Life Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AB CDBEFGHIH JKLMNOPQRSTUVW XYDZA2ABB2C2D2E2F2G2 BH2I2J2K2L2A2 RMM2N2D CBDO2DR JDP2Q2R2DS2T2U2JBN V2S2P CRW2X2Y2 BZ2AA3B3 C3D3 BVBM DE3V2F3G3 DCH3BI3DJ3L2DK3L3M3N 2H MN3SO3BN3L3AN3BN3K2P 3B3Q3BEFL3R3 BN3N3BN3N3S3ST3N3U3A B

Nay lift me to thy lips Life and once moreA
Pour the wild music through meB
-
I quivered in the reed bed with my kindC
Rooted in Lethe bank when at the dawnD
There came a groping shape of mysteryB
Moving among us that with random strokeE
Severed and rapt me from my silent tribeF
Pierced fashioned lipped me sounding for a voiceG
Laughing on Lethe bank and in my throatH
I felt the wing beat of the fledgeling notesI
The bubble of godlike laughter in my throatH
-
Such little songs she sangJ
Pursing her lips to fit the tiny pipeK
They trickled from me like a slender springL
That strings frail wood growths on its crystal threadM
Nor dreams of glassing cities bearing shipsN
She sang and bore me through the April worldO
Matching the birds doubling the insect humP
In the meadows under the low moving airsQ
And breathings of the scarce articulate airR
When it makes mouths of grasses but when the skyS
Burst into storm and took great trees for pipesT
She thrust me in her breast and warm beneathU
Her cloudy vesture on her terrible heartV
I shook and heard the battleW
-
But more oftX
Those early days we moved in charmed woodsY
Where once at dusk she piped against a faunD
And one warm dawn a tree became a nymphZ
Listening and trembled and Life laughed and passedA2
And once we came to a great stream that boreA
The stars upon its bosom like a seaB
And ships like stars so to the sea we cameB2
And there she raised me to her lips and sentC2
One swift pang through me then refrained her handD2
And whispered Hear and into my frail flanksE2
Into my bursting veins the whole sea pouredF2
Its spaces and its thunder and I fearedG2
-
We came to cities and Life piped on meB
Low calls to dreaming girlsH2
In counting house windows through the chink of goldI2
Flung cries that fired the captive brain of youthJ2
And made the heavy merchant at his deskK2
Curse us for a cracked hurdy gurdy LifeL2
Mimicked the hurdy gurdy and we passedA2
-
We climbed the slopes of solitude and thereR
Life met a god who challenged her and saidM
Thy pipe against my lyre But Wait she laughedM2
And in my live flank dug a finger holeN2
And wrung new music from it Ah the painD
-
We climbed and climbed and left the god behindC
We saw the earth spread vaster than the seaB
With infinite surge of mountains surfed with snowD
And a silence that was louder than the deepO2
But on the utmost pinnacle Life againD
Hid me and I heard the terror in her hairR
-
Safe in new vales I ached for the old pangJ
And clamoured Play me against a god againD
Poor Marsyas mortal he shall bleed thee yetP2
She breathed and kissed me stilling the dim needQ2
But evermore it woke and stabbed my flankR2
With yearnings for new music and new painD
Another note against another godS2
I clamoured and she answered Bide my timeT2
Of every heart wound I will make a stopU2
And drink thy life in music pang by pangJ
But first thou must yield the notes I stored in theeB
At dawn beside the river Take my lipsN
-
She kissed me like a lover but I weptV2
Remembering that high song against the godS2
And the old songs slept in me and I was dumbP
-
We came to cavernous foul places blindC
With harpy wings and sulphurous with the glareR
Of sinful furnaces where hunger toiledW2
And pleasure gathered in a starveling preyX2
And death fed delicately on young bonesY2
-
Now sing cried Life and set her lips to meB
Here are gods also Wilt thou pipe for DisZ2
My cry was drowned beneath the furnace roarA
Choked by the sulphur fumes and beast lipped godsA3
Laughed down on me and mouthed the flutes of hellB3
-
Now sing said Life reissuing to the starsC3
And wrung a new note from my wounded sideD3
-
So came we to clear spaces and the seaB
And now I felt its volume in my heartV
And my heart waxed with it and Life played on meB
The song of the Infinite Now the stars she saidM
-
Then from the utmost pinnacle againD
She poured me on the wild sidereal streamE3
And I grew with her great breathings till we sweptV2
The interstellar spaces like new worldsF3
Loosed from the fiery ruin of a starG3
-
Cold cold we rested on black peaks againD
Under black skies under a groping windC
And Life grown old hugged me to a numb breastH3
Pressing numb lips against me SuddenlyB
A blade of silver severed the black peaksI3
From the black sky and earth was born againD
Breathing and various under a god's feetJ3
A god A god I felt the heart of LifeL2
Leap under me and my cold flanks shook againD
He bore no lyre he rang no challenge outK3
But Life warmed to him warming me with herL3
And as he neared I felt beneath her handsM3
The stab of a new wound that sucked my soulN2
Forth in a new song from my throbbing throatH
-
His name his name I whispered but she shedM
The music faster and I grew with itN3
Became a part of it while Life and IS
Clung lip to lip and I from her wrung songO3
As she from me one song one ecstasyB
In indistinguishable union blentN3
Till she became the flute and I the playerL3
And lo the song I played on her was moreA
Than any she had drawn from me it heldN3
The stars the peaks the cities and the seaB
The faun's catch the nymph's tremor and the heartN3
Of dreaming girls of toilers at the deskK2
Apollo's challenge on the sunrise slopeP3
And the hiss of the night gods mouthing flutes of hellB3
All to the dawn wind's whisper in the reedsQ3
When Life first came a shape of mysteryB
Moving among us and with random strokeE
Severed and rapt me from my silent tribeF
All this I wrung from her in that deep hourL3
While Love stood murmuring Play the god poor grassR3
-
Now by that hour I am a mate to theeB
Forever Life however spent and cloggedN3
And tossed back useless to my native mudN3
Yea groping for new reeds to fashion theeB
New instruments of anguish and delightN3
Thy hand shall leap to me thy broken reedN3
Thine ear remember me thy bosom thrillS3
With the old subjection then when Love and IS
Held thee and fashioned thee and made thee danceT3
Like a slave girl to her pipers yea thou yetN3
Shalt hear my call and dropping all thy toysU3
Thou'lt lift me to thy lips Life and once moreA
Pour the wild music through meB

Edith Wharton



Rate:
(1)



Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation


Write your comment about Life poem by Edith Wharton


 
Best Poems of Edith Wharton

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 10 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Popular Poets