Initial Love Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDEFFGGHHII JJKLJJMMNOJJPPQRRQJJ SSTTJUVUWWJXXYYZZJJ LLPPJJ PPJJJJPPJJPPA2B2 YYJJIIPPPPSSPP C2C2JJYYD2D2PPJJDD JPJPPPPPE2E2PP E2E2JJWWPPF2G2H2H2PP YD2UUPP PPJJG2SYSXI2J2G2K2I2 I2I2YYJL2JZVenus when her son was lost | A |
Cried him up and down the coast | B |
In hamlets palaces and parks | C |
And told the truant by his marks | C |
Golden curls and quiver and bow | D |
This befell long ago | E |
Time and tide are strangely changed | F |
Men and manners much deranged | F |
None will now find Cupid latent | G |
By this foolish antique patent | G |
He came late along the waste | H |
Shod like a traveller for haste | H |
With malice dared me to proclaim him | I |
That the maids and boys might name him | I |
- | |
Boy no more he wears all coats | J |
Frocks and blouses capes cap ocirc tes | J |
He bears no bow or quiver or wand | K |
Nor chaplet on his head or hand | L |
Leave his weeds and heed his eyes | J |
All the rest he can disguise | J |
In the pit of his eyes a spark | M |
Would bring back day if it were dark | M |
And if I tell you all my thought | N |
Though I comprehend it not | O |
In those unfathomable orbs | J |
Every function he absorbs | J |
He doth eat and drink and fish and shoot | P |
And write and reason and compute | P |
And ride and run and have and hold | Q |
And whine and flatter and regret | R |
And kiss and couple and beget | R |
By those roving eye balls bold | Q |
Undaunted are their courages | J |
Right Cossacks in their forages | J |
Fleeter they than any creature | S |
They are his steeds and not his feature | S |
Inquisitive and fierce and fasting | T |
Restless predatory hasting | T |
And they pounce on other eyes | J |
As lions on their prey | U |
And round their circles is writ | V |
Plainer than the day | U |
Underneath within above | W |
Love love love love | W |
He lives in his eyes | J |
There doth digest and work and spin | X |
And buy and sell and lose and win | X |
He rolls them with delighted motion | Y |
Joy tides swell their mimic ocean | Y |
Yet holds he them with tortest rein | Z |
That they may seize and entertain | Z |
The glance that to their glance opposes | J |
Like fiery honey sucked from roses | J |
- | |
He palmistry can understand | L |
Imbibing virtue by his hand | L |
As if it were a living root | P |
The pulse of hands will make him mute | P |
With all his force he gathers balms | J |
Into those wise thrilling palms | J |
- | |
Cupid is a casuist | P |
A mystic and a cabalist | P |
Can your lurking Thought surprise | J |
And interpret your device | J |
Mainly versed in occult science | J |
In magic and in clairvoyance | J |
Oft he keeps his fine ear strained | P |
And reason on her tiptoe pained | P |
For aery intelligence | J |
And for strange coincidence | J |
But it touches his quick heart | P |
When Fate by omens takes his part | P |
And chance dropt hints from Nature's sphere | A2 |
Deeply soothe his anxious ear | B2 |
- | |
Heralds high before him run | Y |
He has ushers many a one | Y |
Spreads his welcome where he goes | J |
And touches all things with his rose | J |
All things wait for and divine him | I |
How shall I dare to malign him | I |
Or accuse the god of sport | P |
I must end my true report | P |
Painting him from head to foot | P |
In as far as I took note | P |
Trusting well the matchless power | S |
Of this young eyed emperor | S |
Will clear his fame from every cloud | P |
With the bards and with the crowd | P |
- | |
He is wilful mutable | C2 |
Shy untamed inscrutable | C2 |
Swifter fashioned than the fairies | J |
Substance mixed of pure contraries | J |
His vice some elder virtue's token | Y |
And his good is evil spoken | Y |
Failing sometimes of his own | D2 |
He is headstrong and alone | D2 |
He affects the wood and wild | P |
Like a flower hunting child | P |
Buries himself in summer waves | J |
In trees with beasts in mines and caves | J |
Loves nature like a horned cow | D |
Bird or deer or cariboo | D |
- | |
Shun him nymphs on the fleet horses | J |
He has a total world of wit | P |
O how wise are his discourses | J |
But he is the arch hypocrite | P |
And through all science and all art | P |
Seeks alone his counterpart | P |
He is a Pundit of the east | P |
He is an augur and a priest | P |
And his soul will melt in prayer | E2 |
But word and wisdom are a snare | E2 |
Corrupted by the present toy | P |
He follows joy and only joy | P |
- | |
There is no mask but he will wear | E2 |
He invented oaths to swear | E2 |
He paints he carves he chants he prays | J |
And holds all stars in his embrace | J |
Godlike but 'tis for his fine pelf | W |
The social quintessence of self | W |
Well said I he is hypocrite | P |
And folly the end of his subtle wit | P |
He takes a sovran privilege | F2 |
Not allowed to any liege | G2 |
For he does go behind all law | H2 |
And right into himself does draw | H2 |
For he is sovranly allied | P |
Heaven's oldest blood flows in his side | P |
And interchangeably at one | Y |
With every king on every throne | D2 |
That no God dare say him nay | U |
Or see the fault or seen betray | U |
He has the Muses by the heart | P |
And the Parc all are of his part | P |
- | |
His many signs cannot be told | P |
He has not one mode but manifold | P |
Many fashions and addresses | J |
Piques reproaches hurts caresses | J |
Action service badinage | G2 |
He will preach like a friar | S |
And jump like Harlequin | Y |
He will read like a crier | S |
And fight like a Paladin | X |
Boundless is his memory | I2 |
Plans immense his term prolong | J2 |
He is not of counted age | G2 |
Meaning always to be young | K2 |
And his wish is intimacy | I2 |
Intimater intimacy | I2 |
And a stricter privacy | I2 |
The impossible shall yet be done | Y |
And being two shall still be one | Y |
As the wave breaks to foam on shelves | J |
Then runs into a wave again | L2 |
So lovers melt their sundered selves | J |
Yet melted would be twain | Z |
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1)
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