Solon Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A ABABCCDEDDE A FGFGHIJKJJK A KLKLMMKNKKN B KKKKKKOMOOM B PKPKKKQKQQKI | A |
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The Tyrant passed and friendlier was his eye | A |
On the great man of Athens whom for foe | B |
He knew than on the sycophantic fry | A |
That broke as waters round a galley's flow | B |
Bubbles at prow and foam along the wake | C |
Solidity the Thunderer could not shake | C |
Beneath an adverse wind still stripping bare | D |
His kinsman of the light in cavern look | E |
From thought drew and a countenance could wear | D |
Not less at peace than fields in Attic air | D |
Shorn and shown fruitful by the reaper's hook | E |
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II | A |
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Most enviable so yet much insane | F |
To deem of minds of men they grow these sheep | G |
By fits wild horses need the crook and rein | F |
Hot bulls by fits pure wisdom hold they cheap | G |
My Lawgiver when fiery is the mood | H |
For ones and twos and threes thy words are good | I |
For thine own government are pillars mine | J |
Stand acts to fit the herd which has quick thirst | K |
Rejecting elegiacs though they shine | J |
On polished brass and worthy of the Nine | J |
In showering columns from their fountain burst | K |
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III | A |
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Thus museful rode the Tyrant princely plumed | K |
To his high seat upon the sacred rock | L |
And Solon blank beside his rule resumed | K |
The meditation which that passing mock | L |
Had buffeted awhile to sallowness | M |
He little loved the man his office less | M |
Yet owned him for a flower of his kind | K |
Therefore the heavier curse on Athens he | N |
The people grew not in themselves but blind | K |
Accepted sight from him to him resigned | K |
Their hopes of stature rootless as at sea | N |
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IV | B |
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As under sea lay Solon's work or seemed | K |
By turbid shore waves beaten day by day | K |
Defaced half formless like an image dreamed | K |
Or child that fashioned in another clay | K |
Appears by strangers' hands to home returned | K |
But shall the Present tyrannize us earned | K |
It was in some way justly says the sage | O |
One sees not how while husbanding regrets | M |
While tossing scorn abroad from righteous rage | O |
High vision is obscured for this is age | O |
When robbed more infant than the babe it frets | M |
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V | B |
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Yet see Athenians treading the black path | P |
Laid by a prince's shadow well content | K |
To wait his pleasure shivering at his wrath | P |
They bow to their accepted Orient | K |
With offer of the all that renders bright | K |
Forgetful of the growth of men to light | K |
As creatures reared on Persian milk they bow | Q |
Unripe unripe The times are overcast | K |
But still may they who sowed behind the plough | Q |
True seed fix in the mind an unborn NOW | Q |
To make the plagues afflicting us things past | K |
George Meredith
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