The White Witch Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBAB DCECFC GAHAIA FCJCKC LMNMOM PALAQA RSMSTS UVWVCV CXYXZX ABABABO brothers mine take care Take care | A |
The great white witch rides out to night | B |
Trust not your prowess nor your strength | C |
Your only safety lies in flight | B |
For in her glance there is a snare | A |
And in her smile there is a blight | B |
- | |
The great white witch you have not seen | D |
Then younger brothers mine forsooth | C |
Like nursery children you have looked | E |
For ancient hag and snaggled tooth | C |
But no not so the witch appears | F |
In all the glowing charms of youth | C |
- | |
Her lips are like carnations red | G |
Her face like new born lilies fair | A |
Her eyes like ocean waters blue | H |
She moves with subtle grace and air | A |
And all about her head there floats | I |
The golden glory of her hair | A |
- | |
But though she always thus appears | F |
In form of youth and mood of mirth | C |
Unnumbered centuries are hers | J |
The infant planets saw her birth | C |
The child of throbbing Life is she | K |
Twin sister to the greedy earth | C |
- | |
And back behind those smiling lips | L |
And down within those laughing eyes | M |
And underneath the soft caress | N |
Of hand and voice and purring sighs | M |
The shadow of the panther lurks | O |
The spirit of the vampire lies | M |
- | |
For I have seen the great white witch | P |
And she has led me to her lair | A |
And I have kissed her red red lips | L |
And cruel face so white and fair | A |
Around me she has twined her arms | Q |
And bound me with her yellow hair | A |
- | |
I felt those red lips burn and sear | R |
My body like a living coal | S |
Obeyed the power of those eyes | M |
As the needle trembles to the pole | S |
And did not care although I felt | T |
The strength go ebbing from my soul | S |
- | |
Oh she has seen your strong young limbs | U |
And heard your laughter loud and gay | V |
And in your voices she has caught | W |
The echo of a far off day | V |
When man was closer to the earth | C |
And she has marked you for her prey | V |
- | |
She feels the old Antaean strength | C |
In you the great dynamic beat | X |
Of primal passions and she sees | Y |
In you the last besieged retreat | X |
Of love relentless lusty fierce | Z |
Love pain ecstatic cruel sweet | X |
- | |
O brothers mine take care Take care | A |
The great white witch rides out to night | B |
O younger brothers mine beware | A |
Look not upon her beauty bright | B |
For in her glance there is a snare | A |
And in her smile there is a blight | B |
James Weldon Johnson
(2)
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