The People Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGGHAIJKLMN O FMFPOQRB ASTUVBGWXYZA2B2GC2D2 E2 F2G2H2RRII2RRJ2K2OL2 C2KM2 N2O2P2BQ2GR2S2T2U2V2 BW2S GX2Y2V2G2GV2Z2G2A3B3 X2V2Z2WC3 D3E3V2V2F3V2Z2GG3 V2V2V2E2 B V2 F3H3ONO SV2I3I3V2 V2 V2 A3 Z2 E3 V2 Y2 V2V2J3V2V2 K3 L3 M3N3F3 Z2V2II recall that man and not two centuries | A |
have passed since I saw him | B |
he went neither by horse nor by carriage | C |
purely on foot | D |
he outstripped | E |
distances | F |
and carried no sword or armour | G |
only nets on his shoulder | G |
axe or hammer or spade | H |
never fighting the rest of his species | A |
his exploits were with water and earth | I |
with wheat so that it turned into bread | J |
with giant trees to render them wood | K |
with walls to open up doors | L |
with sand to construct the walls | M |
and with ocean for it to bear | N |
- | |
I knew him and he is still not cancelled in me | O |
- | |
The carriages fell to pieces | F |
war destroyed doors and walls | M |
the city was a handful of ashes | F |
all the clothes turned to dust | P |
and he remains to me | O |
he survives in the sand | Q |
when everything before | R |
seemed imperishable but him | B |
- | |
In the going and coming of families | A |
at times he was my father or kinsman | S |
or perhaps it was scarcely him or not | T |
the one who did not return to his house | U |
because water or earth swallowed him up | V |
or a tree or an engine killed him | B |
or he was the saddened carpenter | G |
who went behind the coffin without tears | W |
someone in the end who had no name | X |
except those that metal or timber have | Y |
and on whom others gazed from on high | Z |
without seeing the ant | A2 |
for the anthill | B2 |
and so that when his feet did not stir | G |
because the poor exhausted one had died | C2 |
they never saw what they had not seen | D2 |
already there were other feet where he'd been | E2 |
- | |
The other feet were still his | F2 |
and the other hands | G2 |
the man remained | H2 |
when it seemed that now he was done for | R |
he was the same once more | R |
there he was digging again at the earth | I |
cutting cloth minus a shirt | I2 |
there he was and was not like before | R |
he had gone down and was once more | R |
and since he never owned graveyards | J2 |
or tombs nor was his name carved | K2 |
on the stone he sweated to quarry | O |
no one knew he had come | L2 |
and no one knew when he died | C2 |
so that only when the poor man could | K |
he returned to life once more without it being noted | M2 |
- | |
He was the man no doubt of it without heritage | N2 |
without cattle without a flag | O2 |
and he was not distinguished from others | P2 |
the others who were him | B |
from the heights he was grey like the subsoil | Q2 |
tanned like the leather | G |
he was yellow reaping the wheat | R2 |
he was black down in the mine | S2 |
he was the colour of stone on the fortress | T2 |
in the fishing boat the colour of tuna | U2 |
and the colour of horses in the meadow | V2 |
how could anyone distinguish him | B |
if he was inseparable elemental | W2 |
earth coal or sea vested in man | S |
- | |
Where he lived whatever | G |
a man touched grew | X2 |
the hostile stones | Y2 |
quarried | V2 |
by his hands | G2 |
took on order | G |
and one by one formed | V2 |
the right clarity of a building | Z2 |
he made bread with his hands | G2 |
moved the engines | A3 |
the distances peopled themselves with towns | B3 |
other men grew | X2 |
bees arrived | V2 |
and by man's creating and breeding | Z2 |
spring walked the market squares | W |
between bakeries and doves | C3 |
- | |
The maker of loaves was forgotten | D3 |
he who quarried and journeyed beating down | E3 |
and opening furrows transporting sand | V2 |
when everything existed he no longer existed | V2 |
he gave his existence that's all | F3 |
He went elsewhere to labour and at last | V2 |
he was dead rolling | Z2 |
like a stone in the river | G |
death carried him downstream | G3 |
- | |
I who knew him saw him descend | V2 |
till he was no longer except what he left | V2 |
roads he could scarcely know | V2 |
houses he never ever would live in | E2 |
- | |
I turn to see him and I await him | B |
- | |
I see him in his grave and resurrected | V2 |
- | |
I distinguish him among all | F3 |
who are his equals | H3 |
and it seems to me it cannot be | O |
that like this we go nowhere | N |
that to survive like this holds no glory | O |
- | |
I believe that this man | S |
must be enthroned rightly shod and crowned | V2 |
I believe that those who made such things | I3 |
must be the masters of all these things | I3 |
And that those who made bread should eat | V2 |
- | |
And those in the mines must have light | V2 |
- | |
Enough now of grey men enslaved | V2 |
- | |
Enough of the pale 'missing ones' | A3 |
- | |
Not another man passes except as a king | Z2 |
- | |
Not a single woman without her crown | E3 |
- | |
Golden gauntlets for every hand | V2 |
- | |
Fruits of the sun for all the unknowns | Y2 |
- | |
I knew that man and when I could | V2 |
when he still had eyes in his head | V2 |
when he still had a voice in his mouth | J3 |
I searched for him among tombs and I said | V2 |
grasping his arm that was not yet dust | V2 |
- | |
'All will be gone you will live on | K3 |
- | |
You ignite life | L3 |
- | |
You made what is yours ' | - |
- | |
So let no one trouble themselves when | M3 |
I seem to be alone and am not alone | N3 |
I am with no one and speak for them all | F3 |
- | |
Some listen to me without knowing | Z2 |
but those I sing those who do know | V2 |
go on being born and will fill up the Earth | I |
Pablo Neruda
(1)
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