Hawaiian Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABC DCEFG HDIFDD DJD KDLKK CMKJKKKKN KC| SANDALWOOD you say and in your thoughts it chimes | A |
| With Tyre and Solomon to me it rhymes | A |
| With places bare upon Pacific mountains | B |
| With spaces empty in the minds of men | C |
| - | |
| Sandalwood | D |
| The Kings of Hawaii call out their men | C |
| The men go up the mountains in files | E |
| Hands that knew only the stone axe now wield the iron axe | F |
| The sandalwood trees go down | G |
| - | |
| More sandalwood is called for | H |
| The men who hunt the whale will buy sandalwood | D |
| The Kings would change canoes for ships | I |
| Men come down from the mountains carrying sandalwood on their backs | F |
| More and more men are levied | D |
| They go up the mountains in files they leave their taropatches so that famine comes down on the land | D |
| - | |
| But this sandalwood grows upon other trees a parasite | D |
| It needs a growing thing to grow upon | J |
| Its seed and its soil are not enough for it | D |
| - | |
| Too greedy are the Kings | K |
| Too eager are the men who hunt the whale to sail to | D |
| Canton with fragrant wood to make shrines for the | L |
| Buddhas | K |
| Too sharp is the iron axe | K |
| - | |
| Nothing will ever bring together again | C |
| The spores and the alien sap that nourished them | M |
| The trees and the trees they would plant themselves | K |
| upon | J |
| Like the myths of peoples | K |
| Like the faiths of peoples | K |
| Like the speech of peoples | K |
| Like the ancient creation chants | K |
| The sandalwood is gone | N |
| - | |
| A fragrance in shrines | K |
| But the trees will never live again | C |
Padraic Colum
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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