Parrhasius Poem Rhyme Scheme

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There stood an unsold captive in the mart	A
A gray haired and majestical old man	B
Chained to a pillar It was almost night	C
And the last seller from the place had gone	D
And not a sound was heard but of a dog	E
Crunching beneath the stall a refuse bone	F
Or the dull echo from the pavement rung	G
As the faint captive changed his weary feet	H
He had stood there since morning and had borne	I
From every eye in Athens the cold gaze	J
Of curious scorn The Jew had taunted him	K
For an Olynthian slave The buyer came	L
And roughly struck his palm upon his breast	M
And touched his unhealed wounds and with a sneer	N
Passed on and when with weariness o'er spent	O
He bowed his head in a forgetful sleep	P
The inhuman soldier smote him and with threats	Q
Of torture to his children summoned back	R
The ebbing blood into his pallid face	S
	-
'T was evening and the half descended sun	T
Tipped with a golden fire the many domes	U
Of Athens and a yellow atmosphere	N
Lay rich and dusky in the shaded street	H
Through which the captive gazed He had borne up	V
With a stout heart that long and weary day	W
Haughtily patient of his many wrongs	X
But now he was alone and from his nerves	Y
The needless strength departed and he leaned	Z
Prone on his massy chain and let his thoughts	A2
Throng on him as they would Unmarked of him	K
Parrhasius at the nearest pillar stood	B2
Gazing upon his grief The Athenian's cheek	C2
Flushed as he measured with a painter's eye	D2
The moving picture The abandoned limbs	E2
Stained with the oozing blood were laced with veins	F2
Swollen to purple fulness the gray hair	G2
Thin and disordered hung about his eyes	H2
And as a thought of wilder bitterness	I2
Rose in his memory his lips grew white	C
And the fast workings of his bloodless face	S
Told what a tooth of fire was at his heart	A
	-
The golden light into the painter's room	J2
Streamed richly and the hidden colors stole	K2
From the dark pictures radiantly forth	L2
And in the soft and dewy atmosphere	N
Like forms and landscapes magical they lay	W
The walls were hung with armor and about	M2
In the dim corners stood the sculptured forms	N2
Of Cytheris and Dian and stern Jove	O2
And from the casement soberly away	W
Fell the grotesque long shadows full and true	P2
And like a veil of filmy mellowness	N2
The lint specks floated in the twilight air	G2
Parrhasius stood gazing forgetfully	W
Upon his canvas There Prometheus lay	W
Chained to the cold rocks of Mount Caucasus	N2
The vulture at his vitals and the links	N2
Of the lame Lemnian festering in his flesh	Q2
And as the painter's mind felt through the dim	K
Rapt mystery and plucked the shadows forth	L2
With its far reaching fancy and with form	R2
And color clad them his fine earnest eye	D2
Flashed with a passionate fire and the quick curl	W
Of his thin nostril and his quivering lip	S2
Were like the winged god's breathing from his flight	C
	-
Bring me the captive now	T2
My hand feels skilful and the shadows lift	U2
From my waked spirit airily and swift	U2
And I could paint the bow	T2
Upon the bended heavens around me play	W
Colors of such divinity to day	W
	-
Ha bind him on his back	R
Look as Prometheus in my picture here	V2
Quick or he faints stand with the cordial near	N
Now bend him to the rack	R
Press down the poisoned links into his flesh	Q2
And tear agape that healing wound afresh	Q2
	-
So let him writhe How long	W2
Will he live thus Quick my good pencil now	T2
What a fine agony works upon his brow	T2
Ha gray haired and so strong	W2
How fearfully he stifles that short moan	F
Gods if I could but paint a dying groan	F
	-
'Pity' thee So I do	P2
I pity the dumb victim at the altar	X2
But does the robed priest for his pity falter	X2
I'd rack thee though I knew	P2
A thousand lives were perishing in thine	Y2
What were ten thousand to a fame like mine	Y2
	-
'Hereafter ' Ay hereafter	X2
A whip to keep a coward to his track	R
What gave Death ever from his kingdom back	R
To check the skeptic's laughter	X2
Come from the grave to morrow with that story	Z2
And I may take some softer path to glory	Z2
	-
No no old man we die	D2
Even as the flowers and we shall breathe away	W
Our life upon the chance wind even as they	W
Strain well thy fainting eye	D2
For when that bloodshot quivering is o'er	X2
The light of heaven will never reach thee more	A3
	-
Yet there's a deathless name	L
A spirit that the smothering vault shall spurn	B3
And like a steadfast planet mount and burn	B3
And though its crown of flame	L
Consumed my brain to ashes as it shone	F
By all the fiery stars I'd bind it on	C3
	-
Ay though it bid me rifle	W
My heart's last fount for its insatiate thirst	D3
Though every life strung nerve be maddened first	D3
Though it should bid me stifle	W
The yearning in my throat for my sweet child	E3
And taunt its mother till my brain went wild	E3
	-
All I would do it all	W
Sooner than die like a dull worm to rot	F3
Thrust foully into earth to be forgot	F3
Oh heavens but I appall	W
Your heart old man forgive ha on your lives	N2
Let him not faint rack him till he revives	N2
	-
Vain vain give o'er His eye	D2
Glazes apace He does not feel you now	T2
Stand back I'll paint the death dew on his brow	T2
Gods if he do not die	D2
But for one moment one till I eclipse	N2
Conception with the scorn of those calm lips	N2
	-
Shivering Hark he mutters	N2
Brokenly now that was a difficult breath	G3
Another Wilt thou never come oh Death	G3
Look how his temple flutters	N2
Is his heart still Aha lift up his head	H3
He shudders gasps Jove help him so he's dead	H3
	-
How like a mounting devil in the heart	A
Rules the unreined ambition Let it once	N2
But play the monarch and its haughty brow	T2
Glows with a beauty that bewilders thought	I3
And unthrones peace forever Putting on	C3
The very pomp of Lucifer it turns	N2
The heart to ashes and with not a spring	J3
Left in the bosom for the spirit's lip	S2
We look upon our splendor and forget	K3
The thirst of which we perish Yet hath life	O2
Many a falser idol There are hopes	N2
Promising well and love touched dreams for some	L3
And passions many a wild one and fair schemes	N2
For gold and pleasure yet will only this	N2
Balk not the soul Ambition only gives	N2
Even of bitterness a beaker full	W
Friendship is but a slow awaking dream	M3
Troubled at best Love is a lamp unseen	N3
Burning to waste or if its light is found	O3
Nursed for an idle hour then idly broken	T
Gain is a grovelling care and Folly tires	N2
And Quiet is a hunger never fed	H3
And from Love's very bosom and from Gain	P3
Or Folly or a Friend or from Repose	N2
From all but keen Ambition will the soul	W
Snatch the first moment of forgetfulness	N2
To wander like a restless child away	W
Oh if there were not better hopes than these	N2
Were there no palm beyond a feverish fame	L
If the proud wealth flung back upon the heart	A
Must canker in its coffers if the links	N2
Falsehood hath broken will unite no more	A3
If the deep yearning love that hath not found	O3
Its like in the cold world must waste in tears	N2
If truth and fervor and devotedness	N2
Finding no worthy altar must return	B3
And die of their own fulness if beyond	Q3
The grave there is no heaven in whose wide air	G2
The spirit may find room and in the love	O2
Of whose bright habitants the lavish heart	A
May spend itself what thrice mocked fools are we	Z2

Nathaniel Parker Willis

Parrhasius Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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