Kéramos Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCCCB DEDFFEEFGGHHIEIEBCCB JKKJ LLBMMNB OOPQRPSTSUTUEEVVVVVV VWWXXYY ZFZFA2A2B2C2B2VVC2D2 VVVVVVVV E2E2BF2F2F2B G2G2G2G2VG2VV D2C2GGVG2G2VVG2G2VVG 2G2G2G2 G2G2B2B2VVVVV H2H2G2G2G2G2G2 UUMMI2G2G2I2G2G2J2G2 J2VVVV VVVG2VG2K2VK2VG2G2H2 L2L2VB2B2G2VG2G2VVVV ZZM2N2G2N2M2VG2VVM2L 2L2G2G2L2 ZZO2H2H2O2P2WWP2G2G2 Q2R2R2Q2G2 S2S2T2VT2T2VVG2Turn turn my wheel Turn round and round | A |
Without a pause without a sound | A |
So spins the flying world away | B |
This clay well mixed with marl and sand | C |
Follows the motion of my hand | C |
Far some must follow and some command | C |
Though all are made of clay | B |
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Thus sang the Potter at his task | D |
Beneath the blossoming hawthorn tree | E |
While o'er his features like a mask | D |
The quilted sunshine and leaf shade | F |
Moved as the boughs above him swayed | F |
And clothed him till he seemed to be | E |
A figure woven in tapestry | E |
So sumptuously was he arrayed | F |
In that magnificent attire | G |
Of sable tissue flaked with fire | G |
Like a magician he appeared | H |
A conjurer without book or beard | H |
And while he plied his magic art | I |
For it was magical to me | E |
I stood in silence and apart | I |
And wondered more and more to see | E |
That shapeless lifeless mass of clay | B |
Rise up to meet the master's hand | C |
And now contract and now expand | C |
And even his slightest touch obey | B |
While ever in a thoughtful mood | J |
He sang his ditty and at times | K |
Whistled a tune between the rhymes | K |
As a melodious interlude | J |
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Turn turn my wheel All things must change | L |
To something new to something strange | L |
Nothing that is can pause or stay | B |
The moon will wax the moon will wane | M |
The mist and cloud will turn to rain | M |
The rain to mist and cloud again | N |
To morrow be to day | B |
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Thus still the Potter sang and still | O |
By some unconscious act of will | O |
The melody and even the words | P |
Were intermingled with my thought | Q |
As bits of colored thread are caught | R |
And woven into nests of birds | P |
And thus to regions far remote | S |
Beyond the ocean's vast expanse | T |
This wizard in the motley coat | S |
Transported me on wings of song | U |
And by the northern shores of France | T |
Bore me with restless speed along | U |
What land is this that seems to be | E |
A mingling of the land and sea | E |
This land of sluices dikes and dunes | V |
This water net that tessellates | V |
The landscape this unending maze | V |
Of gardens through whose latticed gates | V |
The imprisoned pinks and tulips gaze | V |
Where in long summer afternoons | V |
The sunshine softened by the haze | V |
Comes streaming down as through a screen | W |
Where over fields and pastures green | W |
The painted ships float high in air | X |
And over all and everywhere | X |
The sails of windmills sink and soar | Y |
Like wings of sea gulls on the shore | Y |
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What land is this Yon pretty town | Z |
Is Delft with all its wares displayed | F |
The pride the market place the crown | Z |
And centre of the Potter's trade | F |
See every house and room is bright | A2 |
With glimmers of reflected light | A2 |
From plates that on the dresser shine | B2 |
Flagons to foam with Flemish beer | C2 |
Or sparkle with the Rhenish wine | B2 |
And pilgrim flasks with fleurs de lis | V |
And ships upon a rolling sea | V |
And tankards pewter topped and queer | C2 |
With comic mask and musketeer | D2 |
Each hospitable chimney smiles | V |
A welcome from its painted tiles | V |
The parlor walls the chamber floors | V |
The stairways and the corridors | V |
The borders of the garden walks | V |
Are beautiful with fadeless flowers | V |
That never droop in winds or showers | V |
And never wither on their stalks | V |
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Turn turn my wheel All life is brief | E2 |
What now is bud wilt soon be leaf | E2 |
What now is leaf will soon decay | B |
The wind blows east the wind blows west | F2 |
The blue eyes in the robin's nest | F2 |
Will soon have wings and beak and breast | F2 |
And flutter and fly away | B |
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Now southward through the air I glide | G2 |
The song my only pursuivant | G2 |
And see across the landscape wide | G2 |
The blue Charente upon whose tide | G2 |
The belfries and the spires of Saintes | V |
Ripple and rock from side to side | G2 |
As when an earthquake rends its walls | V |
A crumbling city reels and falls | V |
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Who is it in the suburbs here | D2 |
This Potter working with such cheer | C2 |
In this mean house this mean attire | G |
His manly features bronzed with fire | G |
