Charmides Ii Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABCC DEDEFF EGEGHH IJIJHH KLKLMM NONOLL KPKPGQ AEAERR LLLLLL LLLLSS LLLLLL ERERGG AIAILL TLTLGG GKGKEE GGGGLL KEKEUU LVLVRRR RLRLW GHGHLL GNGNRWR WLWLGG KPKPGG PGPGXX PLPLPP RWEWRR GRGRGLG RKRKLL EYEDPP LWLWRRR PGEGLL LRLRLL RHRHPKP LELKKK SLSLLL GPGPLL GWGWVV PWPQLL WLWLY RPRPLL LWLWLL PLELLWL GPGEKK EGPGEE EEEEZRZ PRPRRR PPPPRR WRWRHH RERERP KEKEPP GEGEWW KRKRGG PEPEGG EKEKPP GRGRPP

But some good Triton god had ruth and bare	A
The boy's drowned body back to Grecian land	B
And mermaids combed his dank and dripping hair	A
And smoothed his brow and loosed his clenching hand	B
Some brought sweet spices from far Araby	C
And others bade the halcyon sing her softest lullaby	C
	-
And when he neared his old Athenian home	D
A mighty billow rose up suddenly	E
Upon whose oily back the clotted foam	D
Lay diapered in some strange fantasy	E
And clasping him unto its glassy breast	F
Swept landward like a white maned steed upon a venturous quest	F
	-
Now where Colonos leans unto the sea	E
There lies a long and level stretch of lawn	G
The rabbit knows it and the mountain bee	E
For it deserts Hymettus and the Faun	G
Is not afraid for never through the day	H
Comes a cry ruder than the shout of shepherd lads at play	H
	-
But often from the thorny labyrinth	I
And tangled branches of the circling wood	J
The stealthy hunter sees young Hyacinth	I
Hurling the polished disk and draws his hood	J
Over his guilty gaze and creeps away	H
Nor dares to wind his horn or else at the first break of day	H
	-
The Dryads come and throw the leathern ball	K
Along the reedy shore and circumvent	L
Some goat eared Pan to be their seneschal	K
For fear of bold Poseidon's ravishment	L
And loose their girdles with shy timorous eyes	M
Lest from the surf his azure arms and purple beard should rise	M
	-
On this side and on that a rocky cave	N
Hung with the yellow belled laburnum stands	O
Smooth is the beach save where some ebbing wave	N
Leaves its faint outline etched upon the sands	O
As though it feared to be too soon forgot	L
By the green rush its playfellow and yet it is a spot	L
	-
So small that the inconstant butterfly	K
Could steal the hoarded money from each flower	P
Ere it was noon and still not satisfy	K
Its over greedy love within an hour	P
A sailor boy were he but rude enow	G
To land and pluck a garland for his galley's painted prow	Q
	-
Would almost leave the little meadow bare	A
For it knows nothing of great pageantry	E
Only a few narcissi here and there	A
Stand separate in sweet austerity	E
Dotting the unmown grass with silver stars	R
And here and there a daffodil waves tiny scimitars	R
	-
Hither the billow brought him and was glad	L
Of such dear servitude and where the land	L
Was virgin of all waters laid the lad	L
Upon the golden margent of the strand	L
And like a lingering lover oft returned	L
To kiss those pallid limbs which once with intense fire burned	L
	-
Ere the wet seas had quenched that holocaust	L
That self fed flame that passionate lustihead	L
Ere grisly death with chill and nipping frost	L
Had withered up those lilies white and red	L
Which while the boy would through the forest range	S
Answered each other in a sweet antiphonal counter change	S
	-
And when at dawn the wood nymphs hand in hand	L
Threaded the bosky dell their satyr spied	L
The boy's pale body stretched upon the sand	L
And feared Poseidon's treachery and cried	L
And like bright sunbeams flitting through a glade	L
Each startled Dryad sought some safe and leafy ambuscade	L
	-
Save one white girl who deemed it would not be	E
So dread a thing to feel a sea god's arms	R
Crushing her breasts in amorous tyranny	E
And longed to listen to those subtle charms	R
Insidious lovers weave when they would win	G
Some fenced fortress and stole back again nor thought it sin	G
	-
To yield her treasure unto one so fair	A
And lay beside him thirsty with love's drouth	I
Called him soft names played with his tangled hair	A
And with hot lips made havoc of his mouth	I
