Eurydice Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEF GHBIJ GFHK LHHMNF A OHPH BPHH BPHDH HHHHHH QDQRSHHQTP A DPDDP PBBBP UHHDHP HVVDDWD DD HPXHHH W HHDDDPPH PHH HHH HHHQH DDHHPHH HYD BQHHQP HNHZBHH PPHP HHBHP PHH| I | A |
| - | |
| So you have swept me back | B |
| I who could have walked with the live souls | C |
| above the earth | D |
| I who could have slept among the live flowers | E |
| at last | F |
| - | |
| so for your arrogance | G |
| and your ruthlessness | H |
| I am swept back | B |
| where dead lichens drip | I |
| dead cinders upon moss of ash | J |
| - | |
| so for your arrogance | G |
| I am broken at last | F |
| I who had lived unconscious | H |
| who was almost forgot | K |
| - | |
| if you had let me wait | L |
| I had grown from listlessness | H |
| into peace | H |
| if you had let me rest with the dead | M |
| I had forgot you | N |
| and the past | F |
| - | |
| II | A |
| - | |
| Here only flame upon flame | O |
| and black among the red sparks | H |
| streaks of black and light | P |
| grown colourless | H |
| - | |
| why did you turn back | B |
| that hell should be reinhabited | P |
| of myself thus | H |
| swept into nothingness | H |
| - | |
| why did you glance back | B |
| why did you hesitate for that moment | P |
| why did you bend your face | H |
| caught with the flame of the upper earth | D |
| above my face | H |
| - | |
| what was it that crossed my face | H |
| with the light from yours | H |
| and your glance | H |
| what was it you saw in my face | H |
| the light of your own face | H |
| the fire of your own presence | H |
| - | |
| What had my face to offer | Q |
| but reflex of the earth | D |
| hyacinth colour | Q |
| caught from the raw fissure in the rock | R |
| where the light struck | S |
| and the colour of azure crocuses | H |
| and the bright surface of gold crocuses | H |
| and of the wind flower | Q |
| swift in its veins as lightning | T |
| and as white | P |
| - | |
| III | A |
| - | |
| Saffron from the fringe of the earth | D |
| wild saffron that has bent | P |
| over the sharp edge of earth | D |
| all the flowers that cut through the earth | D |
| all all the flowers are lost | P |
| - | |
| everything is lost | P |
| everything is crossed with black | B |
| black upon black | B |
| and worse than black | B |
| this colourless light | P |
| - | |
| IV | - |
| - | |
| Fringe upon fringe | U |
| of blue crocuses | H |
| crocuses walled against blue of themselves | H |
| blue of that upper earth | D |
| blue of the depth upon depth of flowers | H |
| lost | P |
| - | |
| flowers | H |
| if I could have taken once my breath of them | V |
| enough of them | V |
| more than earth | D |
| even than of the upper earth | D |
| had passed with me | W |
| beneath the earth | D |
| - | |
| if I could have caught up from the earth | D |
| the whole of the flowers of the earth | D |
| if once I could have breathed into myself | - |
| the very golden crocuses | H |
| and the red | P |
| and the very golden hearts of the first saffron | X |
| the whole of the golden mass | H |
| the whole of the great fragrance | H |
| I could have dared the loss | H |
| - | |
| V | W |
| - | |
| So for your arrogance | H |
| and your ruthlessness | H |
| I have lost the earth | D |
| and the flowers of the earth | D |
| and the live souls above the earth | D |
| and you who passed across the light | P |
| and reached | P |
| ruthless | H |
| - | |
| you who have your own light | P |
| who are to yourself a presence | H |
| who need no presence | H |
| - | |
| yet for all your arrogance | H |
| and your glance | H |
| I tell you this | H |
| - | |
| such loss is no loss | H |
| such terror such coils and strands and pitfalls | H |
| of blackness | H |
| such terror | Q |
| is no loss | H |
| - | |
| hell is no worse than your earth | D |
| above the earth | D |
| hell is no worse | H |
| no nor your flowers | H |
| nor your veins of light | P |
| nor your presence | H |
| a loss | H |
| - | |
| my hell is no worse than yours | H |
| though you pass among the flowers and speak | Y |
| with the spirits above earth | D |
| - | |
| VI | - |
| - | |
| Against the black | B |
| I have more fervour | Q |
| than you in all the splendour of that place | H |
| against the blackness | H |
| and the stark grey | Q |
| I have more light | P |
| - | |
| and the flowers | H |
| if I should tell you | N |
| you would turn from your own fit paths | H |
| toward hell | Z |
| turn again and glance back | B |
| and I would sink into a place | H |
| even more terrible than this | H |
| - | |
| VII | - |
| - | |
| At least I have the flowers of myself | - |
| and my thoughts no god | P |
| can take that | P |
| I have the fervour of myself for a presence | H |
| and my own spirit for light | P |
| - | |
| and my spirit with its loss | H |
| knows this | H |
| though small against the black | B |
| small against the formless rocks | H |
| hell must break before I am lost | P |
| - | |
| before I am lost | P |
| hell must open like a red rose | H |
| for the dead to pass | H |
Hilda Doolittle
(1)
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About Eurydice
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