The Tavern Of Despair Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGF HCICJKLK MN ONPQRQ STUTIVWV XYZYA2CEC B2C2D2C2E2F2G2F2 H2I2J2I2G2K2L2K2 M2M2N2O2P2Q2 FQ2 R2S2T2S2U2YV2Y W2KLKXFIFThe wraiths of murdered hopes and loves | A |
Come whispering at the door | B |
Come creeping through the weeping mist | C |
That drapes the barren moor | D |
But we within have turned the key | E |
'Gainst Hope and Love and Care | F |
Where Wit keeps tryst with Folly at | G |
The Tavern of Despair | F |
- | |
And we have come by divers ways | H |
To keep this merry tryst | C |
But few of us have kept within | I |
The Narrow Way I wist | C |
For we are those whose ampler wits | J |
And hearts have proved our curse | K |
Foredoomed to ken the better things | L |
And aye to do the worse | K |
- | |
Long since we learned to mock ourselves | M |
And from self mockery fell | N |
- | |
To heedless laughter in the face | O |
Of Heaven Earth and Hell | N |
We quiver 'neath and mock God's rod | P |
We feel and mock His wrath | Q |
We mock our own blood on the thorns | R |
That rim the Primrose Path | Q |
- | |
We mock the eerie glimmering shapes | S |
That range the outer wold | T |
We mock our own cold hearts because | U |
They are so dead and cold | T |
We flout the things we might have been | I |
Had self to self proved true | V |
We mock the roses flung away | W |
We mock the garnered rue | V |
- | |
The fates that gibe have lessoned us | X |
There sups to night on earth | Y |
No madder crew of wastrels than | Z |
This fellowship of mirth | Y |
Of mirth drink fools nor let it flag | A2 |
Lest from the outer mist | C |
Creep in that other company | E |
Unbidden to the tryst | C |
- | |
We're grown so fond of paradox | B2 |
Perverseness holds us thrall | C2 |
So what each jester loves the best | D2 |
He mocks the most of all | C2 |
But as the jest and laugh go round | E2 |
Each in his neighbor's eyes | F2 |
Reads while he flouts his heart's desire | G2 |
The knowledge that he lies | F2 |
- | |
Not one of us but had some pearls | H2 |
And flung them to the swine | I2 |
Not one of us but had some gift | J2 |
Some spark of fire divine | I2 |
Each might have been God's minister | G2 |
In the temple of some art | K2 |
Each feels his gift perverted move | L2 |
Wormlike through his dry heart | K2 |
- | |
If God called Azrael to Him now | M2 |
And bade Death bend the bow | M2 |
Against the saddest heart that beats | N2 |
Here on this earth below | O2 |
Not any sobbing breast would gain | P2 |
The guerdon of that barb | Q2 |
- | |
The saddest ones are those that wear | F |
The jester's motley garb | Q2 |
- | |
Whose shout aye loudest rings and whose | R2 |
The maddest cranks and quips | S2 |
Who mints his soul to laughter's coin | T2 |
And wastes it with his lips | S2 |
Has grown too sad for sighs and seeks | U2 |
To cheat himself with mirth | Y |
We fools self doomed to motley are | V2 |
The weariest wights on earth | Y |
- | |
But yet for us whose brains and hearts | W2 |
Strove aye in paths perverse | K |
Doomed still to know the better things | L |
And still to do the worse | K |
What else is there remains for us | X |
But make a jest of care | F |
And set the rafters ringing in | I |
Our Tavern of Despair | F |
Don Marquis
(1)
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