The Alphabet Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCABCDEFDEF GHIGHIJKLJKHL| The letters of the Jews as strict as flames | A |
| Or little terrible flowers lean | B |
| Stubbornly upwards through the perfect ages | C |
| Singing through solid stone the sacred names | A |
| The letters of the Jews are black and clean | B |
| And lie in chain line over Christian pages | C |
| The chosen letters bristle like barbed wire | D |
| That hedge the flesh of man | E |
| Twisting and tightening the book that warns | F |
| These words this burning bush this flickering pyre | D |
| Unsacrifices the bled son of man | E |
| Yet plaits his crown of thorns | F |
| - | |
| - | |
| Where go the tipsy idols of the Roman | G |
| Past synagogues of patient time | H |
| Where go the sisters of the Gothic rose | I |
| Where go the blue eyes of the Polish women | G |
| Past the almost natural crime | H |
| Past the still speaking embers of ghettos | I |
| There rise the tinder flowers of the Jews | J |
| The letters of the Jews are dancing knives | K |
| That carve the heart of darkness seven ways | L |
| These are the letters that all men refuse | J |
| And will refuse until the king arrives | K |
| And will refuse until the death of time | H |
| And all is rolled back in the book of days | L |
Karl Shapiro
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Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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