The Paphian Venus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCC DADAEE FGFGAA HI HIAA AFAFJK LALAM FNFNOO LPLPAA FQFQRR STSTUU VAVAW XYXYAA| With anxious eyes and dry expectant lips | A |
| Within the sculptured stoa by the sea | B |
| All day she waited while like ghostly ships | A |
| Long clouds rolled over Paphos the wild bee | B |
| Hung in the sultry poppy half asleep | C |
| Beside the shepherd and his drowsy sheep | C |
| - | |
| White robed she waited day by day alone | D |
| With the white temple's shrined concupiscence | A |
| The Paphian goddess on her obscene throne | D |
| Binding all chastity to violence | A |
| All innocence to lust that feels no shame | E |
| Venus Mylitta born of filth and flame | E |
| - | |
| So must they haunt her marble portico | F |
| The devotees of Paphos passion pale | G |
| As moonlight streaming through the stormy snow | F |
| Dark eyes desirous of the stranger sail | G |
| The gods shall bring across the Cyprian Sea | A |
| With him elected to their mastery | A |
| - | |
| A priestess of the temple came when eve | H |
| Blazed like a satrap's triumph in the west | I |
| - | |
| And watched her listening to the ocean's heave | H |
| Dusk's golden glory on her face and breast | I |
| And in her hair the rosy wind's caress | A |
| Pitying her dedicated tenderness | A |
| - | |
| When out of darkness night persuades the stars | A |
| A dream shall bend above her saying 'Soon | F |
| A barque shall come with purple sails and spars | A |
| Sailing from Tarsus 'neath a low white moon | F |
| And thou shalt see one in a robe of Tyre | J |
| Facing toward thee like the god Desire | K |
| - | |
| 'Rise then as clad in starlight riseth Night | L |
| Thy nakedness clad on with loveliness | A |
| So shalt thou see him like the god Delight | L |
| Breast through the foam and climb the cliff to press | A |
| Hot lips to thine and lead thee in before | M |
| Love's awful presence where ye shall adore ' | - |
| - | |
| Thus at her heart the vision entered in | F |
| With lips of lust the lips of song had kissed | N |
| And eyes of passion laughing with sweet sin | F |
| A shimmering splendor robed in amethyst | N |
| Seen like that star set in the glittering gloam | O |
| Venus Mylitta born of fire and foam | O |
| - | |
| So shall she dream until near middle night | L |
| When on the blackness of the ocean's rim | P |
| The moon like some war galleon all alight | L |
| With blazing battle from the sea shall swim | P |
| A shadow with inviolate lips and eyes | A |
| Shall rise before her speaking in this wise | A |
| - | |
| 'So hast thou heard the promises of one | F |
| Of her with whom the God of gods is wroth | Q |
| For whom was prophesied at Babylon | F |
| The second death Chaldaean Mylidoth | Q |
| Whose feet take hold on darkness and despair | R |
| Hissing destruction in her heart and hair | R |
| - | |
| 'Wouldst thou behold the vessel she would bring | S |
| A wreck ten hundred years have smeared with slime | T |
| A hulk where all abominations cling | S |
| The spawn and vermin of the seas of time | T |
| Wild waves have rotted it fierce suns have scorched | U |
| Mad winds have tossed and stormy stars have torched | U |
| - | |
| 'Can lust give birth to love The vile and foul | V |
| Be mother to beauty Lo can this thing be | A |
| A monster like a man shall rise and howl | V |
| Upon the wreck across the crawling sea | A |
| Then plunge and swim unto thee like an ape | W |
| A beast all belly Thou canst not escape ' | - |
| - | |
| Gone was the shadow with the suffering brow | X |
| And in the temple's porch she lay and wept | Y |
| Alone with night the ocean and her vow | X |
| Then up the east the moon's full splendor swept | Y |
| And dark between it wreck or argosy | A |
| A sudden vessel far away at sea | A |
Madison Julius Cawein
(1)
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