Ode To Maize Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFAGHII JKLIM NOPQRIISTUFVUFWURISI XRIM IYZA2B2S BFIBYBI C2D2S IE2F2G2IIFS H2ISII III2E2J2QAmerica from a grain | A |
of maize you grew | B |
to crown | C |
with spacious lands | D |
the ocean foam | E |
A grain of maize was your geography | F |
From the grain | A |
a green lance rose | G |
was covered with gold | H |
to grace the heights | I |
of Peru with its yellow tassels | I |
- | |
But poet let | J |
history rest in its shroud | K |
praise with your lyre | L |
the grain in its granaries | I |
sing to the simple maize in the kitchen | M |
- | |
First a fine beard | N |
fluttered in the field | O |
above the tender teeth | P |
of the young ear | Q |
Then the husks parted | R |
and fruitfulness burst its veils | I |
of pale papyrus | I |
that grains of laughter | S |
might fall upon the earth | T |
To the stone | U |
in your journey | F |
you returned | V |
Not to the terrible stone | U |
the bloody | F |
triangle of Mexican death | W |
but to the grinding stone | U |
sacred | R |
stone of your kitchens | I |
There milk and matter | S |
strength giving nutritious | I |
cornmeal pulp | X |
you were worked and patted | R |
by the wondrous hands | I |
of dark skinned women | M |
- | |
Wherever you fall maize | I |
whether into the | Y |
splendid pot of partridge or among | Z |
country beans you light up | A2 |
the meal and lend it | B2 |
your virginal flavor | S |
- | |
Oh to bite into | B |
the steaming ear beside the sea | F |
of distant song and deepest waltz | I |
To boil you | B |
as your aroma | Y |
spreads through | B |
blue sierras | I |
- | |
But is there | C2 |
no end | D2 |
to your treasure | S |
- | |
In chalky barren lands | I |
bordered | E2 |
by the sea along | F2 |
the rocky Chilean coast | G2 |
at times | I |
only your radiance | I |
reaches the empty | F |
table of the miner | S |
- | |
Your light your cornmeal your hope | H2 |
pervades America's solitudes | I |
and to hunger | S |
your lances | I |
are enemy legions | I |
- | |
Within your husks | I |
like gentle kernels | I |
our sober provincial | I2 |
children's hearts were nurtured | E2 |
until life began | J2 |
to shuck us from the ear | Q |
Pablo Neruda
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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