The World-saver Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJKJ LMLM NONO GPGP KQKQ ARAR STST EUEU VWVW X YZA2B2C2D2E2F2C2G2H2 F2I2J2K2K2J2AL2M2N2U O2P2UQ2OR2AWS2T2U2V2 V2W2X2X2B2J2C2 C2Y2Z2G2A3C2AB3J2RC3 D3E3O2F3L2G3B2H3I3J3 IG3C2J2UEJK3XL3IM3N3 LAO3O3P3Q3R3 S3UT3B2B2C2I3UU3OB2B 2K2FO2L2LV3W3X3H3 B2AUY3C2Z3A4AC2J2J2B 4GS2FJ2P2Q2WLC4YAN3 RD4XE4AGC2A2J2C2F4A4 L3G4G4H4C2I4J4C2K4G4 G4L4G4Y3B2D4K4G3 G4G4C2T2G4M4YN4W2AG4 G4J2PB2J2YJ2O4G4P4C2 YG4G4G4G4G4YG4J2PC2G 4B2K4K2O4G4YQ4C2C2G4 G4G4N2R4S4R4Z2YWB2T4 B2U4G4 V4UW4G4

If the grim Fates to stave ennuiA
Play whips for fun or snares for gameB
The liar full of ease goes freeA
And Socrates must bear the shameB
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With the blunt sage he stands despisedC
The Pharisees salute him notD
Laughter awaits the truth he prizedC
And Judas profits by his plotD
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A million angels kneel and prayE
And sue for grace that he may winF
Eternal Jove prepares the dayE
And sternly sets the fateful ginF
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Satan who hates the light is fainG
To back his virtuous enterpriseH
The omnipotent powers alone refrainG
Only the Lord of hosts deniesH
-
Whatever of woven argumentI
Lacks warp to hold the woof in placeJ
Smothers his honest discontentK
But leaves to view his woeful faceJ
-
Fling forth the flag devour the landL
Grasp destiny and use the lawM
But dodge the epigram's keen brandL
And fall not by the ass's jawM
-
The idiot snicker strikes more downN
Than fell at Troy or WaterlooO
Still still he meets it with a frownN
And argues loudly for the TrueO
-
Injustice lengthens out her chainG
Greed yet ahungered calls for moreP
But while the eons wax and waneG
He storms the barricaded doorP
-
Wisdom and peace and fair intentK
Are tedious as a tale twice toldQ
One thing increases being spentK
Perennial youth belongs to goldQ
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At Weehawken the soul set freeA
Rules the high realm of Bunker HillR
Drink life from that philosophyA
And flourish by the age's willR
-
If he shall toil to clear the fieldS
Fate's children seize the prosperous yearT
Boldly he fashions some new shieldS
And naked feels the victor's spearT
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He rolls the world up into dayE
He finds the grain and gets the hullU
He sees his own mind in the swayE
And Progress tiptoes on his skullU
-
Angels and fiends behold the wrongV
And execrate his losing fightW
While Jove amidst the choral songV
Smiles and the heavens glow with lightW
-
TruebloodX
-
-
-
Trueblood is bewitched to write a dramaY
Only one drama then to die EnoughZ
To win the heights but once He writes me lettersA2
These later days marked Opened by the CensorB2
About his drama asks me what I thinkC2
About this point of view and that approachD2
And whether to etch in his hero's soulE2
By etching in his hero's enemiesF2
Or luminate his hero by enshadowingC2
His hero's enemies How shall I tell himG2
Which is the actual and the larger themeH2
His hero or his hero's enemiesF2
And through it all I see that Trueblood's mindI2
Runs to the under dog the fallen TitanJ2
The god misunderstood the lover of manK2
Destroyed by heaven for his love of manK2
In July while in LondonJ2
He took me to his house to dine and showed meA
The verses as above And while I readL2
He left the room returned I heard him moveM2
The ash trays on the table where we satN2
And set some object on the tableU
-
ThenO2
As I looked up from reading I discoveredP2
A skull and bony hand upon the tableU
And Trueblood said Look at the loft browQ2
And what a hand was this A right hand tooO
Those fingers in the flesh did miraclesR2
And when I have my hero's skull before meA
His hand that moulded peoples I should writeW
The drama that possesses all my thoughtS2
You'd think the spirit of the man would comeT2
And show me how to find the key that fitsU2
