Hellenistics Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD BEFB BGGG GDBB BHIB JKGL MNOB GBPQ NBBB RBO GSBB HPSPB TUVB BWGB BT B| I look at the Greek derived design that nourished my infancy | A |
| this Wedgwood copy of the Portland vase | B |
| Someone had given it to my father my eyes at five years old | C |
| used to devour it by the hour | D |
| - | |
| I look at a Greek coin four drachma piece struck by Lysimachus | B |
| young Alexander's head | E |
| With the horns of Ammon and brave brow ridges the bright | F |
| pride and immortal youth and wild sensitiveness | B |
| - | |
| I think of Achilles Sappho the Nike I think of those mercenaries | B |
| who marched in the heart of Asia | G |
| And lived to salute the sea the lean faces like lance heads the | G |
| grace of panthers The dull welter of Asia | G |
| - | |
| I am past childhood I look at this ocean and the fishing birds the | G |
| streaming skerries the shining water | D |
| The foam heads the exultant dawn light going west the pelicans | B |
| their huge wings half folded plunging like stones | B |
| - | |
| Whatever it is catches my heart in its hands whatever it is makes | B |
| me shudder with love | H |
| And painful joy and the tears prickle the Greeks were not | I |
| its inventors The Greeks were not the inventors | B |
| - | |
| Of shining clarity and jewel sharp form and the beauty of God | J |
| He was free with men before the Greeks came | K |
| He is here naked on the shining water Every eye that has a | G |
| man's nerves behind it has known him | L |
| - | |
| II | - |
| I think of the dull welter of Asia I think of squalid savages along | M |
| the Congo the natural | N |
| Condition of man that makes one say of all beasts 'They are | O |
| not contemptible Man is contemptible ' I see | B |
| - | |
| The squalor of our own frost bitten forefathers I will praise the | G |
| Greeks for having pared down the shame of three vices | B |
| Natural to man and no other animal cruelty and filth and superstition | P |
| grained in man's making | Q |
| - | |
| III | - |
| The age darkens Europe mixes her cups of death all the little | N |
| Caesars fidget on their thrones | B |
| The old wound opens its clotted mouth to ask for new wounds | B |
| Men will fight through men have tough hearts | B |
| - | |
| Men will fight through to the autumn flowering and ordered | R |
| prosperity They will lift their heads in the great cities | B |
| Of the empire and say 'Freedom Freedom was a fire We are | O |
| well quit of freedom we have found prosperity ' | - |
| - | |
| They will say 'Where now are the evil prophets ' Thus for a | G |
| time in the age's afterglow the sterile time | S |
| But the wounds drain and freedom has died slowly the machines | B |
| break down slowly the wilderness returns | B |
| - | |
| IV | H |
| Oh distant future children going down to the foot of the mountain | P |
| the new barbarism the night of time | S |
| Mourn your own dead if you remember them but not for civilization | P |
| not for our scuttled futilities | B |
| - | |
| You are saved from being little entrails feeding large brains you | T |
| are saved from being little empty bundles of enjoyment | U |
| You are not to be fractional supported people but complete men | V |
| you will guard your own heads you will have proud eyes | B |
| - | |
| You will stand among the spears when you meet life will be | B |
| lovely and terrible again great and in earnest | W |
| You will know hardship hunger and violence these are not the | G |
| evils what power can save you from the real evils | B |
| - | |
| Of barbarism What poet will be born to tell you to hate cruelty | B |
| and filth What prophet will warn you | T |
| When the witch doctors begin dancing or if any man says 'I | - |
| am a priest ' to kill them with spears | B |
Robinson Jeffers
(1)
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