Athanasia Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCC DEDEFF GHGHIE EJEJKK HLHLEE HKHKMM ENENOO KEKEHH PQPQKK RGRGKKTo that gaunt House of Art which lacks for naught | A |
Of all the great things men have saved from Time | B |
The withered body of a girl was brought | A |
Dead ere the world's glad youth had touched its prime | B |
And seen by lonely Arabs lying hid | C |
In the dim womb of some black pyramid | C |
- | |
But when they had unloosed the linen band | D |
Which swathed the Egyptian's body lo was found | E |
Closed in the wasted hollow of her hand | D |
A little seed which sown in English ground | E |
Did wondrous snow of starry blossoms bear | F |
And spread rich odours through our spring tide air | F |
- | |
With such strange arts this flower did allure | G |
That all forgotten was the asphodel | H |
And the brown bee the lily's paramour | G |
Forsook the cup where he was wont to dwell | H |
For not a thing of earth it seemed to be | I |
But stolen from some heavenly Arcady | E |
- | |
In vain the sad narcissus wan and white | E |
At its own beauty hung across the stream | J |
The purple dragon fly had no delight | E |
With its gold dust to make his wings a gleam | J |
Ah no delight the jasmine bloom to kiss | K |
Or brush the rain pearls from the eucharis | K |
- | |
For love of it the passionate nightingale | H |
Forgot the hills of Thrace the cruel king | L |
And the pale dove no longer cared to sail | H |
Through the wet woods at time of blossoming | L |
But round this flower of Egypt sought to float | E |
With silvered wing and amethystine throat | E |
- | |
While the hot sun blazed in his tower of blue | H |
A cooling wind crept from the land of snows | K |
And the warm south with tender tears of dew | H |
Drenched its white leaves when Hesperos up rose | K |
Amid those sea green meadows of the sky | M |
On which the scarlet bars of sunset lie | M |
- | |
But when o'er wastes of lily haunted field | E |
The tired birds had stayed their amorous tune | N |
And broad and glittering like an argent shield | E |
High in the sapphire heavens hung the moon | N |
Did no strange dream or evil memory make | O |
Each tremulous petal of its blossoms shake | O |
- | |
Ah no to this bright flower a thousand years | K |
Seemed but the lingering of a summer's day | E |
It never knew the tide of cankering fears | K |
Which turn a boy's gold hair to withered grey | E |
The dread desire of death it never knew | H |
Or how all folk that they were born must rue | H |
- | |
For we to death with pipe and dancing go | P |
Nor would we pass the ivory gate again | Q |
As some sad river wearied of its flow | P |
Through the dull plains the haunts of common men | Q |
Leaps lover like into the terrible sea | K |
And counts it gain to die so gloriously | K |
- | |
We mar our lordly strength in barren strife | R |
With the world's legions led by clamorous care | G |
It never feels decay but gathers life | R |
From the pure sunlight and the supreme air | G |
We live beneath Time's wasting sovereignty | K |
It is the child of all eternity | K |
Oscar Wilde
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