Whose figulines and rustic wares | V |
Scarce find him bread from day to day | G2 |
This madman as the people say | G2 |
Who breaks his tables and his chairs | V |
To feed his furnace fires nor cares | V |
Who goes unfed if they are fed | G2 |
Nor who may live if they are dead | G2 |
This alchemist with hollow cheeks | V |
And sunken searching eyes who seeks | V |
By mingled earths and ores combined | G2 |
With potency of fire to find | G2 |
Some new enamel hard and bright | G2 |
His dream his passion his delight | G2 |
- | |
O Palissy within thy breast | G2 |
Burned the hot fever of unrest | G2 |
Thine was the prophets vision thine | B2 |
The exultation the divine | B2 |
Insanity of noble minds | V |
That never falters nor abates | V |
But labors and endures and waits | V |
Till all that it foresees it finds | V |
Or what it cannot find creates | V |
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Turn turn my wheel This earthen jar | H2 |
A touch can make a touch can mar | H2 |
And shall it to the Potter say | G2 |
What makest thou Thou hast no hand | G2 |
As men who think to understand | G2 |
A world by their Creator planned | G2 |
Who wiser is than they | G2 |
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Still guided by the dreamy song | U |
As in a trance I float along | U |
Above the Pyrenean chain | M |
Above the fields and farms of Spain | M |
Above the bright Majorcan isle | I2 |
That lends its softened name to art | G2 |
A spot a dot upon the chart | G2 |
Whose little towns red roofed with tile | I2 |
Are ruby lustred with the light | G2 |
Of blazing furnaces by night | G2 |
And crowned by day with wreaths of smoke | J2 |
Then eastward wafted in my flight | G2 |
On my enchanter's magic cloak | J2 |
I sail across the Tyrrhene Sea | V |
Into the land of Italy | V |
And o'er the windy Apennines | V |
Mantled and musical with pines | V |
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The palaces the princely halls | V |
The doors of houses and the walls | V |
Of churches and of belfry towers | V |
Cloister and castle street and mart | G2 |
Are garlanded and gay with flowers | V |
That blossom in the fields of art | G2 |
Here Gubbio's workshops gleam and glow | K2 |
With brilliant iridescent dyes | V |
The dazzling whiteness of the snow | K2 |
The cobalt blue of summer skies | V |
And vase and scutcheon cup and plate | G2 |
In perfect finish emulate | G2 |
Faenza Florence Pesaro | H2 |
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Forth from Urbino's gate there came | L2 |
A youth with the angelic name | L2 |
Of Raphael in form and face | V |
Himself angelic and divine | B2 |
In arts of color and design | B2 |
From him Francesco Xanto caught | G2 |
Something of his transcendent grace | V |
And into fictile fabrics wrought | G2 |
Suggestions of the master's thought | G2 |
Nor less Maestro Giorgio shines | V |
With madre perl and golden lines | V |
Of arabesques and interweaves | V |
His birds and fruits and flowers and leaves | V |
About some landscape shaded brown | Z |
With olive tints on rock and town | Z |
Behold this cup within whose bowl | M2 |
Upon a ground of deepest blue | N2 |
With yellow lustred stars o'erlaid | G2 |
Colors of every tint and hue | N2 |
Mingle in one harmonious whole | M2 |
With large blue eyes and steadfast gaze | V |
Her yellow hair in net and braid | G2 |
Necklace and ear rings all ablaze | V |
With golden lustre o'er the glaze | V |
A woman's portrait on the scroll | M2 |
Cana the Beautiful A name | L2 |
Forgotten save for such brief fame | L2 |
As this memorial can bestow | G2 |
A gift some lover long ago | G2 |
Gave with his heart to this fair dame | L2 |
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A nobler title to renown | Z |
Is thine O pleasant Tuscan town | Z |
Seated beside the Arno's stream | O2 |
For Lucca della Robbia there | H2 |
Created forms so wondrous fair | H2 |
They made thy sovereignty supreme | O2 |
These choristers with lips of stone | P2 |
Whose music is not heard but seen | W |
Still chant as from their organ screen | W |
Their Maker's praise nor these alone | P2 |
But the more fragile forms of clay | G2 |
Hardly less beautiful than they | G2 |
These saints and angels that adorn | Q2 |
The walls of hospitals and tell | R2 |
The story of good deeds so well | R2 |
That poverty seems less forlorn | Q2 |
And life more like a holiday | G2 |
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Here in this old neglected church | S2 |
That long eludes the traveller's search | S2 |
Lies the dead bishop on his tomb | T2 |
Earth upon earth he slumbering lies | V |
Life like and death like in the gloom | T2 |
Garlands of fruit and flowers in bloom | T2 |
And foliage deck his resting place | V |
A shadow in the sightless eyes | V |
A pallor on the pat | G2 |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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