George Joslin On La Menken Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEF FGHFEIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW XYYWXZ A2A2B2IB2JRC2JD2 PC2E2F2XRG2H2EA2C2UA 2FAUA2I2J2K2 UL2AA2PFM2N2O2P2AQ2B 2R2UA2AA2S2T2KM2U2V2 U2AW2AKX2D2AY2Z2A3FU AEB3FC3FA2FD3FE3FA2F 3G3G3D3H3A2I3B2A2 J3A2VAEA2EK3L3A2G2A3 UYRR A2AA2A2 V2M3A2N3O3U2U2 A2A2RP3Q3A2A2A2A2UAY 2R3S3A2G2A2S3T3T P2A2A2U3B2V3W3X3A2F2 A2Y3JP3X3A2S3Z3A2A4B 2B4JA2O S3A2C4A2D4E4F4S3G4A2 H4BE2X2I4UEJ4K4L4UA2 P2A2EC4V3O2A2JA2A2L3 UA2A2M4B2A2N4O3A2G3G 2A2A2A2N3L4A2A3S3F3A 2A2H4A2A2A2A2S3O4A2 AUA2A2A2A2B2A2B2A2P4 A2B2A2Q4A2R4VA2A2W2I 4 A2AS3A2YV

Here Coroner Merival look at this pictureA
Whom does it look like Eyes too crystallineB
A head like Byron's tender mouth and neckC
Slender and white a pathos as of smilesD
And tears kept back by courage Yes you knowE
It looks like Elenor MurrayF
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Well you seeF
I read each day about the inquest goodG
Dig out the truth begin a system hereH
Of making family records let us seeF
If we can do for people when we knowE
How best to do it what is done for stockI
So build up Illinois the nation tooJ
I read about you daily And last nightK
When Elenor Murray's picture in the TimesL
Looked at me I began to think Good LordM
Where have I seen that face before I thoughtN
Through more than fifty years departed sentO
My mind through Europe and AmericaP
In all my travels meetings episodesQ
I could not think At last I opened upR
A box of pamphlets photographs mementosS
Picked up since and beholdT
I find this pamphlet of La Belle MenkenU
Here is your Elenor Murray born againV
As here might be your blackbird of this yearW
With spots of red upon his wings the sameX
As last year's blackbird like a pansy springingY
Out of the April of this year repeatingY
The color form of one you saw last yearW
Repeating and the same but not the sameX
No two alike you know I'll come to thatZ
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Well then La Menken as a boy in ParisA2
I saw La Menken I'll return to thisA2
But just as Elenor Murray has her lifeB2
Shadowed and symbolized by our Starved RockI
And everyone has something in his lifeB2
Which takes him makes him is the image tooJ
Of fate prefigured La Menken has MazeppaR
Her notable first part as actress emblemC2
Of spirit character and of omen tooJ
Of years to come the thrill of life the endD2
-
Who is La Menken Symbol of AmericaP
One phase of spirit She was venturesomeC2
Resourceful daring hopeful confidentE2
And as she wrote of self a vagabondF2
A dweller in tents a reveler and a flameX
Aspiring but disreputable coming upR
With leaves that shamed her stalk could not be shedG2
But stuck out heavy veined and muddy huedH2
In time of blossom There are souls you knowE
Who have shed shapeless immaturitiesA2
Betrayals of the seed before the blossomC2
Comes to proclaim a beauty a perfectionU
Or risen with their stalk until such leavesA2
Were hidden in the grass or soil not sheF
Nor even your Elenor Murray as I read herA
But being America and AmericanU
Brings good and bad together blossom and leavesA2
With prodigal recklessness in vital healthI2
And unselective taste and vision mixedJ2
Of beauty and of truthK2
-
Who was La MenkenU
She's born in Louisiana in thirty fiveL2
Left fatherless at seven mother takes herA
And puts her in the ballet at New OrleansA2
She dances then from Texas clear to CubaP
Then gives up dancing studies tragedyF
And plays Bianca Fourteen years of ageM2
Weds Menken who's a Jew divorced from himN2
Then falls in love with Heenan pugilistO2
They quarrel and separate it's in this pamphletP2
Just as I tell you you can take it CoronerA
Now something happens nothing in her birthQ2
Or place of birth to prophesy her lifeB2
Like Starved Rock to this Elenor being grownR2
A hand instead is darted from the curtainU
That hangs between to day to morrow sticksA2
A symbol on her heart and whispers to herA
You're this my woman Well the thing was thisA2
She played Mazeppa take your dummy offS2
And lash me to the horse They were afraidT2
But she prevailed was nearly killed the first nightK
And after that succeeded was the rageM2
