A Letter From Peking Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDCEFGHI JKLMNOPQKJHRSRTCLS CCOUVCCWXYCZA2CB2 C2CA2A2ECD2XCCCX CE2CXF2G2YH2CXF2CXI2 Z J2CUA2K2XL2EM2N2LN2O O2ZCP2Q2CCCX N2CR2QS2WCCCXXA2CS2 XCCXT2CEU2V2XW2 X2Y2EXCXCZ2XXCCXA3CT 2C CCECCCB3CK2C3X D3A3EEXXECXX E3XWXHCEOctober I th | A |
My friend dear friend why should I hear your voice | B |
Over the Babel of voices suddenly | C |
Calling as from the new world to the old | D |
Hush are you weary would you follow me | C |
Would you make dark the house and shut the door | E |
Summon steam pacing trains wave racing ships | F |
To bear you past the high assembled nations | G |
Past the loud cries the plucking hands of the age | H |
Even to the East that drowses on her throne | I |
- | |
Come then it's good to be alive today | J |
For yesterday is dead and dim tomorrow | K |
Flits like a ghost before us threatening | L |
Our peering eyes with mistily flapping wings | M |
Grandly the streets loom upward huge skyscrapers | N |
Catch at the glory of the sunrise wear | O |
The morning like a mantle bare their heads | P |
In praise and prayer And with us on the pavement | Q |
Above us in the air there and below | K |
Under our feet by train and tram and subway | J |
The people bear the burden of the age | H |
Each to his work each to his love his dream | R |
The little secret vision of his soul | S |
Veiled muffled trampled baffled but agleam | R |
Our people eager to work eager to laugh | T |
Eager to love if but to love were easy | C |
Pausing not for the slow and difficult thing | L |
As they push past their neighbors to the goal | S |
- | |
Now to the ship down the long crowded wharves | C |
The tangle of souls and voices threading thinly | C |
Through the slight gangway Do you see her there | O |
Huge black incredible fortress walled in steel | U |
Hiding her heart of fire She has no fear | V |
The fierce waves leap at her the arrogant storms | C |
Tease at her flying heels the boastful winds | C |
Front her in vain Superb invincible | W |
From world to world over the ravenous ocean | X |
Grandly she bears the fruitage of the time | Y |
Rich fields of corn mill yields of goods long train loads | C |
Of strong machines man's hope and love and power | Z |
Sealed in a million letters and at last | A2 |
Even us the little human mustard seeds | C |
Dark earth specks with the kingdom of heaven within | B2 |
- | |
Gaily we tread the deck softly we sleep | C2 |
Lightly we chatter away the idle days | C |
While strong hands from dark hold to sunny mast | A2 |
Do our enormous tasks And now at last | A2 |
The world again low chalky cliffs the shore | E |
Parked England silvery green her viny casements | C |
And dewy lawns her iron towns of toil | D2 |
Smoke bound unfree And London stony London | X |
Gray storehouse of the heaped up centuries | C |
Of hidden sins and valors locked in joys | C |
London the empire hearted grave with cares | C |
Under her tawny sky that dulls the sun | X |
- | |
We linger not swiftly the new age runs | C |
And he must haste who takes her by the hand | E2 |
Over the Channel Come the little houses | C |
And patchwork fields of France Paris fullblown | X |
The red red rose of the world whose golden heart | F2 |
Lies bare to the greedy sun whose petals droop | G2 |
Ever so softly to the falling time | Y |
Most lovely at the signal hour of change | H2 |
Germany then the little patterned cities | C |
Of the old time swept garnished for the new | X |
The ancient halls hung with the ancient art | F2 |
And musical with high stringed orchestras | C |
Playing melodious prophecies gay Berlin | X |
Garish unmellowed pale but full of hope | I2 |
And proud desire | Z |
- | |
Ah whither do they march | J2 |
These nations with the sweat upon their brows | C |
Huge burden bearers panoplied in steel | U |
Facing bleak mists of doubt Will they cast | A2 |
down Their heavy fears and bathe their brows in light | K2 |
And freely run across the fields of dawn | X |
Children of joy blood brothers born in love | L2 |
Valiant for peace as once for murderous war | E |
