The South Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABCC DEDEFF GHIHAA JKJKAA LMNMOO DPDDDD QRQSTT UJUJVV DWDWXY ZDZDA2A2

Night and beneath star blazoned summer skiesA
Behold the Spirit of the musky SouthB
A creole with still burning languid eyesA
Voluptuous limbs and incense breathing mouthB
Swathed in spun gauze is sheC
From fibres of her own anana treeC
-
Within these sumptuous woods she lies at easeD
By rich night breezes dewy cool caressedE
'Twixt cypresses and slim palmetto treesD
Like to the golden oriole's hanging nestE
Her airy hammock swingsF
And through the dark her mocking bird yet singsF
-
How beautiful she is A tulip wreathG
Twines round her shadowy free floating hairH
Young weary passionate and sad as deathI
Dark visions haunt for her the vacant airH
While movelessly she liesA
With lithe lax folded hands and heavy eyesA
-
Full well knows she how wide and fair extendJ
Her groves bright flowered her tangled evergladesK
Majestic streams that indolently wendJ
Through lush savanna or dense forest shadesK
Where the brown buzzard fliesA
To broad bayou 'neath hazy golden skiesA
-
Hers is the savage splendor of the swampL
With pomp of scarlet and of purple bloomM
Where blow warm furtive breezes faint and dampN
Strange insects whir and stalking bitterns boomM
Where from stale waters deadO
Oft looms the great jawed alligator's headO
-
Her wealth her beauty and the blight on theseD
Of all she is aware luxuriant woodsP
Fresh living sunlit in her dream she seesD
And ever midst those verdant solitudesD
The soldier's wooden crossD
O'ergrown by creeping tendrils and rank mossD
-
Was her a dream of empire was it sinQ
And is it well that all was borne in vainR
She knows no more than one who slow doth winQ
After fierce fever conscious life againS
Too tired too weak too sadT
By the new light to be stirred or gladT
-
From rich sea islands fringing her green shoreU
From broad plantations where swart freemen bendJ
Bronzed backs in willing labor from her storeU
Of golden fruit from stream from town ascendJ
Life currents of pure healthV
Her aims shall be subserved with boundless wealthV
-
Yet now how listless and how still she liesD
Like some half savage dusky Indian queenW
Rocked in her hammock 'neath her native skiesD
With the pathetic passive broken mienW
Of one who sorely provedX
Great souled hath suffered much and much hath lovedY
-
But look along the wide branched dewy gladeZ
Glimmers the dawn the light palmetto treesD
And cypresses reissue from the shadeZ
And SHE hath wakened Through clear air she seesD
The pledge the brightening rayA2
And leaps from dreams to hail the coming dayA2

Emma Lazarus



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