Afraid he might not wake and then afraid	L
Lest he might wake too soon fled back and then fond renegade	L
	-
Returned to fresh assault and all day long	T
Sat at his side and laughed at her new toy	L
And held his hand and sang her sweetest song	T
Then frowned to see how froward was the boy	L
Who would not with her maidenhood entwine	G
Nor knew that three days since his eyes had looked on Proserpine	G
	-
Nor knew what sacrilege his lips had done	G
But said 'He will awake I know him well	K
He will awake at evening when the sun	G
Hangs his red shield on Corinth's citadel	K
This sleep is but a cruel treachery	E
To make me love him more and in some cavern of the sea	E
	-
Deeper than ever falls the fisher's line	G
Already a huge Triton blows his horn	G
And weaves a garland from the crystalline	G
And drifting ocean tendrils to adorn	G
The emerald pillars of our bridal bed	L
For sphered in foaming silver and with coral crowned head	L
	-
We two will sit upon a throne of pearl	K
And a blue wave will be our canopy	E
And at our feet the water snakes will curl	K
In all their amethystine panoply	E
Of diamonded mail and we will mark	U
The mullets swimming by the mast of some storm foundered bark	U
	-
Vermilion finned with eyes of bossy gold	L
Like flakes of crimson light and the great deep	V
His glassy portaled chamber will unfold	L
And we will see the painted dolphins sleep	V
Cradled by murmuring halcyons on the rocks	R
Where Proteus in quaint suit of green pastures his monstrous	R
flocks	R
	-
And tremulous opal hued anemones	R
Will wave their purple fringes where we tread	L
Upon the mirrored floor and argosies	R
Of fishes flecked with tawny scales will thread	L
The drifting cordage of the shattered wreck	W
And honey coloured amber beads our twining limbs will deck '	-
	-
But when that baffled Lord of War the Sun	G
With gaudy pennon flying passed away	H
Into his brazen House and one by one	G
The little yellow stars began to stray	H
Across the field of heaven ah then indeed	L
She feared his lips upon her lips would never care to feed	L
	-
And cried 'Awake already the pale moon	G
Washes the trees with silver and the wave	N
Creeps grey and chilly up this sandy dune	G
The croaking frogs are out and from the cave	N
The nightjar shrieks the fluttering bats repass	R
And the brown stoat with hollow flanks creeps through the dusky	W
grass	R
	-
Nay though thou art a god be not so coy	W
For in yon stream there is a little reed	L
That often whispers how a lovely boy	W
Lay with her once upon a grassy mead	L
Who when his cruel pleasure he had done	G
Spread wings of rustling gold and soared aloft into the sun	G
	-
Be not so coy the laurel trembles still	K
With great Apollo's kisses and the fir	P
Whose clustering sisters fringe the seaward hill	K
Hath many a tale of that bold ravisher	P
Whom men call Boreas and I have seen	G
The mocking eyes of Hermes through the poplar's silvery sheen	G
	-
Even the jealous Naiads call me fair	P
And every morn a young and ruddy swain	G
Woos me with apples and with locks of hair	P
And seeks to soothe my virginal disdain	G
By all the gifts the gentle wood nymphs love	X
But yesterday he brought to me an iris plumaged dove	X
	-
With little crimson feet which with its store	P
Of seven spotted eggs the cruel lad	L
Had stolen from the lofty sycamore	P
At daybreak when her amorous comrade had	L
Flown off in search of berried juniper	P
Which most they love the fretful wasp that earliest vintager	P
	-
Of the blue grapes hath not persistency	R
So constant as this simple shepherd boy	W
For my poor lips his joyous purity	E
And laughing sunny eyes might well decoy	W
A Dryad from her oath to Artemis	R
For very beautiful is he his mouth was made to kiss	R
	-
His argent forehead like a rising moon	G
Over the dusky hills of meeting brows	R
Is crescent shaped the hot and Tyrian noon	G
Leads from the myrtle grove no goodlier spouse	R
For Cytheraea the first silky down	G
Fringes his blushing cheeks and his young limbs are strong and	L
