Orpheus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDE F GGHHIIJJIIKK LMLMJJIIKKII NNOOIIPPIIQQ RRSSTTPP EEUUVW XXIINNYYZA2NNIIJJB2B 2C2D2 IIZA2E2E2 PPIIZA2F2F2BG2II H2I2LLJ2J2PPIISSXXGG WWK2K2PPL2L2 K2K2M2M2TTK2K2IIK2K2 S C2D2N2N2 EEK2K2IILove will make men dare to die for their beloved Of this | A |
Alcestis is a monument for she was willing to lay down her | B |
life for her husband and so noble did this appear to the gods | C |
that they granted her the privilege of returning to earth but | D |
Orpheus the son of OEagrus they sent empty away | E |
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Plato The Symposium | F |
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Orpheus the Harper coming to the gate | G |
Where the implacable dim warder sate | G |
Besought for parley with a shade within | H |
Dearer to him than life itself had been | H |
Sweeter than sunlight on Illyrian sea | I |
Or bloom of myrtle or murmur of laden bee | I |
Whom lately from his unconsenting breast | J |
The Fates at some capricious blind behest | J |
Intolerably had reft Eurydice | I |
Dear to the sunlight as Illyrian sea | I |
Sweet as the murmur of bees or myrtle bloom | K |
And uncompanioned led her to the tomb | K |
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There solitary by the Stygian tide | L |
Strayed her dear feet the shadow of his own | M |
Since 'mid the desolate millions who have died | L |
Each phantom walks its crowded path alone | M |
And there her head that slept upon his breast | J |
No more had such sweet harbour for its rest | J |
Nor her swift ear from those disvoiced throats | I |
Could catch one echo of his living notes | I |
And dreaming nightly of her pallid doom | K |
No solace had he of his own young bloom | K |
But yearned to pour his blood into her veins | I |
And buy her back with unimagined pains | I |
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To whom the Shepherd of the Shadows said | N |
Yea many thus would bargain for their dead | N |
But when they hear my fatal gateway clang | O |
Life quivers in them with a last sweet pang | O |
They see the smoke of home above the trees | I |
The cordage whistles on the harbour breeze | I |
The beaten path that wanders to the shore | P |
Grows dear because they shall not tread it more | P |
The dog that drowsing on their threshold lies | I |
Looks at them with their childhood in his eyes | I |
And in the sunset's melancholy fall | Q |
They read a sunrise that shall give them all | Q |
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Not thus am I the Harper smiled his scorn | R |
I see no path but those her feet have worn | R |
My roof tree is the shadow of her hair | S |
And the light breaking through her long despair | S |
The only sunrise that mine eyelids crave | T |
For doubly dead without me in the grave | T |
Is she who if my feet had gone before | P |
Had found life dark as death's abhorred shore | P |
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The gate clanged on him and he went his way | E |
Amid the alien millions mute and grey | E |
Swept like a cold mist down an unlit strand | U |
Where nameless wreckage gluts the stealthy sand | U |
Drift of the cockle shells of hope and faith | V |
Wherein they foundered on the rock of death | W |
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So came he to the image that he sought | X |
Less living than her semblance in his thought | X |
Who at the summons of his thrilling notes | I |
Drew back to life as a drowned creature floats | I |
Back to the surface yet no less is dead | N |
And cold fear smote him till she spoke and said | N |
Art thou then come to lay thy lips on mine | Y |
And pour thy life's libation out like wine | Y |
Shall I through thee revisit earth again | Z |
Traverse the shining sea the fruitful plain | A2 |
Behold the house we dwelt in lay my head | N |
Upon the happy pillows of our bed | N |
And feel in dreams the pressure of thine arms | I |
Kindle these pulses that no memory warms | I |
Nay give me for a space upon thy breast | J |
Death's shadowy substitute for rapture rest | J |
Then join again the joyous living throng | B2 |
And give me life but give it in thy song | B2 |
For only they that die themselves may give | C2 |
Life to the dead and I would have thee live | D2 |
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Fear seized him closer than her arms but he | I |
Answered Not so for thou shalt come with me | I |
I sought thee not that we should part again | Z |
But that fresh joy should bud from the old pain | A2 |
And the gods if grudgingly their gifts they make | E2 |
Yield all to them that without asking take | E2 |
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The gods she said so runs life's ancient lore | P |
Yield all man takes but always claim their score | P |
The iron wings of the Eumenides | I |
When heard far off seem but a summer breeze | I |
But me thou'lt have alive on earth again | Z |
Only by paying here my meed of pain | A2 |
Then lay on my cold lips the tender ghost | F2 |
Of the dear kiss that used to warm them most | F2 |
Take from my frozen hands thy hands of fire | B |
And of my heart strings make thee a new lyre | G2 |
That in thy music men may find my voice | I |
And something of me still on earth rejoice | I |
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Shuddering he heard her but with close flung arm | H2 |
Swept her resisting through the ghostly swarm | I2 |
Swift hide thee 'neath my cloak that we may glide | L |
Past the dim warder as the gate swings wide | L |
He whirled her with him lighter than a leaf | J2 |
Unwittingly whirled onward by a brief | J2 |
Autumnal eddy but when the fatal door | P |
Suddenly yielded him to life once more | P |
And issuing to the all consoling skies | I |
He turned to seek the sunlight in her eyes | I |
He clutched at emptiness she was not there | S |
And the dim warder answered to his prayer | S |
Only once have I seen the wonder wrought | X |
But when Alcestis thus her master sought | X |
Living she sought him not nor dreamed that fate | G |
For any subterfuge would swing my gate | G |
Loving she gave herself to livid death | W |
Joyous she bought his respite with her breath | W |
Came not embodied but a tenuous shade | K2 |
In whom her rapture a great radiance made | K2 |
For never saw I ghost upon this shore | P |
Shine with such living ecstasy before | P |
Nor heard an exile from the light above | L2 |
Hail me with smiles Thou art not Death but Love | L2 |
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But when the gods frustrated this beheld | K2 |
How living still among the dead she dwelled | K2 |
Because she lived in him whose life she won | M2 |
And her blood beat in his beneath the sun | M2 |
They reasoned 'When the bitter Stygian wave | T |
The sweetness of love's kisses cannot lave | T |
When the pale flood of Lethe washes not | K2 |
From mortal mind one high immortal thought | K2 |
Akin to us the earthly creature grows | I |
Since nature suffers only what it knows | I |
If she whom we to this grey desert banned | K2 |
Still dreams she treads with him the sunlit land | K2 |
That for his sake she left without a tear | S |
Set wide the gates her being is not here ' | - |
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So ruled the gods but thou that sought'st to give | C2 |
Thy life for love yet for thyself wouldst live | D2 |
They know not for their kin but back to earth | N2 |
Give pitying one that is of mortal birth | N2 |
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Humbled the Harper heard and turned away | E |
Mounting alone to the empoverished day | E |
Yet as he left the Stygian shades behind | K2 |
He heard the cordage on the harbour wind | K2 |
Saw the blue smoke above the homestead trees | I |
And in his hidden heart was glad of these | I |
Edith Wharton
(1)
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