The story of his life reveal its secretV2
I know the secrets but I want the secretV2
You'd think his spirit out of gratitudeW2
Would start me off It's something I insistX2
To find a haven with a dramatistX2
After your bones have crossed the sea and afterB2
Passing from hand to hand they reach seclusionJ2
And reverent housingC2
-
Dying in New YorkC2
He lay for ten years in a lonely graveY2
Somewhere along the Hudson I believeZ2
No grave yard in the city would receive himG2
Neither a banker nor a friend of banksA3
Nor falling in a duel to awakeC2
Indignant sorrow space in TrinityA
Was not so much as offered He was poorB3
And never had a tomb like WashingtonJ2
Of course he wasn't Washington but stillR
Study that skull a little In ten yearsC3
A mad admirer living here in EnglandD3
Went to America and dug him upE3
And brought his bones to Liverpool Just thenO2
Our country was in turmoil over FranceF3
The details are so rich I lose my headL2
And can't construct my acts hell's flaming hereG3
And we are fighting back the roaring fireB2
That France had lighted England would abortH3
The era she embraced Here is a pointI3
That vexes me in laying out the scenesJ3
And persons of the play For parliamentI
Went into fury that these bones were hereG3
On British soil The city raged They tookC2
The poor town crier gave him nine months' prisonJ2
For crying on the streets the bones' arrivalU
I'd like to put that crier in my playE
The scene of his arrest would thrill in caseJ
I put it on a background understoodK3
And showing why the fellow was arrestedX
And what a high offence to heaven it wasL3
Then here's another thing The monumentI
This zealous friend had planned was never raisedM3
The city wouldn't have it you can guessN3
The brain that filled this skull and moved this handL
Had given England trouble Yes believe meA
He roused rebellion and he scattered pamphletsO3
He had the English gift of writing pamphletsO3
He stirred up peoples with his English giftP3
Against the mother country How to show thisQ3
In action not in talk is difficultR3
-
Well then here is our friend who has these bonesS3
And cannot honor them in burialU
And so he keeps them then becomes a bankruptT3
And look the bones pass to our friend's receiverB2
Are they an asset Our Lord ChancellorB2
Does not regard them so I'd like to workC2
Some humor in my drama at this pointI3
And satirize his lordship just a littleU
Though you can scarcely call a skull an assetU3
If it be of a man who helped to cost youO
The loss of half the world So the receiverB2
Cast out the bones and for a time a laborerB2
Took care of them He sold them to a manK2
Who dealt in furniture The empty coffinF
About this time turned up in Guilford thenO2
It's the man is deadL2
Near forty years when just the skull and handL
Are owned by Rev Ainslie who evadesV3
All questions touching on that ownershipW3
And where the ribs spine arms and thigh bones areX3
The rest in shortH3
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And as for me no matterB2
Who sold them gave them to me loaned them to meA
Behold the good right hand behold the skullU
Of Thomas Paine theo philanthropistY3
Of Quaker parents born in England LookC2
That is the hand that wrote the Crisis wroteZ3
The Age of Reason Common Sense and ralliedA4
Americans against the mother countryA
With just that English gift of pamphleteeringC2
You see I'd have to bring George WashingtonJ2
And James Monroe and Thomas JeffersonJ2
Upon the stage and put into their mouthsB4
The eulogies they spoke on Thomas PaineG
To get before the audience that they thoughtS2
He did as much as any man to winF
Your independence that your DeclarationJ2
Was founded on his writings even inspiredP2
A clause against your negro slavery howQ2
Look at this hand he was the first to writeW
United States of America there's the handL
That was the first to write those words Good LordC4
This drama would out last a Chinese dramaY
If I put all the story in But tell meA
What to omit and what to stressN3