brown	G
	-
And he is rich and fat and fleecy herds	R
Of bleating sheep upon his meadows lie	K
And many an earthen bowl of yellow curds	R
Is in his homestead for the thievish fly	K
To swim and drown in the pink clover mead	L
Keeps its sweet store for him and he can pipe on oaten reed	L
	-
And yet I love him not it was for thee	E
I kept my love I knew that thou would'st come	Y
To rid me of this pallid chastity	E
Thou fairest flower of the flowerless foam	D
Of all the wide AEgean brightest star	P
Of ocean's azure heavens where the mirrored planets are	P
	-
I knew that thou would'st come for when at first	L
The dry wood burgeoned and the sap of spring	W
Swelled in my green and tender bark or burst	L
To myriad multitudinous blossoming	W
Which mocked the midnight with its mimic moons	R
That did not dread the dawn and first the thrushes' rapturous	R
tunes	R
	-
Startled the squirrel from its granary	P
And cuckoo flowers fringed the narrow lane	G
Through my young leaves a sensuous ecstasy	E
Crept like new wine and every mossy vein	G
Throbbed with the fitful pulse of amorous blood	L
And the wild winds of passion shook my slim stem's maidenhood	L
	-
The trooping fawns at evening came and laid	L
Their cool black noses on my lowest boughs	R
And on my topmost branch the blackbird made	L
A little nest of grasses for his spouse	R
And now and then a twittering wren would light	L
On a thin twig which hardly bare the weight of such delight	L
	-
I was the Attic shepherd's trysting place	R
Beneath my shadow Amaryllis lay	H
And round my trunk would laughing Daphnis chase	R
The timorous girl till tired out with play	H
She felt his hot breath stir her tangled hair	P
And turned and looked and fled no more from such delightful	K
snare	P
	-
Then come away unto my ambuscade	L
Where clustering woodbine weaves a canopy	E
For amorous pleasaunce and the rustling shade	L
Of Paphian myrtles seems to sanctify	K
The dearest rites of love there in the cool	K
And green recesses of its farthest depth there is pool	K
	-
The ouzel's haunt the wild bee's pasturage	S
For round its rim great creamy lilies float	L
Through their flat leaves in verdant anchorage	S
Each cup a white sailed golden laden boat	L
Steered by a dragon fly be not afraid	L
To leave this wan and wave kissed shore surely the place was made	L
	-
For lovers such as we the Cyprian Queen	G
One arm around her boyish paramour	P
Strays often there at eve and I have seen	G
The moon strip off her misty vestiture	P
For young Endymion's eyes be not afraid	L
The panther feet of Dian never tread that secret glade	L
	-
Nay if thou will'st back to the beating brine	G
Back to the boisterous billow let us go	W
And walk all day beneath the hyaline	G
Huge vault of Neptune's watery portico	W
And watch the purple monsters of the deep	V
Sport in ungainly play and from his lair keen Xiphias leap	V
	-
For if my mistress find me lying here	P
She will not ruth or gentle pity show	W
But lay her boar spear down and with austere	P
Relentless fingers string the cornel bow	Q
And draw the feathered notch against her breast	L
And loose the arched cord aye even now upon the quest	L
	-
I hear her hurrying feet awake awake	W
Thou laggard in love's battle once at least	L
Let me drink deep of passion's wine and slake	W
My parched being with the nectarous feast	L
Which even gods affect O come Love come	Y
Still we have time to reach the cavern of thine azure home '	-
	-
Scarce had she spoken when the shuddering trees	R
Shook and the leaves divided and the air	P
Grew conscious of a god and the grey seas	R
Crawled backward and a long and dismal blare	P
Blew from some tasselled horn a sleuth hound bayed	L
And like a flame a barbed reed flew whizzing down the glade	L
	-
And where the little flowers of her breast	L
Just brake into their milky blossoming	W
This murderous paramour this unbidden guest	L
Pierced and struck deep in horrid chambering	W
And ploughed a bloody furrow with its dart	L
And dug a long red road and cleft with winged death her heart	L
