Front The Ages With A Smile Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHICCJKLM NOPQCRSTCUVWXYZA2B2C 2D2E2D2Z DF2G2F2H2I2F2J2 G2F2D2F2F2D2NK2L2F2M 2 N2L2O2F2I2P2Q2I2F2ZL 2 F2L2YR2L2ZS2L2L2T2K U2ZF2ZL2F2V2| How did the sculptor Voltaire keep you quiet and posed | A |
| In an arm chair just think at your busiest age we are told | B |
| Being better than seventy How did he manage to stay you | C |
| From hopping through Europe for long enough time for his work | D |
| Which shows you in marble the look and the smile and the nose | E |
| The filleted brow very bald the thin little hands | F |
| The posture pontifical face imperturbable smile so serene | G |
| How did the sculptor detain you you ever so restless | H |
| You ever so driven by princes and priests So I stand here | I |
| Enwrapped of this face of you frail little frame of you | C |
| And think of your work how nothing could balk you | C |
| Or quench you or damp you How you twisted and turned | J |
| Emerged from the fingers of malice emerged with a laugh | K |
| Kept Europe in laughter in turmoil in fear | L |
| For your eighty four years | M |
| - | |
| And they say of you still | N |
| You were light and a mocker You should have been solemn | O |
| And argued with monkeys and swine speaking truthfully always | P |
| Nay truthful with whom to what end With a breed such as lived | Q |
| In your day and your place It was never their due | C |
| Truth for the truthful and true and a lie for the liar if need be | R |
| A board out of plumb for a place out of plumb for the hypocrite flashes | S |
| Of lightning or rods red hot for thrusting in tortuous places | T |
| Well this was your way you lived out the genius God gave you | C |
| And they hated you for it hunted you all over Europe | U |
| Why should they not hate you Why should you not follow your light | V |
| But wherever they drove you you climbed to a place more satiric | W |
| Did France bar her door Geneva remained good enough | X |
| Les Delices close to some several cantons you know | Y |
| Would they lay hands upon you I fancy you laughing | Z |
| You stand at your door and step into Vaud by one path | A2 |
| You stand at your door and step by another to France | B2 |
| Such safe jurisdictions in truth as the Illinois rowdies | C2 |
| Step from county to county ahead of the frustrate policeman | D2 |
| And here you have printers to print what you write and a house | E2 |
| For the acting of plays La Pucelle Orphelin | D2 |
| O busy Voltaire never resting | Z |
| - | |
| So England conservative England of Southey and Burke | D |
| The fox hunting squires the England of Church and of State | F2 |
| The England half mule and half ox writes you down O Voltaire | G2 |
| The quack grass of popery flourished in France you essayed | F2 |
| To plow up the tangle and harrow the roots from the soil | H2 |
| It took a good ploughman to plow it a ploughman of laughter | I2 |
| A ploughman who laughed when the plow struck the roots and your breast | F2 |
| Was thrown on the handles | J2 |
| - | |
| And yet to this day O Voltaire | G2 |
| They charge you with levity scoffing when all that you did | F2 |
| Was to plough up the quack grass and turn up the roots to the sun | D2 |
| And let the sun kill them For laughter is sun light | F2 |
| And nothing of worth or of truth needs to fear it | F2 |
| But listen | D2 |
| The strength of a nation is mind I will grant you and still | N |
| But give it a tongue read and spoken more greatly than others | K2 |
| That nation can judge true or false and the judgment abides | L2 |
| The judgment in English condemns you where is there a judgment | F2 |
| To save you from this Is it German or Russian or French | M2 |
| - | |
| Did you give up three years of your life | N2 |
| To wipe out the sentence that burned the wracked body of Calas | L2 |
| Did you help the oppressed Montbailli and Lally O well | O2 |
| Six lines in an article written in English are plenty | F2 |
| To weigh what you did put it by with a generous gesture | I2 |
| Give the minds of the student your measure impress them | P2 |
| Forever that all of this sacrifice service was noble | Q2 |
| But done with mixed motives the fruits of your meddlesome nature | I2 |
| Your hatred of churches and priests Six lines are the record | F2 |
| Of all of these years of hard plowing in quack grass while batting | Z |
| At poisonous flies and stepping on poisonous snakes | L2 |
| - | |
| How well did you know that life to a genius a god | F2 |
| Is naught but a farce How well did you look with those eyes | L2 |
| As black as a beetle's through all the ridiculous show | Y |
| Ridiculous war and ridiculous strife and ridiculous pomp | R2 |
| Ridiculous dignity riches rituals reasons and creeds | L2 |
| Ridiculous guesses at what the great Silence is saying | Z |
| Ridiculous systems wound over the earth like a snake | S2 |
| Devouring the children of Fear Ridiculous customs | L2 |
| Ridiculous judgments and laws philosophies worships | L2 |
| You saw through and laughed at you saw above all | T2 |
| That a soul must make end with a groan or a curse or a laugh | K |
| - | |
| So you smiled till the lines of your mouth | U2 |
| A crescent became with dimples for horns so expressing | Z |
| To centuries after who see you in marble Behold me | F2 |
| I lived I loved I laughed I toiled without ceasing | Z |
| Through eighty four years for realities O let them pass | L2 |
| Let life go by Would you rise over death like a god | F2 |
| Front the ages with a smile | V2 |
Edgar Lee Masters
(1)
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