The Body Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEFE GHIH JKFK LMNM OPQP RSTS TUVU CVWV XYWY| When I had dreamed and dreamed what woman's beauty was | A |
| And how that beauty seen from unseen surely flowed | B |
| I turned and dreamed again but sleeping now no more | C |
| My eyes shut and my mind with inward vision glowed | B |
| - | |
| I did not think I cried seeing that wavering shape | D |
| That steadied and then wavered as a cherry bough in June | E |
| Lifts and falls in the wind each fruit a fruit of light | F |
| And then she stood as clear as an unclouded moon | E |
| - | |
| As clear and still she stood moonlike remotely near | G |
| I saw and heard her breathe I years and years away | H |
| Her light streamed through the years I saw her clear and still | I |
| Shape and spirit together mingling night with day | H |
| - | |
| Water falling falling with the curve of time | J |
| Over green hued rock then plunging to its pool | K |
| Far far below a falling spear of light | F |
| Water falling golden from the sun but moonlike cool | K |
| - | |
| Water has the curve of her shoulder and breast | L |
| Water falls as straight as her body rose | M |
| Water her brightness has from neck to still feet | N |
| Water crystal cold as her cold body flows | M |
| - | |
| But not water has the colour I saw when I dreamed | O |
| Nor water such strength has I joyed to behold | P |
| How the blood lit her body with lamps of fire | Q |
| And made the flesh glow that like water gleamed cold | P |
| - | |
| A flame in her arms and in each finger flame | R |
| And flame in her bosom flame above below | S |
| The curve of climbing flame in her waist and her thighs | T |
| From foot to head did flame into red flame flow | S |
| - | |
| I knew how beauty seen from unseen must rise | T |
| How the body's joy for more than body's use was made | U |
| I knew then how the body is the body of the mind | V |
| And how the mind's own fire beneath the cool skin played | U |
| - | |
| O shape that once to have seen is to see evermore | C |
| Falling stream that falls to the deeps of the mind | V |
| Fire that once lit burns while aught burns in the world | W |
| Foot to head a flame moving in the spirit's wind | V |
| - | |
| If these eyes could see what these eyes have not seen | X |
| The inward vision clear how should I look for joy | Y |
| Knowing that beauty's self rose visible in the world | W |
| Over age that darkens and griefs that destroy | Y |
John Freeman
(1)
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