	-
Sobbing her life out with a bitter cry	P
On the boy's body fell the Dryad maid	L
Sobbing for incomplete virginity	E
And raptures unenjoyed and pleasures dead	L
And all the pain of things unsatisfied	L
And the bright drops of crimson youth crept down her throbbing	W
side	L
	-
Ah pitiful it was to hear her moan	G
And very pitiful to see her die	P
Ere she had yielded up her sweets or known	G
The joy of passion that dread mystery	E
Which not to know is not to live at all	K
And yet to know is to be held in death's most deadly thrall	K
	-
But as it hapt the Queen of Cythere	E
Who with Adonis all night long had lain	G
Within some shepherd's hut in Arcady	P
On team of silver doves and gilded wain	G
Was journeying Paphos ward high up afar	E
From mortal ken between the mountains and the morning star	E
	-
And when low down she spied the hapless pair	E
And heard the Oread's faint despairing cry	E
Whose cadence seemed to play upon the air	E
As though it were a viol hastily	E
She bade her pigeons fold each straining plume	Z
And dropt to earth and reached the strand and saw their dolorous	R
doom	Z
	-
For as a gardener turning back his head	P
To catch the last notes of the linnet mows	R
With careless scythe too near some flower bed	P
And cuts the thorny pillar of the rose	R
And with the flower's loosened loneliness	R
Strews the brown mould or as some shepherd lad in wantonness	R
	-
Driving his little flock along the mead	P
Treads down two daffodils which side by aide	P
Have lured the lady bird with yellow brede	P
And made the gaudy moth forget its pride	P
Treads down their brimming golden chalices	R
Under light feet which were not made for such rude ravages	R
	-
Or as a schoolboy tired of his book	W
Flings himself down upon the reedy grass	R
And plucks two water lilies from the brook	W
And for a time forgets the hour glass	R
Then wearies of their sweets and goes his way	H
And lets the hot sun kill them even go these lovers lay	H
	-
And Venus cried 'It is dread Artemis	R
Whose bitter hand hath wrought this cruelty	E
Or else that mightier maid whose care it is	R
To guard her strong and stainless majesty	E
Upon the hill Athenian alas	R
That they who loved so well unloved into Death's house should	P
pass '	-
	-
So with soft hands she laid the boy and girl	K
In the great golden waggon tenderly	E
Her white throat whiter than a moony pearl	K
Just threaded with a blue vein's tapestry	E
Had not yet ceased to throb and still her breast	P
Swayed like a wind stirred lily in ambiguous unrest	P
	-
And then each pigeon spread its milky van	G
The bright car soared into the dawning sky	E
And like a cloud the aerial caravan	G
Passed over the AEgean silently	E
Till the faint air was troubled with the song	W
From the wan mouths that call on bleeding Thammuz all night long	W
	-
But when the doves had reached their wonted goal	K
Where the wide stair of orbed marble dips	R
Its snows into the sea her fluttering soul	K
Just shook the trembling petals of her lips	R
And passed into the void and Venus knew	G
That one fair maid the less would walk amid her retinue	G
	-
And bade her servants carve a cedar chest	P
With all the wonder of this history	E
Within whose scented womb their limbs should rest	P
Where olive trees make tender the blue sky	E
On the low hills of Paphos and the Faun	G
Pipes in the noonday and the nightingale sings on till dawn	G
	-
Nor failed they to obey her hest and ere	E
The morning bee had stung the daffodil	K
With tiny fretful spear or from its lair	E
The waking stag had leapt across the rill	K
And roused the ouzel or the lizard crept	P
Athwart the sunny rock beneath the grass their bodies slept	P
	-
And when day brake within that silver shrine	G
Fed by the flames of cressets tremulous	R
Queen Venus knelt and prayed to Proserpine	G
That she whose beauty made Death amorous	R
Should beg a guerdon from her pallid Lord	P
And let Desire pass across dread Charon's icy ford	P

Oscar Wilde

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