Work In Progress Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CD EFGHI J KLMNO FHP QRSTU VWXIYZ YA2 VB2 YC2D2 N E2FF2 G2YYYH2YI2J2 LYYHE2K2 L2M2LRN2 M2LQO2YYH M2P2Q2 P2R2 S2L XM2X XY M2XM2M2 T2 M2 T2 P2YYRYYFU2F V Y XFP2YY V2M2Y| Two Chinese fellows approached me in a London suburb | A |
| They were eager for talk | B |
| - | |
| Karl Marx's tomb they implored directions to the tomb | C |
| please They were pronouncing tomb as if it rhymed with home | D |
| - | |
| Suited up in their Mao jackets and identically dressed | E |
| without hint to rank or station they struck me as strangely | F |
| odd even on the thoroughfares of a metropolitan city I had | G |
| noticed they wore no green armband common to other | H |
| Communist dignitaries | I |
| - | |
| The smaller of the two became insistent | J |
| - | |
| I nodded and smiled at the mention of Marx's name for it | K |
| was Highgate and yes he was interred in the rambling | L |
| cemetery near by Yes I had visited the grave but was no | M |
| means clear it was a grave they had come all this way to | N |
| visit | O |
| - | |
| They were shy but puzzled at my redirection of their query | F |
| I pointed out there was no home as they were | H |
| pronouncing it but only a grave | P |
| - | |
| It was then that their enunciation and the silent murder of | Q |
| the letter T came back to me Like the Cockney unable | R |
| to say h in elocution class their confusion was furthered | S |
| by knowing only one word for final resting place My | T |
| own use of grave was causing them grave concern | U |
| - | |
| They were looking curiously at one another I doubt if they | V |
| had ever heard North American accented English I might | W |
| have been their first authentic American short of a | X |
| simulated war games exercise Certainly though all cities | I |
| are polyglots I had never seen two so authentically attired | Y |
| citizens of The People's Republic | Z |
| - | |
| It was an amusing moment life with the sang froid | Y |
| of the unspoken | A2 |
| - | |
| I gave them their dues They had their directions They | V |
| pranced off smartly and melted into the morning traffic | B2 |
| - | |
| And I thought of trying to explain that Marx at least | Y |
| in unofficial circles here is not considered with their same | C2 |
| deference | D2 |
| - | |
| I'm sorry if this jars with what you've been told Wu | N |
| - | |
| And no this is not counter revolutionary lies The truth is | E2 |
| Mr Han Marx was a chiseler He died owing nearly | F |
| every wage earner in The Village | F2 |
| - | |
| Talk of irony and final verdicts How one who numbers | G2 |
| among the age's savants could so brazenly ignore such hard | Y |
| economic fact seemed incredible to me Skulduggery aside | Y |
| such a thing even if only partially true would be scant | Y |
| tribute to the fabled man I thought of the British | H2 |
| Museum's collection of his writings then remembered it | Y |
| mentioned nothing of this fact Glowing tributes of course | I2 |
| but no unofficial flack | J2 |
| - | |
| And I thought of the possibility of a third world war being | L |
| in part based on this development Marx's embitterment | Y |
| that is his inability to pay even the most modest debt | Y |
| through his writing And should there ever come another | H |
| global catastrophe I imagined how Marx would extend his | E2 |
| wrath | K2 |
| - | |
| At the doctrine of dialectic materialism's doorstep Between | L2 |
| the incompatibility of work and her governing classes | M2 |
| Exportable revolution The decadent bourgeoisie struggling | L |
| to maintain their stranglehold on comfort The Gospel | R |
| completely according to Karl | N2 |
| - | |
| That would be without considering the question of Marx's | M2 |
| alleged incest with his daughter But then most everything | L |
| in the Marx story is alleged The alleged politics of | Q |
| confrontation The alleged incompatibility of those who toil | O2 |
| with their rulers The alleged inertia of labourers even to | Y |
| the degree of their exploitation And yes the alleged | Y |
| superiority of any one system over another | H |
| - | |
| Of course reference would be made to the irony of Marx | M2 |
| being buried and remaining interred throughout the years in | P2 |
| one of the most class conscious nations on earth | Q2 |
| - | |
| Where every accent and syllable decrees one's station in | P2 |
| life | R2 |
| - | |
| Where every utterance labels the speaker according to rank | S2 |
| and social standing by rigid calling | L |
| - | |
| I thought of myself discussing such things with the | X |
| perturbed yet unmovable ideologues of the People's | M2 |
| Democratic Republic of China | X |
| - | |
| Did they know Marx's friend and colleague Engels kept a | X |
| mistress Did they care that Marx disapproved | Y |
| - | |
| Imagine using the word grave in the same breath as | M2 |
| grave offence to discuss incest Glib moralizing the | X |
| trumpet of the bourgeoisie I seem to remember Lenin's | M2 |
| disdainful no omelettes with first cracking the eggs | M2 |
| - | |
| Perhaps all communication is claptrap | T2 |
| - | |
| All these fellows wanted were directions | M2 |
| - | |
| Their minds were made up | T2 |
| - | |
| They were attending a secular church walking in | P2 |
| the footsteps of an earthbound saint No amount of revisionist | Y |
| thinking could deflect in their eyes Marxian achievement | Y |
| And you had to give Marx certain dues That before people | R |
| are capable of aspiring to work they must first be fed And | Y |
| all contacts within life must inevitably come through and | Y |
| be restricted by how one has chosen to make that daily | F |
| bread Or in Marx's words how one is prevented from | U2 |
| advancing by artificial class barriers Precisely | F |
| - | |
| Poles apart Worlds away | V |
| - | |
| The two Chinese chaps and I were living proof of that | Y |
| - | |
| I wondered if they would have been interested in seeing the | X |
| Dicken's plaque nearby The novelist too had stayed only | F |
| a street away Little Dorritt would have been pleased even | P2 |
| if the jury is still out on which thinker alerted the world | Y |
| most to the evils of uncontrolled profit | Y |
| - | |
| I for one care little for the revolutionary proletariat or | V2 |
| repudiated communist dogma but I do like to eat Marx | M2 |
| made his point | Y |
Paul Cameron Brown
(1)
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