The Sphinx Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Oscar Fingal O'flahertie Wills Wilde

The Sphinx Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

About The Sphinx

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To Marcel Schwob in friendship and in admiration	A
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In a dim corner of my room for longer than my fancy thinks	B
A beautiful and silent Sphinx has watched me through the shifting gloom	C
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Inviolate and immobile she does not rise she does not stir	D
For silver moons are naught to her and naught to her the suns that reel	E
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Red follows grey across the air the waves of moonlight ebb and flow	F
But with the Dawn she does not go and in the night time she is there	G
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Dawn follows Dawn and Nights grow old and all the while this curious cat	H
Lies couching on the Chinese mat with eyes of satin rimmed with gold	I
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Upon the mat she lies and leers and on the tawny throat of her	D
Flutters the soft and silky fur or ripples to her pointed ears	J
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Come forth my lovely seneschal so somnolent so statuesque	K
Come forth you exquisite grotesque half woman and half animal	L
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Come forth my lovely languorous Sphinx and put your head upon my knee	M
And let me stroke your throat and see your body spotted like the Lynx	B
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And let me touch those curving claws of yellow ivory and grasp	N
The tail that like a monstrous Asp coils round your heavy velvet paws	O
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A thousand weary centuries are thine while I have hardly seen	P
Some twenty summers cast their green for Autumn's gaudy liveries	O
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But you can read the Hieroglyphs on the great sandstone obelisks	O
And you have talked with Basilisks and you have looked on Hippogriffs	O
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O tell me were you standing by when Isis to Osiris knelt	Q
And did you watch the Egyptian melt her union for Antony	M
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And drink the jewel drunken wine and bend her head in mimic awe	R
To see the huge proconsul draw the salted tunny from the brine	S
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And did you mark the Cyprian kiss white Adon on his catafalque	K
And did you follow Amenalk the God of Heliopolis	O
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And did you talk with Thoth and did you hear the moon horned Io weep	T
And know the painted kings who sleep beneath the wedge shaped Pyramid	U
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Lift up your large black satin eyes which are like cushions where one sinks	O
Fawn at my feet fantastic Sphinx and sing me all your memories	O
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Sing to me of the Jewish maid who wandered with the Holy Child	V
And how you led them through the wild and how they slept beneath your shade	W
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Sing to me of that odorous green eve when crouching by the marge	X
You heard from Adrian's gilded barge the laughter of Antinous	O
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And lapped the stream and fed your drouth and watched with hot and hungry stare	G
The ivory body of that rare young slave with his pomegranate mouth	Y
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Sing to me of the Labyrinth in which the twi formed bull was stalled	Z
Sing to me of the night you crawled across the temple's granite plinth	A2
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When through the purple corridors the screaming scarlet Ibis flew	B2
In terror and a horrid dew dripped from the moaning Mandragores	O
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And the great torpid crocodile within the tank shed slimy tears	O
And tare the jewels from his ears and staggered back into the Nile	C2
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And the priests cursed you with shrill psalms as in your claws you seized their snake	K
And crept away with it to slake your passion by the shuddering palms	O
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Who were your lovers who were they who wrestled for you in the dust	D2
Which was the vessel of your Lust What Leman had you every day	E2
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Did giant Lizards come and crouch before you on the reedy banks	O
Did Gryphons with great metal flanks leap on you in your trampled couch	F2
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Did monstrous hippopotami come sidling toward you in the mist	G2
Did gilt scaled dragons writhe and twist with passion as you passed them by	H2
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And from the brick built Lycian tomb what horrible Chimera came	I2
With fearful heads and fearful flame to breed new wonders from your womb	C
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Or had you shameful secret quests and did you harry to your home	J2
Some Nereid coiled in amber foam with curious rock crystal breasts	O
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Or did you treading through the froth call to the brown Sidonian	S
For tidings of Leviathan Leviathan or Behemoth	K2
