What Sayst Thou, Traveller, Of All Thou Saw'st Afar? Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDED FGFG FHFH IJIJ KLKM NOPO IQIQ PRPR FJFS PTPT CTCT PPPP PDPD UTUT PVPV TTTTWhat sayst thou traveller of all thou saw'st afar | A |
On every tree hangs boredom ripening to its fall | B |
Didst gather it thou smoking yon thy sad cigar | A |
Black casting an incongruous shadow on the wall | B |
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Thine eyes are just as dead as ever they have been | C |
Unchanged is thy grimace thy dolefulness is one | D |
Thou mind'st one of the wan moon through the rigging seen | E |
The wrinkled sea beneath the golden morning sun | D |
- | |
The ancient graveyard with new gravestones every day | F |
But come regale us with appropriate detail | G |
Those disillusions weeping at the fountains say | F |
Those new disgusts just like their brothers littered stale | G |
- | |
Those women Say the glare the identical dismay | F |
Of ugliness and evil always in all lands | H |
And say Love too and Politics moreover say | F |
With ink dishonored blood upon their shameless hands | H |
- | |
And then above all else neglect not to recite | I |
Thy proper feats thou dragging thy simplicity | J |
Wherever people love wherever people fight | I |
In such a sad and foolish kind in verity | J |
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Has that dull innocence been punished as it should | K |
What say'st thou Man is hard but woman And thy tears | L |
Who has been drinking And into what ear so good | K |
Dost pour thy woes for it to pour in other ears | M |
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Ah others ah thyself Gulled with such curious ease | N |
That used to dream Doth not the soul with laughter fill | O |
One knows not what poetic delicate decease | P |
Thou sort of angel with the paralytic will | O |
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But now what are thy plans thine aims Art thou of might | I |
Or has long shedding tears disqualified thy heart | Q |
The tree is scarcely hardy judging it at sight | I |
And by thy looks no topping conqueror thou art | Q |
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So awkward too With the additional offence | P |
Of being now a sort of dazed idyllic bard | R |
That poses in a window contemplating thence | P |
The silly noon day sky with an impressed regard | R |
- | |
So totally the same in this extreme decay | F |
But in thy place a being with some sense pardy | J |
Would wish at least to lead the dance since he must pay | F |
The fiddlers at some risk of flutt'ring passers by | S |
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Canst not by rummaging within thy consciousness | P |
Find some bright vice to bare as 't were a flashing sword | T |
Some gay audacious vice which wield with dexterousness | P |
And make to shine and shoot red lightnings Heavenward | T |
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Hast one or more If more the better And plunge in | C |
And bravely lay about thee indiscriminate | T |
And wear that face of indolence that masks the grin | C |
Of hate at once full feasted and insatiate | T |
- | |
Not well to be a dupe in this good universe | P |
Where there is nothing to allure in happiness | P |
Save in it wriggle aught of shameful and perverse | P |
And not to be a dupe one must be merciless | P |
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Ah human wisdom ah new things have claimed mine eyes | P |
And of that past of weary recollection | D |
Thy voice described for still more sinister advice | P |
All I remember is the evil I have done | D |
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In all the curious movements of my sad career | U |
Of others and myself the chequered road I trod | T |
Of my accounted sorrows good and evil cheer | U |
I nothing have retained except the grace of God | T |
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If I am punished 'tis most fit I should be so | P |
Played to its end is mortal man's and woman's role | V |
But steadfastly I hope I too one day shall know | P |
The peace and pardon promised every Christian soul | V |
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Well not to be a dupe in this world of a day | T |
But not to be one in the world that hath no end | T |
That which it doth behoove the soul to be and stay | T |
Is merciful not merciless deluded friend | T |
Paul Verlaine
(1)
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