The Pangolin Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLFMFNNOGF PFKQFRSFTTUVWXMYFEZA 2DFFKGKBB2C2B2D2B2KK B2B2D2QB2FMFFGFFGE2F E2FF2G2FG2B2QH2QI2FI 2FG2B2QQQMSMG2B2MJ2B 2J2K2KGL2G2G2FQB2FB2 L2K| Another armored animal scale | A |
| lapping scale with spruce cone regularity until they | B |
| form the uninterrupted central | C |
| tail row This near artichoke with head and legs and | D |
| grit equipped gizzard | E |
| the night miniature artist engineer is | F |
| yes Leonardo da Vinci s replica | G |
| impressive animal and toiler of whom we seldom hear | H |
| Armor seems extra But for him | I |
| the closing ear ridge | J |
| or bare ear licking even this small | K |
| eminence and similarly safe | L |
| contracting nose and eye apertures | F |
| impenetrably closable are not a true ant eater | M |
| not cockroach eater who endures | F |
| exhausting solitary trips through unfamiliar ground at night | N |
| returning before sunrise stepping in the moonlight | N |
| on the moonlight peculiarly that the outside | O |
| edges of his hands may bear the weight and save the | G |
| claws | F |
| for digging Serpentined about | P |
| the tree he draws | F |
| away from danger unpugnaciously | K |
| with no sound but a harmless hiss keeping | Q |
| the fragile grace of the Thomas | F |
| of Leighton Buzzard Westminster Abbey wrought iron | R |
| vine or | S |
| rolls himself into a ball that has | F |
| power to defy all effort to unroll it strongly intailed neat | T |
| head for core on neck not breaking off with curled in feet | T |
| Nevertheless he has sting proof scales and nest | U |
| of rocks closed with earth from inside which he can | V |
| thus darken | W |
| Sun and moon and day and night and man and beast | X |
| each with a splendor | M |
| which man in all his vileness cannot | Y |
| set aside each with an excellence | F |
| Fearful yet to be feared the armored | E |
| ant eater met by the driver ant does not turn back but | Z |
| engulfs what he can the flattered sword | A2 |
| edged leafpoints on the tail and artichoke set leg and | D |
| body plates | F |
| quivering violently when it retaliates | F |
| and swarms on him Compact like the furled fringed frill | K |
| on the hat brim of Gargallo s hollow iron head of a | G |
| matador he will drop and will | K |
| then walk away | B |
| unhurt although if unintruded on | B2 |
| he cautiously works down the tree helped | C2 |
| by his tail The giant pangolin | B2 |
| tail graceful tool as prop or hand or broom or ax tipped like | D2 |
| an elephant s trunk with special skin | B2 |
| is not lost on this ant and stone swallowing uninjurable | K |
| artichoke which simpletons thought a living fable | K |
| whom the stones had nourished whereas ants had done | B2 |
| so Pangolins are not aggressive animals between | B2 |
| dusk and day they have the not unchain like machine like | D2 |
| form and frictionless creep of a thing | Q |
| made graceful by adversities con | B2 |
| versities To explain grace requires | F |
| a curious hand If that which is at all were not forever | M |
| why would those who graced the spires | F |
| with animals and gathered there to rest on cold luxurious | F |
| low stone seats a monk and monk and monk between the | G |
| thus | F |
| ingenious roof supports have slaved to confuse | F |
| grace with a kindly manner time in which to pay a | G |
| debt | E2 |
| the cure for sins a graceful use | F |
| of what are yet | E2 |
| approved stone mullions branching out across | F |
| the perpendiculars A sailboat | F2 |
| was the first machine Pangolins made | G2 |
| for moving quietly also are models of exactness | F |
| on four legs on hind feet plantigrade | G2 |
| with certain postures of a man Beneath sun and moon | B2 |
| man slaving | Q |
| to make his life more sweet leaves half the flowers worth | H2 |
| having | Q |
| needing to choose wisely how to use his strength | I2 |
| a paper maker like the wasp a tractor of foodstuffs | F |
| like the ant spidering a length | I2 |
| of web from bluffs | F |
| above a stream in fighting mechanicked | G2 |
| like to pangolin capsizing in | B2 |
| disheartenment Bedizened or stark | Q |
| naked man the self the being we call human writing | Q |
| master to this world griffons a dark | Q |
| Like does not like like that is obnoxious and writes error | M |
| with four | S |
| r s Among animals one has a sense of humor | M |
| Humor saves a few steps it saves years Uningnorant | G2 |
| modest and unemotional and all emotion | B2 |
| he has everlasting vigor | M |
| power to grow | J2 |
| though there are few creatures who can make one | B2 |
| breathe faster and make one erecter | J2 |
| Not afraid of anything is he | K2 |
| and then goes cowering forth tread paced to meet an obstacle | K |
| at every step Consistent with the | G |
| formula warm blood no gills two pairs of hands and a few | L2 |
| hairs that | G2 |
| is a mammal there he sits in his own habitat | G2 |
| serge clad strong shod The prey of fear he always | F |
| curtailed extinguished thwarted by the dusk work | Q |
| partly done | B2 |
| says to the alternating blaze | F |
| Again the sun | B2 |
| anew each day and new and new and new | L2 |
| that comes into and steadies my soul | K |
Marianne Moore
(1)
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