France--december 1870 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDECFGGF A FHHFCCIIJJKLLKLMMLKL A NLONPOQQPPPPOPR RSOSHHPPPPRPPRTKKRTR KTKTKTUKUPP VVTTPPTTKKPPK PPPPWTTWXYXYKTKTPTPT PZZP KA2A2K KB2B2KTC2TC2 XKXKXUX KPPKK KPKPTPPTPZZPPPPPPD2P D2KKXXPPPPPPTTPPTE2T E2E2TTTPF2P| I | A |
| - | |
| We look for her that sunlike stood | B |
| Upon the forehead of our day | C |
| An orb of nations radiating food | D |
| For body and for mind alway | E |
| Where is the Shape of glad array | C |
| The nervous hands the front of steel | F |
| The clarion tongue Where is the bold proud face | G |
| We see a vacant place | G |
| We hear an iron heel | F |
| - | |
| II | A |
| - | |
| O she that made the brave appeal | F |
| For manhood when our time was dark | H |
| And from our fetters drove the spark | H |
| Which was as lightning to reveal | F |
| New seasons with the swifter play | C |
| Of pulses and benigner day | C |
| She that divinely shook the dead | I |
| From living man that stretched ahead | I |
| Her resolute forefinger straight | J |
| And marched toward the gloomy gate | J |
| Of earth's Untried gave note and in | K |
| The good name of Humanity | L |
| Called forth the daring vision she | L |
| She likewise half corrupt of sin | K |
| Angel and Wanton can it be | L |
| Her star has foundered in eclipse | M |
| The shriek of madness on her lips | M |
| Shreds of her and no more we see | L |
| There is horrible convulsion smothered din | K |
| As of one that in a grave cloth struggles to be free | L |
| - | |
| III | A |
| - | |
| Look not for spreading boughs | N |
| On the riven forest tree | L |
| Look down where deep in blood and mire | O |
| Black thunder plants his feet and ploughs | N |
| The soil for ruin that is France | P |
| Still thrilling like a lyre | O |
| Amazed to shivering discord from a fall | Q |
| Sudden as that the lurid hosts recall | Q |
| Who met in heaven the irreparable mischance | P |
| O that is France | P |
| The brilliant eyes to kindle bliss | P |
| The shrewd quick lips to laugh and kiss | P |
| Breasts that a sighing world inspire | O |
| And laughter dimpled countenance | P |
| Where soul and senses caught desire | R |
| - | |
| IV | - |
| - | |
| Ever invoking fire from heaven the fire | R |
| Has grasped her unconsumable but framed | S |
| For all the ecstasies of suffering dire | O |
| Mother of Pride her sanctuary shamed | S |
| Mother of Delicacy and made a mark | H |
| For outrage Mother of Luxury stripped stark | H |
| Mother of Heroes bondsmen thro' the rains | P |
| Across her boundaries lo the league long chains | P |
| Fond Mother of her martial youth they pass | P |
| Are spectres in her sight are mown as grass | P |
| Mother of Honour and dishonoured Mother | R |
| Of Glory she condemned to crown with bays | P |
| Her victor and be fountain of his praise | P |
| Is there another curse There is another | R |
| Compassionate her madness is she not | T |
| Mother of Reason she that sees them mown | K |
| Like grass her young ones Yea in the low groan | K |
| And under the fixed thunder of this hour | R |
| Which holds the animate world in one foul blot | T |
| Tranced circumambient while relentless Power | R |
| Beaks at her heart and claws her limbs down thrown | K |
| She with the plungeing lightnings overshot | T |
| With madness for an armour against pain | K |
| With milkless breasts for little ones athirst | T |
| And round her all her noblest dying in vain | K |
| Mother of Reason is she trebly cursed | T |
| To feel to see to justify the blow | U |
| Chamber to chamber of her sequent brain | K |
| Gives answer of the cause of her great woe | U |
| Inexorably echoing thro' the vaults | P |
| ''Tis thus they reap in blood in blood who sow | P |
| 'This is the sum of self absolved faults ' | - |
| Doubt not that thro' her grief with sight supreme | V |
| Thro' her delirium and despair's last dream | V |
| Thro' pride thro' bright illusion and the brood | T |
| Bewildering of her various Motherhood | T |
| The high strong light within her tho' she bleeds | P |
| Traces the letters of returned misdeeds | P |
| She sees what seed long sown ripened of late | T |
| Bears this fierce crop and she discerns her fate | T |
| From origin to agony and on | K |
| As far as the wave washes long and wan | K |
| Off one disastrous impulse for of waves | P |
| Our life is and our deeds are pregnant graves | P |
| Blown rolling to the sunset from the dawn | K |
| - | |
| V | - |
| - | |
| Ah what a dawn of splendour when her sowers | P |
| Went forth and bent the necks of populations | P |
| And of their terrors and humiliations | P |
| Wove her the starry wreath that earthward lowers | P |
| Now in the figure of a burning yoke | W |
| Her legions traversed North and South and East | T |
