The Atlas Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABBABAAAACAAADAEABFA GHIDIBJGJDDKDLMNMOPD PBQEQHDAD AARSAAADEAAATAATABAA AUAAAVVSALLWVBXLAVVD VSV VLLAABBAAAABBDDAALLB BAAVV AAABBDBAAYAAAAAVVAAA AWAZAZAABBDVBLLVVAAB DD VA2B2A2B2DDDDALALZC2 D2C2ADADE2VF2V

I The King of CuckoozA
THE King of Cuckooz ContreyB
Hangs peaked above ArgierB
With Janzaries and MarabuttsA
To bid a sailor fearB
With lantern eyed astrologersA
Who walk upon the wallsA
And ram with stars their basilisksA
Instead of cannon ballsA
And in that floating castleC
I tell you it is soA
Five thousand naked ConcubinesA
With dulcimers do goA
Each rosy nose anoints a tileD
Bang bang the fort salutesA
When He the King of Cuckooz LandE
Comes forth in satin bootsA
Each rosy darling flies beforeB
When he desires his tentF
Or like a tempest driving flowersA
Inspects a battlementG
And this I spied by moonlightH
Behind a royal bambooI
That Monarch in a curricleD
Which ninety virgins drewI
That Monarch drinking nectarB
Lord God my tale attestJ
Milked from a snow white elephantG
As white as your white breastJ
And this is no vain fableD
As other knaves may lieD
Have I not got that Fowl aboardK
Which no man may denyD
The King's own hunting falconL
I limed across the sideM
When by the Bayes of AfricaN
King James's Fleet did rideM
What crest is there emblazonedO
Whose mark is this I begP
Stamped on the silver manacleD
Around that dainty legP
Let this be news to you my dearB
How Man should be reveredQ
Though I'm no King of Cuckooz LandE
Behold as fierce a beardQ
I have as huge an appetiteH
As deep a kiss my girlD
And somewhere for the hand that seeksA
Perhaps a Sultan's pearlD
-
Post RoadsA
POST ROADS that clapped with tympan heelsA
Of tilburies and whiskys rapidly spankingR
Where's now the tireless ghost of OgilbyS
Post roadsA
That buoyed the rich and plunging springsA
Of coaches vaster than EscurialsA
Where now does Ogilby propel that WheelD
What milestones does he pause to reprimandE
In what unmapped savanna of dumb shadesA
Ye know not ye are silent brutish ductsA
Numbed by the bastinadoes of iron bootsA
Three hundred years asnore Do you forgetT
The phaetons and fiacres flys and breaksA
The world of dead men staring out of glassA
That drummed upon your bones Do you forgetT
Those nostrils oozing smoke those floating tailsA
Those criniers whipped with airB
And kidnapped lightsA
Floats of rubbed yellow towed from window panesA
Rushing their lozenges through headlong stonesA
And smells of hackneys mohair sour with dampU
Leather and slopped madeira partridge piesA
Long buried under floors and yawning FaresA
With bumping flap dark spatulas of cardsA
'Knave takes the ten oh God I wish that itV
I wish that it was Guildford'V
OgilbyS
Did not forget could not escape such ecstaciesA
Even in the monasteries of mensurationL
Could not forget the roads that he had goneL
In fog and shining air Each line was joyW
Each computation a beatitudeV
A diagram of Ogilby's eye and earB
With soundings for the nose Wherefore I thinkX
Wherefore I think some English gentlemanL
Some learned doctor of the steak housesA
Ending late dinner having strolled outsideV
To quell the frivolous hawthorn may beholdV
There in the moonshine rolling up an hillD
Steered by no fleshly hand with spokes of lightV
The Wheel John Ogilby's Wheel the WHEEL hiss byS
Measuring mileposts of eternityV
-
Dutch SeacoastV
No wind of Life may strike withinL
This little country's crystal binL
Nor calendar compute the daysA
Tubed in their capsule of soft glazeA
Naked and rinsed the bubble clearB
Canals of Amsterdam appearB
The blue tiled turrets china clocksA
And glittering beaks of weathercocksA
A gulf of sweet and winking hoopsA
Whereon there ride poopsA
With flying mouths and fleeting hairB
Of saints hung up like candles thereB
Fox coloured mansions lean and tallD
That burst in air but never fallD
Whose bolted shadows row by rowA
Float changeless on the stones belowA
Sky full of ships bay full of townL
A port of waters jellied brownL
Such is the world no tide may stirB
Sealed by the great cartographerB
O could he but clap up like thisA
My decomposed metropolisA
Those other countries of the mindV
So tousled dark and undefinedV
-
MermaidsA
ONCE Mermaids mocked your shipsA
With wet and scarlet lipsA
And fish dark difficult hips ConquistadorB
Then Ondines danced with Sirens on the shoreB
Then from his cloudy stall you heard the Kraken callD
And mad with twisting flame the Firedrake roarB
Such old established LadiesA
No mariner eyed askanceA
But coming on deck would swivel his neckY
To watch the darlings danceA
Or in the gulping dark of nightsA
Would cast his tranquil eyesA
On singular kinds of HermaphroditesA
Without the least surpriseA
Then portulano maps were scrolledV
With compass roses green and goldV
That fired the stiff old Needle with their dyesA
And wagged their petals over parchment skiesA
Then seas were full of Dolphins' finsA
Full of swept bones and flying JinnsA
Beaches were filled with AnthropophagiW
And Antient Africa with PalanquinsA
Then sailors with a flaked and rice pale fleshZ
Staring from maps in sweet and poisoned placesA
Diced the old Skeleton afreshZ
In brigs no bigger than their moon bunched facesA
Those well known and respected HarpiesA
Dance no more on the shore to and froB
All that has ended long agoB
Nor do they sing outside the captain's portholeD
A proceeding fiercely reprehendedV
By the governors of the P OB
Nor do they tumble in the sponges of the moonL
For the benefit of tourists in the First SaloonL
Nor fork their foaming lily fins below the sideV
On the ranges of the ale clear tideV
And scientists now with binocular eyesA
Remark in a tone of complacent surpriseA
'Those pisciform mammals pure Spectres I fearB
Must be Doctor Gerbrandus's Mermaids my dear '-
But before they can cause the philosopher troubleD
They are GONE like the cracking of a bubbleD
-
The SeafightV
HERE in a gulf of golden leafA2
You'll find a seafight ringed with flameB2
Cannons that cry Tirduf TirdufA2
Daggers that collop guns that maimB2
Jaws beaked with blood men flung to hellD
Men blasting trumpets men that fleeD
Men crimped by death and under allD
Old patient baleful spying SeaD
Old Sea that in a dicebox rollsA
Their trundling skulls their jacks of boneL
That sucks them out of broken hullsA
When other mumbling mouths have goneL
Old hungry Sea that holds our fleshZ
In the huge forceps of the stormC2
And they are given to the fishD2
And we plucked forth and we made warmC2
But ye that kill why heed the faceA
Of Ocean Not alone you slayD
Since deeper seas are dammed in spaceA
And fiercer storms can scream in clayD
Existence has as bitter teethE2
But we can always find a minuteV
For the festivities of deathF2
Who sail upon this dangerous planetV

Kenneth Slessor



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