The Turbine Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGHCIGJKLMMNODPQ GR DSTUPVDGFDWDSXY DZSDA2DB2QD C2MCB2DSDD2SE2F2MG2H 2I2J2K2DZ DL2M2N2O2P2Q2MR2S2T2 DDQM TU2V2W2CDSX2Y2Z2DA3Z H2DDPSDDMQDTo W S M | A |
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Look at her there she sits upon her throne | B |
As ladylike and quiet as a nun | C |
But if you cross her whew her thunderbolts | D |
Will shake the earth She's proud as any queen | E |
The beauty knows her royal business too | F |
To light the world and does it night by night | G |
When her gay lord the sun gives up his job | H |
I am her slave I wake and watch and run | C |
From dark till dawn beside her All the while | I |
She hums there softly purring with delight | G |
Because men bring the riches of the earth | J |
To feed her hungry fires I do her will | K |
And dare not disobey for her right hand | L |
Is power her left is terror and her anger | M |
Is havoc Look if I but lay a wire | M |
Across the terminals of yonder switch | N |
She'll burst her windings rip her casings off | O |
And shriek till envious Hell shoots up its flames | D |
Shattering her very throne And all her people | P |
The laboring trampling dreaming crowds out there | Q |
Fools and the wise who look to her for light | G |
Will walk in darkness through the liquid night Submerged | R |
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Sometimes I wonder why she stoops | D |
To be my friend oh yes who talks to me | S |
And sings away my loneliness my friend | T |
Though I am trivial and she sublime | U |
Hard hearted No tender and pitiful | P |
As all the great are Every arrogant grief | V |
She comforts quietly and all my joys | D |
Dance to her measures through the tolerant night | G |
She talks to me tells me her troubles too | F |
Just as I tell her mine Perhaps she feels | D |
An ache deep down that agonizing stab | W |
Of grit grating her bearings then her voice | D |
Changes its tune it wails and calls to me | S |
To soothe her anguish and I run her slave | X |
Probe like a surgeon and relieve the pain | Y |
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We have our jokes too little mockeries | D |
That no one else in all the swarming world | Z |
Would see the point of She will laugh at me | S |
To show her power maybe her carbon packings | D |
Leak steam and I run madly back and forth | A2 |
To keep the infernal fiends from breaking loose | D |
Suddenly she will throttle them herself | B2 |
And chuckle softly far above me there | Q |
At my alarms | D |
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But there are moments hush | C2 |
When my turn comes her slave can be her master | M |
Conquering her he serves For she's a woman | C |
Gets bored there on her throne tired of herself | B2 |
Tingles with power that turns to wantonness | D |
Suddenly something's wrong she laughs at me | S |
Bedevils the frail wires with some mad caress | D |
That thrills blind space calls down ten thousand | D2 |
To ruin her pomp and set her spirit free | S |
Then with this puny hand swift as her threat | E2 |
Must I beat back the chaos hold in leash | F2 |
Destructive furies rescue her even her | M |
From the fierce rashness of her truant mood | G2 |
And make me lord of far and near a moment | H2 |
Startling the mystery Last night I did it | I2 |
Alone here with my hand upon her heart | J2 |
I faced the mounting fiends and whipped them down | K2 |
And never a wink from the long file of lamps | D |
Betrayed her to the world | Z |
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So there she sits | D |
Mounted on all the ages at the peak | L2 |
Of time The first man dreamed of light and dug | M2 |
The sodden ignorance away and cursed | N2 |
The darkness young primeval races dragged | O2 |
Foundation stones and piled into the void | P2 |
Rage and desire the Greek mounted and sang | Q2 |
Promethean songs and lit a signal fire | M |
The Roman bent his iron will to forge | R2 |
Deep furnaces slow epochs riveted | S2 |
With hope the secret chambers till at last | T2 |
We you and I this living age of ours | D |
A new winged Mercury out of the skies | D |
Filch the wild spirit of light and chain him there | Q |
To do her will forever | M |
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Look my friend | T |
Behold a sign What is this crystal sphere | U2 |
This little bulb of glass I lightly lift | V2 |
This iridescent bubble a child might blow | W2 |
Out of its brazen pipe to hold the sun | C |
What strange toy is it In my hand it lies | D |
Cold and inert its puny artery | S |
That curling cobweb film ashen and dead | X2 |
But see a twist or two let it but touch | Y2 |
The hem far trailing of my lady's robe | Z2 |
And lo the burning life blood of the stars | D |
Leaps to its heart that glows against the dark | A3 |
Kindling the world | Z |
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Even so I touch her garment | H2 |
Her servant through the quiet night and thus | D |
And feel their throb of fire Grandly she gives | D |
To me unworthy woman inscrutable | P |
Scatters her splendors through my darkness leads me | S |
Far out into the workshop of the worlds | D |
There I can feel those infinite energies | D |
Our little earth just gnaws at through the ether | M |
And see the light our sunshine hides Out there | Q |
Close to the heart of life I am at peace | D |
Harriet Monroe
(1)
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