Cleon Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEF GHEIJDKLMENEOP EQRSTUNVWXYZA2B2C2D2 E2F2G2EHEH2I2 J2SEK2L2M2N2O2J2PP2Q 2R2J2S2Q2T2EPEU2V2TW 2EX2EY2EJZ2J2A3EEB3C 3D3T2TX2TETLETJX2ET2 EX2TTE3F3J2TJ2TF3J2T G3TH3TEESJTJ2TI3W2J3 X2LJ2E3EJ2B2EEJ2K3L3 TEM3EN3EJTTTTS2TB3TE TO3EJ2TTTT2W2 P3Q3ET2ER3SOTSGTQ3SJ

As certain also of your own poets have saidA
ActsB
Cleon the poet from the sprinkled islesC
Lily on lily that o'erlace the seaD
And laugh their pride when the light wave lisps GreeceE
To Protus in his Tyranny much healthF
-
They give thy letter to me even nowG
I read and seem as if I heard thee speakH
The master of thy galley still unladesE
Gift after gift they block my court at lastI
And pile themselves along its porticoJ
Royal with sunset like a thought of theeD
And one white she slave from the group dispersedK
Of black and white slaves like the chequer workL
Pavement at once my nation's work and giftM
Now covered with this settle down of dovesE
One lyric woman in her crocus vestN
Woven of sea wools with her two white handsE
Commends to me the strainer and the cupO
Thy lip hath bettered ere it blesses mineP
-
Well counselled king in thy munificenceE
For so shall men remark in such an actQ
Of love for him whose song gives life its joyR
Thy recognition of the use of lifeS
Nor call thy spirit barely adequateT
To help on life in straight ways broad enoughU
For vulgar souls by ruling and the restN
Thou in the daily building of thy towerV
Whether in fierce and sudden spasms of toilW
Or through dim lulls of unapparent growthX
Or when the general work 'mid good acclaimY
Climbed with the eye to cheer the architectZ
Didst ne'er engage in work for mere work's sakeA2
Hadst ever in thy heart the luring hopeB2
Of some eventual rest a top of itC2
Whence all the tumult of the building hushedD2
Thou first of men might'st look out to the EastE2
The vulgar saw thy tower thou sawest the sunF2
For this I promise on thy festivalG2
To pour libation looking o'er the seaE
Making this slave narrate thy fortunes speakH
Thy great words and describe thy royal faceE
Wishing thee wholly where Zeus lives the mostH2
Within the eventual element of calmI2
-
Thy letter's first requirement meets me hereJ2
It is as thou hast heard in one short lifeS
I Cleon have effected all those thingsE
Thou wonderingly dost enumerateK2
That epos on thy hundred plates of goldL2
Is mine and also mine the little chantM2
So sure to rise from every fishing barkN2
When lights at prow the seamen haul their netO2
The image of the sun god on the phareJ2
Men turn from the sun's self to see is mineP
The P o'er storied its whole lengthP2
As thou didst hear with painting is mine tooQ2
I know the true proportions of a manR2
And woman also not observed beforeJ2
And I have written three books on the soulS2
Proving absurd all written hithertoQ2
And putting us to ignorance againT2
For music why I have combined the moodsE
Inventing one In brief all arts are mineP
Thus much the people know and recognizeE
Throughout our seventeen islands Marvel notU2
We of these latter days with greater mindV2
Than our forerunners since more compositeT
Look not so great beside their simple wayW2
To a judge who only sees one way at onceE
One mind point and no other at a timeX2
Compares the small part of a man of usE
With some whole man of the heroic ageY2
Great in his way not ours nor meant for oursE
And ours is greater had we skill to knowJ
For what we call this life of men on earthZ2
This sequence of the soul's achievements hereJ2
Being as I find much reason to conceiveA3
Intended to be viewed eventuallyE
As a great whole not analyzed to partsE
But each part having reference to allB3
How shall a certain part pronounced completeC3
Endure effacement by another partD3
Was the thing done then what's to do againT2
See in the chequered pavement oppositeT
Suppose the artist made a perfect rhombX2
And next a lozenge then a trapezoidT
He did not overlay them superimposeE
The new upon the old and blot it outT
But laid them on a level in his workL
Making at last a picture there it liesE
So first the perfect separate forms were madeT
The portions of mankind and after soJ
Occurred the combination of the sameX2
For where had been a progress otherwiseE
Mankind made up of all the single menT2
In such a synthesis the labour endsE
Now mark me those divine men of old timeX2
Have reached thou sayest well each at one pointT
The outside verge that rounds our facultyT
And where they reached who can do more than reachE3
It takes but little water just to touchF3
At some one point the inside of a sphereJ2
And as we turn the sphere touch all the restT
In due succession but the finer airJ2
Which not so palpably nor obviouslyT
Though no less universally can touchF3
The whole circumference of that emptied sphereJ2
Fills it more fully than the water didT
Holds thrice the weight of water in itselfG3
Resolved into a subtler elementT
And yet the vulgar call the sphere first fullH3
Up to the visible height and after voidT
Not knowing air's more hidden propertiesE
And thus our soul misknown cries out to ZeusE
To vindicate his purpose in our lifeS
Why stay we on the earth unless to growJ
Long since I imaged wrote the fiction outT
That he or other god descended hereJ2
And once for all showed simultaneouslyT
What in its nature never can be shownI3
Piecemeal or in succession showed I sayW2
The worth both absolute and relativeJ3
Of all his children from the birth of timeX2
His instruments for all appointed workL
I now go on to image might we hearJ2
The judgment which should give the due to eachE3
Show where the labour lay and where the easeE
And prove Zeus' self the latent everywhereJ2
This is a dream but no dream let us hopeB2
That years and days the summers and the springsE
Follow each other with unwaning powersE
The grapes which dye thy wine are richer farJ2
Through culture than the wild wealth of the rockK3
The suave plum than the savage tasted drupeL3
The pastured honey bee drops choicer sweetT
The flowers turn double and the leaves turn flowersE
That young and tender crescent moon thy slaveM3
Sleeping above her robe as buoyed by cloudsE
Refines upon the women of my youthN3
What and the soul alone deterioratesE
I have not chanted verse like Homer noJ
Nor swept string like Terpander no nor carvedT
And painted men like Phidias and his friendT
I am not great as they are point by pointT
But I have entered into sympathyT
With these four running these into one soulS2
Who separate ignored each other's artT
Say is it nothing that I know them allB3
The wild flower was the larger I have dashedT
Rose blood upon its petals pricked its cup'sE
Honey with wine and driven its seed to fruitT
And show a better flower if not so largeO3
I stand myself Refer this to the godsE
Whose gift alone it is which shall I dareJ2
All pride apart upon the absurd pretextT
That such a gift by chance lay in my handT
Discourse of lightly or depreciateT
It might have fallen to another's hand what thenT2
I pass too surely let at least truth stayW2
-
And next of what thou followest on to askP3
This being with me as I declare O kingQ3
My works in all these varicoloured kindsE
So done by me accepted so by menT2
Thou askest if my soul thus in men's heartsE
I must not be accounted to attainR3
The very crown and proper end of lifeS
Inquiring thence how now life closeth upO
I face death with success in my right handT
Whether I fear death less than dost thyselfS
The fortunate of men For writest thouG
Thou leavest much behind while I leave noughtT
Thy life stays in the poems men shall singQ3
The pictures men shall study while my lifeS
CoJ

Robert Browning



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