Before A Statue Of Achilles Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCCBBCCBDEEDDE A FGHFFHHFIBIJBJ A KLLKKMLKANNOAOI | A |
- | |
Behoild Pelides with his yellow hair | B |
Proud child of Thetis hero loved of Jove | C |
Above the frowning of his brows of wove | C |
A crown of gold well combed with Spartan care | B |
Who might have seen him sullen great and fair | B |
As with the wrongful world he proudly strove | C |
And by high deeds his wilder passion shrove | C |
Mastering love resentment and despair | B |
He knew his end and Phoebus' arrow sure | D |
He braved for fame immortal and a friend | E |
Despising life and we who know our end | E |
Know that in our decay he shall endure | D |
And all our children's hearts to grief inure | D |
With whose first bitter battles his shall blend | E |
- | |
II | A |
- | |
Who brought thee forth immortal vision who | F |
In Phthia or in Tempe brought thee forth | G |
Out of the sunlight and the sapful earth | H |
What god the simples of thy spirit drew | F |
A goddess rose from the green waves and threw | F |
Her arms about a king to give thee birth | H |
A centaur patron of thy boyish mirth | H |
Over the meadows in thy footsteps flew | F |
Now Thessaly forgets thee and the deep | I |
Thy keeled bark furrowed answers not thy prayer | B |
But far away new generations keep | I |
Thy laurels fresh where branching Isis hems | J |
The lawns of Oxford round about or where | B |
Enchanted Eton sits by pleasant Thames | J |
- | |
III | A |
- | |
I gaze on thee as Phidias of old | K |
Or Polyclitus gazed when first he saw | L |
These hard and shining limbs without a flaw | L |
And cast his wonder in heroic mould | K |
Unhappy me who only may behold | K |
Nor make immutable and fix in awe | M |
A fair immortal form no worm shall gnaw | L |
A tempered mind whose faith was never told | K |
The godlike mien the lion's lock and eye | A |
The well knit sinew utter a brave heart | N |
Better than many words that part by part | N |
Spell in strange symbols what serene and whole | O |
In nature lives nor can in marble die | A |
The perfect body itself the soul | O |
George Santayana
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Before A Statue Of Achilles poem by George Santayana
Best Poems of George Santayana