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 TTTT

What sayst thou traveller of all thou saw'st afarA
On every tree hangs boredom ripening to its fallB
Didst gather it thou smoking yon thy sad cigarA
Black casting an incongruous shadow on the wallB
-
Thine eyes are just as dead as ever they have beenC
Unchanged is thy grimace thy dolefulness is oneD
Thou mind'st one of the wan moon through the rigging seenE
The wrinkled sea beneath the golden morning sunD
-
The ancient graveyard with new gravestones every dayF
But come regale us with appropriate detailG
Those disillusions weeping at the fountains sayF
Those new disgusts just like their brothers littered staleG
-
Those women Say the glare the identical dismayF
Of ugliness and evil always in all landsH
And say Love too and Politics moreover sayF
With ink dishonored blood upon their shameless handsH
-
And then above all else neglect not to reciteI
Thy proper feats thou dragging thy simplicityJ
Wherever people love wherever people fightI
In such a sad and foolish kind in verityJ
-
Has that dull innocence been punished as it shouldK
What say'st thou Man is hard but woman And thy tearsL
Who has been drinking And into what ear so goodK
Dost pour thy woes for it to pour in other earsM
-
Ah others ah thyself Gulled with such curious easeN
That used to dream Doth not the soul with laughter fillO
One knows not what poetic delicate deceaseP
Thou sort of angel with the paralytic willO
-
But now what are thy plans thine aims Art thou of mightI
Or has long shedding tears disqualified thy heartQ
The tree is scarcely hardy judging it at sightI
And by thy looks no topping conqueror thou artQ
-
So awkward too With the additional offenceP
Of being now a sort of dazed idyllic bardR
That poses in a window contemplating thenceP
The silly noon day sky with an impressed regardR
-
So totally the same in this extreme decayF
But in thy place a being with some sense pardyJ
Would wish at least to lead the dance since he must payF
The fiddlers at some risk of flutt'ring passers byS
-
Canst not by rummaging within thy consciousnessP
Find some bright vice to bare as 't were a flashing swordT
Some gay audacious vice which wield with dexterousnessP
And make to shine and shoot red lightnings HeavenwardT
-
Hast one or more If more the better And plunge inC
And bravely lay about thee indiscriminateT
And wear that face of indolence that masks the grinC
Of hate at once full feasted and insatiateT
-
Not well to be a dupe in this good universeP
Where there is nothing to allure in happinessP
Save in it wriggle aught of shameful and perverseP
And not to be a dupe one must be mercilessP
-
Ah human wisdom ah new things have claimed mine eyesP
And of that past of weary recollectionD
Thy voice described for still more sinister adviceP
All I remember is the evil I have doneD
-
In all the curious movements of my sad careerU
Of others and myself the chequered road I trodT
Of my accounted sorrows good and evil cheerU
I nothing have retained except the grace of GodT
-
If I am punished 'tis most fit I should be soP
Played to its end is mortal man's and woman's roleV
But steadfastly I hope I too one day shall knowP
The peace and pardon promised every Christian soulV
-
Well not to be a dupe in this world of a dayT
But not to be one in the world that hath no endT
That which it doth behoove the soul to be and stayT
Is merciful not merciless deluded friendT

Paul Verlaine



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