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Or did you when the sun was set climb up the cactus covered slope	L2
To meet your swarthy Ethiop whose body was of polished jet	M2
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Or did you while the earthen skiffs dropped down the grey Nilotic flats	O
At twilight and the flickering bats flew round the temple's triple glyphs	O
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Steal to the border of the bar and swim across the silent lake	K
And slink into the vault and make the Pyramid your lupanar	G
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Till from each black sarcophagus rose up the painted swathed dead	N2
Or did you lure unto your bed the ivory horned Tragelaphos	O
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Or did you love the god of flies who plagued the Hebrews and was splashed	O2
With wine unto the waist or Pasht who had green beryls for her eyes	O
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Or that young god the Tyrian who was more amorous than the dove	P2
Of Ashtaroth or did you love the god of the Assyrian	S
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Whose wings like strange transparent talc rose high above his hawk faced head	N2
Painted with silver and with red and ribbed with rods of Oreichalch	F2
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Or did huge Apis from his car leap down and lay before your feet	Q2
Big blossoms of the honey sweet and honey coloured nenuphar	G
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How subtle secret is your smile Did you love none then Nay I know	S
Great Ammon was your bedfellow He lay with you beside the Nile	C2
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The river horses in the slime trumpeted when they saw him come	R2
Odorous with Syrian galbanum and smeared with spikenard and with thyme	S2
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He came along the river bank like some tall galley argent sailed	T2
He strode across the waters mailed in beauty and the waters sank	K
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He strode across the desert sand he reached the valley where you lay	E2
He waited till the dawn of day then touched your black breasts with his hand	U2
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You kissed his mouth with mouths of flame you made the horned god your own	S
You stood behind him on his throne you called him by his secret name	I2
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You whispered monstrous oracles into the caverns of his ears	O
With blood of goats and blood of steers you taught him monstrous miracles	O
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White Ammon was your bedfellow Your chamber was the steaming Nile	C2
And with your curved archaic smile you watched his passion come and go	S
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With Syrian oils his brows were bright and wide spread as a tent at noon	S
His marble limbs made pale the moon and lent the day a larger light	V2
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His long hair was nine cubits' span and coloured like that yellow gem	W2
Which hidden in their garment's hem the merchants bring from Kurdistan	S
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His face was as the must that lies upon a vat of new made wine	S
The seas could not insapphirine the perfect azure of his eyes	O
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His thick soft throat was white as milk and threaded with thin veins of blue	B2
And curious pearls like frozen dew were broidered on his flowing silk	K
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On pearl and porphyry pedestalled he was too bright to look upon	S
For on his ivory breast there shone the wondrous ocean emerald	X2
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That mystic moonlit jewel which some diver of the Colchian caves	O
Had found beneath the blackening waves and carried to the Colchian witch	F2
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Before his gilded galiot ran naked vine wreathed corybants	O
And lines of swaying elephants knelt down to draw his chariot	Y2
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And lines of swarthy Nubians bare up his litter as he rode	Z2
Down the great granite paven road between the nodding peacock fans	O
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The merchants brought him steatite from Sidon in their painted ships	O
The meanest cup that touched his lips was fashioned from a chrysolite	Z2
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The merchants brought him cedar chests of rich apparel bound with cords	O
His train was borne by Memphian lords young kings were glad to be his guests	O
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Ten hundred shaven priests did bow to Ammon's altar day and night	Z2
Ten hundred lamps did wave their light through Ammon's carven house and now	S
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Foul snake and speckled adder with their young ones crawl from stone to stone	S
For ruined is the house and prone the great rose marble monolith	A3
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Wild ass or trotting jackal comes and couches in the mouldering gates	O
Wild satyrs call unto their mates across the fallen fluted drums	O
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And on the summit of the pile the blue faced ape of Horus sits	O
And gibbers while the fig tree splits the pillars of the peristyle	C2
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The god is scattered here and there deep hidden in the windy sand	Z2
