Glorious France Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFGAHIJK LAMNOLPQRSTQUVWXYZO LA2B2NC2D2E2F2G2H2I2 J2 NK2L2AM2IA2N2G2O2A P2Q2R2S2T2R2U2H2V2YW 2You have become a forge of snow white fire | A |
A crucible of molten steel O France | B |
Your sons are stars who cluster to a dawn | C |
And fade in light for you O glorious France | B |
They pass through meteor changes with a song | D |
Which to all islands and all continents | E |
Says life is neither comfort wealth nor fame | F |
Nor quiet hearthstones friendship wife nor child | G |
Nor love nor youth's delight nor manhood's power | A |
Nor many days spent in a chosen work | H |
Nor honored merit nor the patterned theme | I |
Of daily labor nor the crowns nor wreaths | J |
Of seventy years | K |
- | |
These are not all of life | L |
O France whose sons amid the rolling thunder | A |
Of cannon stand in trenches where the dead | M |
Clog the ensanguined ice But life to these | N |
Prophetic and enraptured souls in vision | O |
And the keen ecstasy of faded strife | L |
And divination of the loss as gain | P |
And reading mysteries with brightened eyes | Q |
In fiery shock and dazzling pain before | R |
The orient splendour of the face of Death | S |
As a great light beside a shadowy sea | T |
And in a high will's strenuous exercise | Q |
Where the warmed spirit finds its fullest strength | U |
And is no more afraid and in the stroke | V |
Of azure lightning when the hidden essence | W |
And shifting meaning of man's spiritual worth | X |
And mystical significance in time | Y |
Are instantly distilled to one clear drop | Z |
Which mirrors earth and heaven | O |
- | |
This is life | L |
Flaming to heaven in a minute's span | A2 |
When the breath of battle blows the smouldering spark | B2 |
And across these seas | N |
We who cry Peace and treasure life and cling | C2 |
To cities happiness or daily toil | D2 |
For daily bread or trail the long routine | E2 |
Of seventy years taste not the terrible wine | F2 |
Whereof you drink who drain and toss the cup | G2 |
Empty and ringing by the finished feast | H2 |
Or have it shaken from your hand by sight | I2 |
Of God against the olive woods | J2 |
- | |
As Joan of Arc amid the apple trees | N |
With sacred joy first heard the voices then | K2 |
Obeying plunged at Orleans in a field | L2 |
Of spears and lived her dream and died in fire | A |
Thou France hast heard the voices and hast lived | M2 |
The dream and known the meaning of the dream | I |
And read its riddle how the soul of man | A2 |
May to one greatest purpose make itself | N2 |
A lens of clearness how it loves the cup | G2 |
Of deepest truth and how its bitterest gall | O2 |
Turns sweet to soul's surrender | A |
- | |
And you say | P2 |
Take days for repitition stretch your hands | Q2 |
For mocked renewal of familiar things | R2 |
The beaten path the chair beside the window | S2 |
The crowded street the task the accustomed sleep | T2 |
And waking to the task or many springs | R2 |
Of lifted cloud blue water flowering fields | U2 |
The prison house grows close no less the feast | H2 |
A place of memory sick for senses dulled | V2 |
Down to the dusty end where pitiful Time | Y |
Grown weary cries Enough | W2 |
Edgar Lee Masters
(1)
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