesterday Ah | K |
whither vanished whither gone | L |
Say what Apollos drive to day adown the flaming | M |
slopes of dawn | L |
Oh does the blank past hide from view forgotten | N |
Christs to be reborn | O |
The future tremble where some new Messiah | F |
Memnon sings the morn | O |
Of all the worlds say any earth like dust wind | H |
harried to and fro | P |
Shall give the next Prometheus birth but say | F |
at last you do not know | P |
- | |
How should I know what dawn may gleam beyond | H |
the gates of darkness there | Q |
Which god of all the gods men dream Why | R |
should I whip myself to care | Q |
Whichever over all hath place hath shaped and | H |
made me what I am | S |
Hath made me strong to front his face to dare | Q |
to question though he damn | S |
- | |
Perhaps to cringe and cower and bring a shrine | T |
a forced and faithless faith | U |
Is far more futile than to fling your laughter in | V |
the face of Death | W |
For writhe or whirl in dervish rout they are not | H |
flattered there on high | R |
Or sham belief to hide a doubt no gods are mine | T |
that love a lie | R |
Nor gods that beg belief on earth with portents | F |
that some seer foretells | F |
Is life itself not wonder worth that we must cry | R |
for miracles | F |
Is it not strange enough we breathe Does every | X |
thing not God reveal | Y |
Or must we ever weave and wreathe some creed | H |
that shall his face conceal | Y |
Some creed of which its prophets cry it holds | F |
the secret's all in all | Z |
Some creed which ever bye and bye doth crumble | A2 |
totter to its fall | Z |
Say any dream of all the dreams that drift and | H |
darkle glint and glow | P |
Holds most of truth within its gleams but say | F |
at last you do not know | P |
- | |
Oh say the soul from star to star with victory | X |
wing'd leap on through space | F |
And scale the bastioned nights that bar the secret's | F |
inner dwelling place | F |
Or say it ever roam dim glades where pallid | H |
wraiths of long dead moons | F |
Flit like blown feathers through the shades borne | O |
on the breath of sobbing tunes | F |
Say any tide of any time of all the tides that ebb | B2 |
and flow | P |
Shall buoy us on toward any clime but say at | H |
last you do not know | P |
Don Marquis
(1)
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