The Towers Of Time Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDDEDFAGAHA BGIGGGJG BKBKFK LMNMBBBBFMMMGM GOMOJJPJQBFBEB GAMAKKIKFGFGFG GJRJSSTSBUVUIU WGGGJJBJBBJBFBUnder what withering leprous light | A |
The very grass as hair is grey | B |
Grass in the cracks of the paven courts | C |
Of gods we graved but yesterday | B |
Senate republic empire all | D |
We leaned our backs on like a wall | D |
And blessed as stron as strong and blamed as stolid | E |
Can it be these that waver and fall | D |
And what is this like a ghost returning | F |
A dream grown strong in the strong daylight | A |
The all forsaken the unforgotten | G |
The ever behind and out of sight | A |
We turned our backs and our blind flesh felt it | H |
Growing and growing a tower in height | A |
- | |
Ah not alone the evil splendour | B |
And not the insolent arms alone | G |
Break with the ramrod stiff and brittle | I |
The sceptre of the nordic throne | G |
But things of manlier renown | G |
Reel in the wreck of throne and crown | G |
With tyrannous tyranny tyrannous loyalty | J |
Tyrannous liberty all gone down | G |
- | |
There is never a crack in the ivory tower | B |
Or a hinge to groan in the house of gold | K |
Or a leaf of the rose in the wind to wither | B |
And she grows young as the world grows old | K |
A Woman clothed with the sun returning | F |
to clothe the sun when the sun is cold | K |
- | |
Ah who had guessed that in a moment | L |
Great Liberty that loosed the tribes | M |
the Republic of the young men's battles | N |
Grew stale and stank of old men's bribes | M |
And where we watched her smile in power | B |
A statue like a starry tower | B |
the stone face sneers as in a nightmare | B |
Down on a world that worms devour | B |
Archaic incredible dead dawns breaking | F |
Deep in the deserts and waste and wealds | M |
Where the dead cry aloud on Our Lady of Victories | M |
Queen of the Eagles aloft on the shields | M |
And the sun is gone up on the Thundering Legion | G |
On the roads of Rome to the Battlefields | M |
- | |
Ah who had known who had not seen | G |
How soft and sudden on the fame | O |
Of my most noble English ships | M |
The sunset light of Carthage came | O |
And the thing I never had dreamed could be | J |
In the house of my fathers came to me | J |
Through the sea wall cloven the cloud and dark | P |
A voice divided a doubtful sea | J |
The light is bright on the Tower of David | Q |
The evening glows with the morning star | B |
In the skies turned back and the days returning | F |
She walks so near who had wandered far | B |
And in the heart of the swords the seven times wounded | E |
Was never wearied as our hearts are | B |
- | |
How swift as with a fall of snow | G |
New things grow hoary with the light | A |
We watch the wrinkles crawl like snakes | M |
On the new image in our sight | A |
The lines that sprang up taut and bold | K |
Sag like primordial monsters old | K |
Sink in the bas reliers of fossil | I |
And the slow earth swallows them fold on fold | K |
But light are the feet on the hills of the morning | F |
Of the lambs that leap up to the Bride of the Sun | G |
And swift are the birds as the butterflies flashing | F |
And sudden as laughter the rivulets run | G |
And sudden for ever as summer lightning | F |
the light is bright on the world begun | G |
- | |
Thou wilt not break as we have broken | G |
The towers we reared to rival Thee | J |
More true to England than the English | R |
More just to freedom than the free | J |
O trumpet of the intolerant truth | S |
Thou art more full of grace and ruth | S |
For the hopes of th world than the world that made them | T |
The world that murdered the loves of our youth | S |
Thou art more kind to our dreams Our Mother | B |
Than the wise that wove us the dreams for shade | U |
God if more good to the gods that mocked Him | V |
Than men are good to the gods they made | U |
Tenderer with toys than a boy grown brutal | I |
Breaking the puppets with which he played | U |
- | |
What are the flowers the garden guards not | W |
And how but here should dreams return | G |
And how on hearths made cold with ruin | G |
the wide wind scattered ashes burn | G |
What is the home of the heart set free | J |
And where is the nesting of liberty | J |
And where from the world shall the world take shelter | B |
And man be matter and not with Thee | J |
Wisdom is set in her throne of thunder | B |
The Mirror of Justice blinds the day | B |
Where are the towers that are not of the City | J |
Trophies and trumpetings where are they | B |
Where over the maze of the world returning | F |
The bye ways bend to the King's highway | B |
G. K. Chesterton
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