| Of triumph they enjoyed the glutton's feast | T |
| They grafted the green sprig they lopped the oak | W |
| They caught by the beard the tempests by the scalp | X |
| The icy precipices and clove sheer through | Y |
| The heart of horror of the pinnacled Alp | X |
| Emerging not as men whom mortals knew | Y |
| They were the earthquake and the hurricane | K |
| The lightnings and the locusts plagues of blight | T |
| Plagues of the revel they were Deluge rain | K |
| And dreaded Conflagration lawless Might | T |
| Death writes a reeling line along the snows | P |
| Where under frozen mists they may be tracked | T |
| Who men and elements provoked to foes | P |
| And Gods they were of god and beast compact | T |
| Abhorred of all Yet how they sucked the teats | P |
| Of Carnage thirsty issue of their dam | Z |
| Whose eagles angrier than their oriflamme | Z |
| Flushed the vext earth with blood green earth forgets | P |
| The gay young generations mask her grief | - |
| Where bled her children hangs the loaded sheaf | - |
| Forgetful is green earth the Gods alone | K |
| Remember everlastingly they strike | A2 |
| Remorselessly and ever like for like | A2 |
| By their great memories the Gods are known | K |
| - | |
| VI | - |
| - | |
| They are with her now and in her ears and known | K |
| 'Tis they that cast her to the dust for Strength | B2 |
| Their slave to feed on her fair body's length | B2 |
| That once the sweetest and the proudest shone | K |
| Scoring for hideous dismemberment | T |
| Her limbs as were the anguish taking breath | C2 |
| Gone out of her in the insufferable descent | T |
| From her high chieftainship as were she death | C2 |
| Who hears a voice of justice feels the knife | - |
| Of torture drinks all ignominy of life | - |
| They are with her and the painful Gods might weep | X |
| If ever rain of tears came out of heaven | K |
| To flatter Weakness and bid conscience sleep | X |
| Viewing the woe of this Immortal driven | K |
| For the soul's life to drain the maddening cup | X |
| Of her own children's blood implacably | U |
| Unsparing even as they to furrow up | X |
| The yellow land to likeness of a sea | - |
| The bountiful fair land of vine and grain | K |
| Of wit and grace and ardour and strong roots | P |
| Fruits perishable imperishable fruits | P |
| Furrowed to likeness of the dim grey main | K |
| Behind the black obliterating cyclone | K |
| - | |
| VII | - |
| - | |
| Behold the Gods are with her and are known | K |
| Whom they abandon misery persecutes | P |
| No more them half eyed apathy may loan | K |
| The happiness of pitiable brutes | P |
| Whom the just Gods abandon have no light | T |
| No ruthless light of introspective eyes | P |
| That in the midst of misery scrutinize | P |
| The heart and its iniquities outright | T |
| They rest they smile and rest have earned perchance | P |
| Of ancient service quiet for a term | Z |
| Quiet of old men dropping to the worm | Z |
| And so goes out the soul But not of France | P |
| She cries for grief and to the Gods she cries | P |
| For fearfully their loosened hands chastize | P |
| And icily they watch the rod's caress | P |
| Ravage her flesh from scourges merciless | P |
| But she inveterate of brain discerns | P |
| That Pity has as little place as Joy | D2 |
| Among their roll of gifts for Strength she yearns | P |
| For Strength her idol once too long her toy | D2 |
| Lo Strength is of the plain root Virtues born | K |
| Strength shall ye gain by service prove in scorn | K |
| Train by endurance by devotion shape | X |
| Strength is not won by miracle or rape | X |
| It is the offspring of the modest years | P |
| The gift of sire to son thro' those firm laws | P |
| Which we name Gods which are the righteous cause | P |
| The cause of man and manhood's ministers | P |
| Could France accept the fables of her priests | P |
| Who blest her banners in this game of beasts | P |
| And now bid hope that heaven will intercede | T |
| To violate its laws in her sore need | T |
| She would find comfort in their opiates | P |
| Mother of Reason can she cheat the Fates | P |
| Would she the champion of the open mind | T |
| The Omnipotent's prime gift the gift of growth | E2 |
| Consent even for a night time to be blind | T |
| And sink her soul on the delusive sloth | E2 |
| For fruits ethereal and material both | E2 |
| In peril of her place among mankind | T |
| The Mother of the many Laughters might | T |
| Call one poor shade of laughter in the light | T |
| Of her unwavering lamp to mark what things | P |
| The world puts faith in careless of the truth | F2 |
| What silly puppet bodies danced on strings | P |
George Meredith
(1)
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About France--december 1870
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