And for her years remaining found herselfU2
Lashed to the wild horse of ungoverned willV2
Which ran and wandered till she knew herselfU2
With stronger will than vision passion strongerA
Than spirit to judge the richness of the worldW2
Love beauty living greater than her powerA
And all the time she had the appetiteK
To eat devour it all Grown sick at lastX2
She diagnosed her case wrote to a friendD2
The soul and body do not fit each otherA
A human spirit in a horse's fleshY2
This is your Elenor Murray in a wayZ2
But to return to pansies run your handA3
Over a bed of pansies here's a pansyF
With petals stunted here's another oneU
All perfect but one petal here's anotherA
Too streaked or mottled all are pansies thoughE
And here is one full petaled strikes the eyeB3
With perfect color markings Elenor MurrayF
Has something of the color and the formC3
Of this La Menken but is less a pansyF
And Sappho Rachel Bernhardt are the flowersA2
La Menken strove to be and could not beF
Ended with being only of their kindD3
And now there's pity for this Elenor MurrayF
And people wept when poor La Menken diedE3
Both lived and had their way I hate this pityF
It makes you overlook there are two hoursA2
The hour of joy the hour of finding outF3
Your joy was all mistake or led to painG3
We who inspect these lives behold the painG3
And see the error do not keep in mindD3
The hour of rapture and the pride indeedH3
With which your Elenor Murrays and La MenkensA2
Have lived that hour elation pride and scornI3
For any other way this is the lifeB2
I hear them sayA2
-
Well now I go alongJ3
La Menken fills her purse with gold she sendsA2
Her pugilist away tries once againV
And weds a humorist an Orpheus KerrA
And plays before the miners out in 'FriscoE
And Sacramento gathers in the eaglesA2
She goes to Europe then with husband NoE
James Barkley is her fellow on the voyageK3
She lands in London takes a gorgeous suiteL3
In London's grandest hostlery entertainsA2
Charles Dickens Prince Baerto and Charles ReadG2
The Duke of Wellington and Swinburne SandA3
And Jenny Lind and has a liveried coachmanU
And for a crest a horse's head surmountingY
Four aces if you please And plays MazeppaR
And piles the money upR
-
Then next is ParisA2
And there I saw herA
When Louis Napoleon and the King of GreeceA2
The Prince Imperial were in a boxA2
-
She wandered to Vienna there was illV2
Came back to Paris died a stranger's graveM3
In Pere la Chaise was given afterwardsA2
Exhumed in Mont Parnasse was buried gotN3
A little stone with these words carved upon itO3
Thou Knowest meaning God knew while herselfU2
Knew nothing of herselfU2
-
But when in ParisA2
They sold her picture taken with her armsA2
Around Dumas and photographs made upR
Of postures ludicrous obscene as wellP3
Of her and great Dumas I have them homeQ3
Can show you sometime Well she loved DumasA2
Inscribed a book of poems to Charles DickensA2
By his permission mark you don't you seeA2
Your Elenor Murray here This Elenor MurrayA2
A miniature imperfect of La MenkenU
She loved sensation all her senses thrilled herA
A delicate soul too weighted by the fleshY2
A coquette quick of wit intuitiveR3
Kind generous unaffected mysticalS3
Teased by the divine in life and melancholyA2
Of deep emotion sometimes One has saidG2
She had a nature spiritual religiousA2
Which warred upon the flesh and fell in battleS3
Just as your Elenor Murray joined the churchT3
And did not keep the faith if truth be toldT
-
Now look here is a letter in this pamphletP2
La Menken writes a poet for she huntsA2
For seers and for poets lofty soulsA2
And who does that A woman wholly badU3
Why no a woman to be given lifeB2
Fit for her spirit in another realmV3
By God who will take notice I believeW3
Now listen if you will I know your soulX3
It has met mine somewhere in starry spaceA2
And you must often meet me vagabondF2
Of fancy without aim a dweller in tentsA2
Disreputable before the just Just thinkY3
I am a linguist write some poems tooJ
Can paint a little model clay as wellP3
And yet for all these gropings of my soulX3
I am a vagabond of little useA2
My body and my soul are in a scrambleS3
