The Old Ships Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACDECFGEECHE HIJJIKIIKLLMM NINI| I have seen old ships sail like swans asleep | A |
| Beyond the village which men still call Tyre | B |
| With leaden age o'ercargoed dipping deep | A |
| For Famagusta and the hidden sun | C |
| That rings black Cyprus with a lake of fire | D |
| And all those ships were certainly so old | E |
| Who knows how oft with squat and noisy gun | C |
| Questing brown slaves or Syrian oranges | F |
| The pirate Genoese | G |
| Hell raked them till they rolled | E |
| Blood water fruit and corpses up the hold | E |
| But now through friendly seas they softly run | C |
| Painted the mid sea blue or shore sea green | H |
| Still patterned with the vine and grapes in gold | E |
| - | |
| But I have seen | H |
| Pointing her shapely shadows from the dawn | I |
| And image tumbled on a rose swept bay | J |
| A drowsy ship of some yet older day | J |
| And wonder's breath indrawn | I |
| Thought I who knows who knows but in that same | K |
| Fished up beyond a patched up new | I |
| Stern painted brighter blue | I |
| That talkative bald headed seaman came | K |
| Twelve patient comrades sweating at the oar | L |
| From Troy's doom crimson shore | L |
| And with great lies about his wooden horse | M |
| Set the crew laughing and forgot his course | M |
| - | |
| It was so old a ship who knows who knows | N |
| And yet so beautiful I watched in vain | I |
| To see the mast burst open with a rose | N |
| And the whole deck put on its leaves again | I |
James Elroy Flecker
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