-
And stillR
I'd have the greatest drama in the worldD4
If I could prove he was dishonored huntedX
Neglected libeled buried like a beastE4
His bones dug up thrown in and out of ChanceryA
And show these horrors overtook Tom PaineG
Because he was too great and by this showingC2
Instruct the world to honor its torch bearersA2
For time to come No Well that can't be doneJ2
I know that but it puzzles me to thinkC2
That Hamilton we'll say is so reveredF4
So lauded toasted all his papers studiedA4
On tariffs and on banks evoking ahsL3
Great genius and so forth and there's the CrisisG4
And Common Sense which only little ShelleysG4
Haunting the dusty book shops read at allH4
It wasn't that he liked his rum and drankC2
Too much at times or chased a pretty skirtI4
For Hamilton did that Paine never mixedJ4
In money matters to another's wrongC2
For his sake or a system's Yes I knowK4
The world cares more for chastity and temperanceG4
Than for a faultless life in money mattersG4
No use to dramatize that vital contrastL4
The world to day is what it always wasG4
But you don't call this Hamilton an artistY3
And Paine a mere logician and a wranglerB2
Your artist soul gets limed in this mad worldD4
As much as any There is LeonardoK4
The point's not hereG3
-
I think it's more like thisG4
Some men are Titans and some men are godsG4
And some are gods who fall while climbing backC2
Up to Olympus whence they came And someT2
While fighting for the race fall into holesG4
Where to return and rescue them is deathM4
Why look you here You'd think AmericaY
Had gone to war to cheat the guillotineN4
Of Thomas Paine in fiery gratitudeW2
He's there in France's national assemblyA
And votes to save King Louis with this phraseG4
Don't kill the man but kill the kingly officeG4
They think him faithless to the revolutionJ2
For words like these and clap the prison doorP
Shuts on our Thomas So he writes a letterB2
To president of what to WashingtonJ2
President of the United States of AmericaY
A title which Paine coined in seventy sevenJ2
Now lettered on a monstrous seal of stateO4
And Washington is silent never answersG4
And leaves our Thomas shivering in a cellP4
Who hears the guillotine go slash and clickC2
Perhaps this is the nucleus of my dramaY
Or else to show that Washington was wiseG4
Respecting England's hatred of our ThomasG4
And wise to lift no finger to save ThomasG4
Incurring England's wrath who hated ThomasG4
For pamphlets like the Crisis Common SenseG4
That may be just the story for my dramaY
Old Homer satirized the human raceG4
For warring for the rescue of a CyprianJ2
But there's not stuff for satire in a warP
Ensuing on the insult for the rescueC2
Of nothing but a fellow who wrote pamphletsG4
And won a continent for the rescuerB2
That's tragedy the more so if the fellowK4
Likes rum and writes that Jesus was a manK2
This crushing of poor Thomas in the hateO4
Of England and her power America'sG4
Great fear and lowered strength might make a dramaY
As showing how the more you do in lifeQ4
The greater shall you suffer This is trueC2
If what you battered down gets hold of youC2
This drama almost drives me mad at timesG4
I have his story at my fingers' endsG4
But it won't take a shape It flies my handsG4
I think I'll have to give it up What's thatN2
Well if an audience of to day would turnR4
From seeing Thomas Paine upon the stageS4
What is the use to write it if they'd turnR4
No matter how you wrote it I believeZ2
They wouldn't like it in AmericaY
Nor England either maybe you are rightW
A drama with no audience is a failureB2
But here's this skull What shall I do with itT4
If I should have it cased in solid silverB2
There is no shrine to take it no CologneU4
For skulls like thisG4
-
Well I must die sometimeV4
And who will get it then Look at this skullU
This bony hand Then look at me my friendW4
A man who has a theme the world despisesG4

Edgar Lee Masters



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