And do not fit each other let them carveZ3
Those words upon my stone but also theseA2
Thou Knowest for God knows me knows I loveA4
Whatever is good and beautiful in lifeB2
And that my soul has sought them without restB4
Farewell my friend my spirit is with youJ
Vienna is too horrible but know ParisA2
Then die contentO
-
Now Coroner MerivalS3
You're not the only man who wants to seeA2
Will work to make America a republicC4
Of splendors freedoms happiness successA2
Though I am seventy six cannot do muchD4
Save talk as I am talking now bring forthE4
Proofs revelations from the years I've livedF4
I care not how you view the lives of peopleS3
As pansy beds or what not lift your faithG4
So high above the pansy bed it seesA2
The streaked and stunted pansies filling inH4
The pattern that the perfect pansies outlineB
Therefore are smiling even indifferentE2
To this poor conscious pansy dying at lastX2
Because it could not be the flower it wishedI4
My heart to Elenor Murray and La MenkenU
Goes out in sorrow even while I knowE
They shook their leaves in April laughed and thrilledJ4
And either did not know or did not careK4
The growing time was precious and if wastedL4
Could never be regained Look at La MenkenU
At seven years put in the ballet corpsA2
And look at Elenor Murray getting smutP2
Out of experience that made her wiseA2
What shall we do about it let it goE
And say there is no help or say a republicC4
Set up a hundred years ago raised to the helmV3
Of rulership as president a listO2
Of men more able than the emperorsA2
Kings rulers of the world and statesmen tooJ
The equal of the greatest money makersA2
And domineers of finance and economiesA2
Phenomenal in time say I repeatL3
A country like this one must let its childrenU
Waste as they wasted in the darker yearsA2
Of Europe Shall we let these trivial mindsA2
Who see salvation progress in restraintM4
Pre empt the field of moulding human lifeB2
Or shall we take a hand and put our mindsA2
Upon the task as recently we builtN4
An army for the war equipped and fed itO3
An army better than all other armiesA2
More powerful more apt of hand and brainG3
Of thin tall youths who did stop but saidG2
Like poor La Menken strap me to the horseA2
I'll do it if I die so giving to peaceA2
The skill and genius which we use in warA2
Though it cost twenty billion and why notN3
Why every dollar every drop of bloodL4
For war like this to guard democracyA2
And not so much or more to build the landA3
Improve our blood make individualS3
America and her race And first to routF3
Poverty and disease give youth its chanceA2
And therapeutic guidance Soldier boysA2
Have huts for recreation clergymenH4
And is it more less worth to furnish handsA2
Intimate hearts intimate for the useA2
Of your La Menkens Elenor Murrays youthsA2
Who feel such vigor in their restless wingsA2
They tumble out of crowded nests and flyS3
To fall in thickets dash themselves againstO4
Walls treesA2
-
I have a vision CoronerA
Of a new Republic brighter than the sunU
A new race loftier faith this land of oursA2
Made over as to people boys and girlsA2
Conserved like forests water power or minesA2
Watched tested put to best use keen economiesA2
Practiced in spirits waste of human lifeB2
Hope aspiration talent virtues powersA2
Avoided by a science science of lifeB2
Of spirit what you will Enough of warA2
And billions for the flag all well enoughP4
Some billions now to make democracyA2
Democracy in truth with us and lifeB2
Not helter skelter hitting as it mayA2
And missing much as this La Menken didQ4
I'm not convinced we must have stunted pansiesA2
That have no use but just to piece the patternR4
Let's try and if we try and fail why thenV
Our human duty ends the God in usA2
Will have it just this way no other wayA2
And then we may accept so poor a worldW2
A republic so unfinishedI4
-
-
-
Will Paget is another writer of lettersA2
To Coroner Merival The coronerA
Spends evenings reading letters keeps a fileS3
Where he preserves them And the blasphemyA2
Of Paget makes him laugh He has an eveningY
And reads this letter to the jurymenV

Edgar Lee Masters



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