I saw his giant granite hand still clenched in impotent despair	G
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And many a wandering caravan of stately negroes silken shawled	Z2
Crossing the desert halts appalled before the neck that none can span	S
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And many a bearded Bedouin draws back his yellow striped burnous	O
To gaze upon the Titan thews of him who was thy paladin	S
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Go seek his fragments on the moor and wash them in the evening dew	Z2
And from their pieces make anew thy mutilated paramour	G
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Go seek them where they lie alone and from their broken pieces make	K
Thy bruised bedfellow And wake mad passions in the senseless stone	S
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Charm his dull ear with Syrian hymns he loved your body oh be kind	Z2
Pour spikenard on his hair and wind soft rolls of linen round his limbs	O
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Wind round his head the figured coins stain with red fruits those pallid lips	O
Weave purple for his shrunken hips and purple for his barren loins	O
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Away to Egypt Have no fear Only one God has ever died	Z2
Only one God has let His side be wounded by a soldier's spear	G
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But these thy lovers are not dead Still by the hundred cubit gate	Z2
Dog faced Anubis sits in state with lotus lilies for thy head	Z2
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Still from his chair of porphyry gaunt Memnon strains his lidless eyes	O
Across the empty land and cries each yellow morning unto thee	M
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And Nilus with his broken horn lies in his black and oozy bed	Z2
And till thy coming will not spread his waters on the withering corn	S
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Your lovers are not dead I know They will rise up and hear your voice	O
And clash their cymbals and rejoice and run to kiss your mouth And so	O
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Set wings upon your argosies Set horses to your ebon car	G
Back to your Nile Or if you are grown sick of dead divinities	O
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Follow some roving lion's spoor across the copper coloured plain	S
Reach out and hale him by the mane and bid him be your paramour	G
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Couch by his side upon the grass and set your white teeth in his throat	Z2
And when you hear his dying note lash your long flanks of polished brass	O
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And take a tiger for your mate whose amber sides are flecked with black	K
And ride upon his gilded back in triumph through the Theban gate	Z2
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And toy with him in amorous jests and when he turns and snarls and gnaws	O
O smite him with your jasper claws and bruise him with your agate breasts	O
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Why are you tarrying Get hence I weary of your sullen ways	O
I weary of your steadfast gaze your somnolent magnificence	O
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Your horrible and heavy breath makes the light flicker in the lamp	B3
And on my brow I feel the damp and dreadful dews of night and death	C3
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Your eyes are like fantastic moons that shiver in some stagnant lake	K
Your tongue is like a scarlet snake that dances to fantastic tunes	O
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Your pulse makes poisonous melodies and your black throat is like the hole	D3
Left by some torch or burning coal on Saracenic tapestries	O
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Away The sulphur coloured stars are hurrying through the Western gate	Z2
Away Or it may be too late to climb their silent silver cars	O
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See the dawn shivers round the grey gilt dialled towers and the rain	S
Streams down each diamonded pane and blurs with tears the wannish day	Z2
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What snake tressed fury fresh from Hell with uncouth gestures and unclean	S
Stole from the poppy drowsy queen and led you to a student's cell	E3
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What songless tongueless ghost of sin crept through the curtains of the night	Z2
And saw my taper burning bright and knocked and bade you enter in	S
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Are there not others more accursed whiter with leprosies than I	H2
Are Abana and Pharphar dry that you come here to slake your thirst	Z2
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Get hence you loathsome mystery Hideous animal get hence	O
You wake in me each bestial sense you make me what I would not be	M
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You make my creed a barren sham you wake foul dreams of sensual life	F3
And Atys with his blood stained knife were better than the thing I am	G3
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False Sphinx False Sphinx By reedy Styx old Charon leaning on his oar	G
Waits for my coin Go thou before and leave me to my crucifix	O
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Whose pallid burden sick with pain watches the world with wearied eyes	O
And weeps for every soul that dies and weeps for every soul in vain	S