Orpheus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDE F GGHHIIJJIIKK LMLMJJIIKKII NNOOIIPPIIQQ RRSSTTPP EEUUVW XXIINNYYZA2NNIIJJB2B 2C2D2 IIZA2E2E2 PPIIZA2F2F2BG2II H2I2LLJ2J2PPIISSXXGG WWK2K2PPL2L2 K2K2M2M2TTK2K2IIK2K2 S C2D2N2N2 EEK2K2II

Love will make men dare to die for their beloved Of thisA
Alcestis is a monument for she was willing to lay down herB
life for her husband and so noble did this appear to the godsC
that they granted her the privilege of returning to earth butD
Orpheus the son of OEagrus they sent empty awayE
-
Plato The SymposiumF
-
-
Orpheus the Harper coming to the gateG
Where the implacable dim warder sateG
Besought for parley with a shade withinH
Dearer to him than life itself had beenH
Sweeter than sunlight on Illyrian seaI
Or bloom of myrtle or murmur of laden beeI
Whom lately from his unconsenting breastJ
The Fates at some capricious blind behestJ
Intolerably had reft EurydiceI
Dear to the sunlight as Illyrian seaI
Sweet as the murmur of bees or myrtle bloomK
And uncompanioned led her to the tombK
-
There solitary by the Stygian tideL
Strayed her dear feet the shadow of his ownM
Since 'mid the desolate millions who have diedL
Each phantom walks its crowded path aloneM
And there her head that slept upon his breastJ
No more had such sweet harbour for its restJ
Nor her swift ear from those disvoiced throatsI
Could catch one echo of his living notesI
And dreaming nightly of her pallid doomK
No solace had he of his own young bloomK
But yearned to pour his blood into her veinsI
And buy her back with unimagined painsI
-
To whom the Shepherd of the Shadows saidN
Yea many thus would bargain for their deadN
But when they hear my fatal gateway clangO
Life quivers in them with a last sweet pangO
They see the smoke of home above the treesI
The cordage whistles on the harbour breezeI
The beaten path that wanders to the shoreP
Grows dear because they shall not tread it moreP
The dog that drowsing on their threshold liesI
Looks at them with their childhood in his eyesI
And in the sunset's melancholy fallQ
They read a sunrise that shall give them allQ
-
Not thus am I the Harper smiled his scornR
I see no path but those her feet have wornR
My roof tree is the shadow of her hairS
And the light breaking through her long despairS
The only sunrise that mine eyelids craveT
For doubly dead without me in the graveT
Is she who if my feet had gone beforeP
Had found life dark as death's abhorred shoreP
-
The gate clanged on him and he went his wayE
Amid the alien millions mute and greyE
Swept like a cold mist down an unlit strandU
Where nameless wreckage gluts the stealthy sandU
Drift of the cockle shells of hope and faithV
Wherein they foundered on the rock of deathW
-
So came he to the image that he soughtX
Less living than her semblance in his thoughtX
Who at the summons of his thrilling notesI
Drew back to life as a drowned creature floatsI
Back to the surface yet no less is deadN
And cold fear smote him till she spoke and saidN
Art thou then come to lay thy lips on mineY
And pour thy life's libation out like wineY
Shall I through thee revisit earth againZ
Traverse the shining sea the fruitful plainA2
Behold the house we dwelt in lay my headN
Upon the happy pillows of our bedN
And feel in dreams the pressure of thine armsI
Kindle these pulses that no memory warmsI
Nay give me for a space upon thy breastJ
Death's shadowy substitute for rapture restJ
Then join again the joyous living throngB2
And give me life but give it in thy songB2
For only they that die themselves may giveC2
Life to the dead and I would have thee liveD2
-
Fear seized him closer than her arms but heI
Answered Not so for thou shalt come with meI
I sought thee not that we should part againZ
But that fresh joy should bud from the old painA2
And the gods if grudgingly their gifts they makeE2
Yield all to them that without asking takeE2
-
The gods she said so runs life's ancient loreP
Yield all man takes but always claim their scoreP
The iron wings of the EumenidesI
When heard far off seem but a summer breezeI
But me thou'lt have alive on earth againZ
Only by paying here my meed of painA2
Then lay on my cold lips the tender ghostF2
Of the dear kiss that used to warm them mostF2
Take from my frozen hands thy hands of fireB
And of my heart strings make thee a new lyreG2
That in thy music men may find my voiceI
And something of me still on earth rejoiceI
-
Shuddering he heard her but with close flung armH2
Swept her resisting through the ghostly swarmI2
Swift hide thee 'neath my cloak that we may glideL
Past the dim warder as the gate swings wideL
He whirled her with him lighter than a leafJ2
Unwittingly whirled onward by a briefJ2
Autumnal eddy but when the fatal doorP
Suddenly yielded him to life once moreP
And issuing to the all consoling skiesI
He turned to seek the sunlight in her eyesI
He clutched at emptiness she was not thereS
And the dim warder answered to his prayerS
Only once have I seen the wonder wroughtX
But when Alcestis thus her master soughtX
Living she sought him not nor dreamed that fateG
For any subterfuge would swing my gateG
Loving she gave herself to livid deathW
Joyous she bought his respite with her breathW
Came not embodied but a tenuous shadeK2
In whom her rapture a great radiance madeK2
For never saw I ghost upon this shoreP
Shine with such living ecstasy beforeP
Nor heard an exile from the light aboveL2
Hail me with smiles Thou art not Death but LoveL2
-
But when the gods frustrated this beheldK2
How living still among the dead she dwelledK2
Because she lived in him whose life she wonM2
And her blood beat in his beneath the sunM2
They reasoned 'When the bitter Stygian waveT
The sweetness of love's kisses cannot laveT
When the pale flood of Lethe washes notK2
From mortal mind one high immortal thoughtK2
Akin to us the earthly creature growsI
Since nature suffers only what it knowsI
If she whom we to this grey desert bannedK2
Still dreams she treads with him the sunlit landK2
That for his sake she left without a tearS
Set wide the gates her being is not here '-
-
So ruled the gods but thou that sought'st to giveC2
Thy life for love yet for thyself wouldst liveD2
They know not for their kin but back to earthN2
Give pitying one that is of mortal birthN2
-
Humbled the Harper heard and turned awayE
Mounting alone to the empoverished dayE
Yet as he left the Stygian shades behindK2
He heard the cordage on the harbour windK2
Saw the blue smoke above the homestead treesI
And in his hidden heart was glad of theseI

Edith Wharton



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