The Sphinx Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDE FFGGHIJJ KKLLMMNN OOPPJJQR MMSSTTUU RRVVLLMM TTWWXXYY ZZA2A2B2B2C2C2| THIS mystery of golden hair | A |
| Of eyes and lips and bosom fair | A |
| Is not if one could really see | B |
| Mere flesh and blood like you and me | B |
| This is a sphinx whose still lips say | C |
| This one thing ever day by day | C |
| To all who cross her in life's ways | D |
| 'Which is the way to love ' she says | E |
| - | |
| - | |
| For every man who meets her eyes | F |
| In their deep depths the question lies | F |
| And vainly would he seek to fly | G |
| Or put the wordless challenge by | G |
| Unless within his soul be set | H |
| Some true love vow as amulet | I |
| This clasping let him flee her spell | J |
| Nor trust its guardian powers too well | J |
| - | |
| - | |
| Nothing seems good to think about | K |
| But just to find that secret out | K |
| We bring her fruits of earnest hours | L |
| And offer choice of passion flowers | L |
| Of crowns of heart's blood of heart's ache | M |
| Our hopes we spurn our joys forsake | M |
| While she looks down upon our pain | N |
| Without compassion or disdain | N |
| - | |
| - | |
| She does not will to question thus | O |
| Fate made her just to torture us | O |
| Nor can she tell you if she will | P |
| Aught of your guesses good or ill | P |
| But if you fail to answer well | J |
| Your own foiled heart prepares your hell | J |
| And all your days you walk alone | Q |
| And curse the done and the undone | R |
| - | |
| - | |
| She does not bid you for her sake | M |
| Your soul to wreck your life to break | M |
| Nor would she choose it for her part | S |
| Only for ever in your heart | S |
| The haunting question must abide | T |
| And clamour morn and eventide | T |
| Until no single note your ear | U |
| Of all life's harmonies can hear | U |
| - | |
| - | |
| Yet to some man it will be given | R |
| To find the key that opens heaven | R |
| For him beloved by all the Fates | V |
| Answer as well as question waits | V |
| In those unwakened eyes of hers | L |
| And when their calm that answer stirs | L |
| From her stone sleep the sphinx will wake | M |
| Into a woman for his sake | M |
| - | |
| - | |
| What though one's whole life's light grows night | T |
| With that unanswered question's blight | T |
| One's one poor chance is richly worth | W |
| The richest certainties of earth | W |
| Myself would rather die I know | X |
| Starved just because I want her so | X |
| Than feast in highest heaven of bliss | Y |
| On any other woman's kiss | Y |
| - | |
| - | |
| Such spells she has I would not choose | Z |
| One look or touch of hers to lose | Z |
| Though every touch and look have power | A2 |
| To sting me to my dying hour | A2 |
| Though every breath of hers should bring | B2 |
| Frost on life's bud and blossoming | B2 |
| What soul could ask a dearer death | C2 |
| Than to be withered by her breath | C2 |
Edith Nesbit
(1)
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