Nearer they draw trimly the sharp rails cut | M2 |
Their boundaries twin scissor blades of fate | N2 |
Swift steamers tie their ports together bring | L |
Tourist ambassadors from state to state | N2 |
Bold man birds fly through the unsentineled air | O |
And cobweb wires invisible more strong | O2 |
Than chains of steel are spun from tower to tower | Z |
Bridging the oceans linking capitals | C |
Binding men's hearts O kings of the peopled earth | P2 |
O men rulers of kings dare you resist | Q2 |
Warriors of science who are blazing trails | C |
Your statesmenship must travel to new goals | C |
Laggards beware lest the advancing myriads | C |
Bound for the promised land trample you down | X |
- | |
Dark Russia standing at the Asian gate | N2 |
Questions us with her eastward peering eyes | C |
Proud Moscow from her hundred towers looks out | R2 |
Moscow bejeweled with domes magnificent | Q |
Out of her past barbaric gazes far | S2 |
Into the future swings her Kremlin portal | W |
To show the sad Siberian wilderness | C |
And bids us follow through the autumnal days | C |
Softly we slip along the garnered fields | C |
Past clustered villages low thatched and brown | X |
Each with a gay church gilded shimmer down | X |
The shining Urals and salute at last | A2 |
Great Asia where in solitude she waits | C |
Under the northern star | S2 |
- | |
Her forest then | X |
Level and low dark little pines thin birches | C |
Their leaves all golden on the silver stems | C |
And square faced peasants crowding to the train | X |
Slow sleepy eyed thick bearded Onward still | T2 |
Through the stark plains Baikal blue in its mountains | C |
The home of wheeling birds that dive and soar | E |
And by and by a dragon guarded roof | U2 |
With gay beasts perched along its tips that lift | V2 |
Like the slim corner of a pale new moon | X |
Poised in the sky at sunset | W2 |
- | |
We have come | X2 |
To the first gate of the world The still Pacific | Y2 |
Glitters between the hills Dark crowds astare | E |
Greet us with chatter and laughter beardless men | X |
With shaven brows and long thin tasseled braids | C |
Clad in dim blue under the darkening sun | X |
The obliterating night curtains our eyes | C |
And when at last the red dawn draws the veil | Z2 |
A heavy wall looms over us gray and stern | X |
With towered gates fortress guarded And our engine | X |
Steaming and shrieking past the caravans | C |
The shaggy ponies little loaded asses | C |
The slow process camels pacing down | X |
Scatters the dust of time pierces the wall | A3 |
And pauses under the shadow of yellow roofs | C |
Where the Forbidden City wide and still | T2 |
Lies dreaming in her sunrise slanted woods | C |
- | |
Peking She faces us with marble eyes | C |
Inscrutable She hearkens to our noise | C |
And guards her secret Shall we win her over | E |
We with our guns our dark machines our mansions | C |
High piled over her lowly curving roofs | C |
We with our loud commands Will she arise | C |
Weary of silence wave her yellow flag | B3 |
Summon her myriads for the modern race | C |
The huge new tasks the war for love and light | K2 |
Hush If we wait and listen will she speak | C3 |
Wise woman or child veiled queen of the dragon throne | X |
- | |
Softly No steamer elbowing storms aside | D3 |
No engine nosing through the ancient wall | A3 |
No hurrying foot no soul worn or at war | E |
Shall penetrate the Circle and the Square | E |
Set with sweet woods the green wall and the blue | X |
And touch the three rings of the Temple of Heaven | X |
The terraced marble seat cloud carved and fair | E |
Where at the Centre of the Earth in peace | C |
The tranquil East contemplative serene | X |
Dwells with the sun and moon | X |
- | |
Hush bare your head | E3 |
And strip your spirit free When you have won | X |
The ultimate Wisdom seek the wing d portal | W |
Once more Then she the sage may rise to you | X |
Hold converse with you pilgrim of the age | H |
And take you to her heart and bless your gifts | C |
And be as one with you forevermore | E |
Harriet Monroe
(1)
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