The Torch-bearer Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHI JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYO ZA2B2C2D2CE2F2G2H2I2 J2K2T VL2M2NN2O2P2TQ2R2L2S 2A2| GREAT cities rise and have their fall the brass | A |
| That held their glories moulders in its turn | B |
| Hard granite rots like an uprooted weed | C |
| And ever on the palimpsest of earth | D |
| Impatient Time rubs out the word he writ | E |
| But one thing makes the years its pedestal | F |
| Springs from the ashes of its pyre and claps | G |
| A skyward wing above its epitaph | H |
| The will of man willing immortal things | I |
| - | |
| The ages are but baubles hung upon | J |
| The thread of some strong lives and one slight wrist | K |
| May lift a century above the dust | L |
| For Time | M |
| The Sisyphean load of little lives | N |
| Becomes the globe and sceptre of the great | O |
| But who are these that linking hand in hand | P |
| Transmit across the twilight waste of years | Q |
| The flying brightness of a kindled hour | R |
| Not always nor alone the lives that search | S |
| How they may snatch a glory out of heaven | T |
| Or add a height to Babel oftener they | U |
| That in the still fulfilment of each day's | V |
| Pacific order hold great deeds in leash | W |
| That in the sober sheath of tranquil tasks | X |
| Hide the attempered blade of high emprise | Y |
| And leap like lightning to the clap of fate | O |
| - | |
| So greatly gave he nurturing 'gainst the call | Z |
| Of one rare moment all the daily store | A2 |
| Of joy distilled from the acquitted task | B2 |
| And that deliberate rashness which bespeaks | C2 |
| The pondered action passed into the blood | D2 |
| So swift to harden purpose into deed | C |
| That with the wind of ruin in his hair | E2 |
| Soul sprang full statured from the broken flesh | F2 |
| And at one stroke he lived the whole of life | G2 |
| Poured all in one libation to the truth | H2 |
| A brimming flood whose drops shall overflow | I2 |
| On deserts of the soul long beaten down | J2 |
| By the brute hoof of habit till they spring | K2 |
| In manifold upheaval to the sun | T |
| - | |
| Call here no high artificer to raise | V |
| His wordy monument such lives as these | L2 |
| Make death a dull misnomer and its pomp | M2 |
| An empty vesture Let resounding lives | N |
| Re echo splendidly through high piled vaults | N2 |
| And make the grave their spokesman such as he | O2 |
| Are as the hidden streams that underground | P2 |
| Sweeten the pastures for the grazing kine | T |
| Or as spring airs that bring through prison bars | Q2 |
| The scent of freedom or a light that burns | R2 |
| Immutably across the shaken seas | L2 |
| Forevermore by nameless hands renewed | S2 |
| Where else were darkness and a glutted shore | A2 |
Edith Wharton
(2)
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About The Torch-bearer
The Torch-bearer is a poem by Edith Wharton. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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