Margrave Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKL MNOPQDRSPTBLUVWXYBZA 2XCB2 C2D2E2A2F2TG2B2H2 BI2B2J2B2K2L2E2B2SM2 B2N2SO2P2QTQ2CR2I2B2 S2B2T2B2B2B2U2TJV2B2 W2X2BSB2Y2Z2A3B3N2DS SL2B2QB2 Z2PBC3D3S2Z2B2DCQE3S O2B2F3BPK2B2G3H3B2 I3E3B2 J3B2K3L2L2E3L2BL3B2M 3L2I2N3SO2BO3 B2P3O2 E3PL2BF3Q3BN2SR3B2O2 B2R3On the small marble paved platform | A |
On the turret on the head of the tower | B |
Watching the night deepen | C |
I feel the rock edge of the continent | D |
Reel eastward with me below the broad stars | E |
I lean on the broad worn stones of the parapet top | F |
And the stones and my hands that touch them reel eastward | G |
The inland mountains go down and new lights | H |
Glow over the sinking east rim of the earth | I |
The dark ocean comes up | J |
And reddens the western stars with its fog breath | K |
And hides them with its mounded darkness | L |
- | |
The earth was the world and man was its measure but our minds | M |
have looked | N |
Through the little mock dome of heaven the telescope slotted | O |
observatory eyeball there space and multitude came in | P |
And the earth is a particle of dust by a sand grain sun lost in a | Q |
nameless cove of the shores of a continent | D |
Galaxy on galaxy innumerable swirls of innumerable stars endured | R |
as it were forever and humanity | S |
Came into being its two or three million years are a moment in | P |
a moment it will certainly cease out from being | T |
And galaxy on galaxy endure after that as it were forever | B |
But man is conscious | L |
He brings the world to focus in a feeling brain | U |
In a net of nerves catches the splendor of things | V |
Breaks the somnambulism of nature His distinction perhaps | W |
Hardly his advantage To slaver for contemptible pleasures | X |
And scream with pain are hardly an advantage | Y |
Consciousness The learned astronomer | B |
Analyzing the light of most remote star swirls | Z |
Has found them or a trick of distance deludes his prism | A2 |
All at incredible speeds fleeing outward from ours | X |
I thought no doubt they are fleeing the contagion | C |
Of consciousness that infects this corner of space | B2 |
- | |
For often I have heard the hard rocks I handled | C2 |
Groan because lichen and time and water dissolve them | D2 |
And they have to travel down the strange falling scale | E2 |
Of soil and plants and the flesh of beasts to become | A2 |
The bodies of men they murmur at their fate | F2 |
In the hollows of windless nights they'd rather be anything | T |
Than human flesh played on by pain and joy | G2 |
They pray for annihilation sooner but annihilation's | B2 |
Not in the book yet | H2 |
- | |
So I thought the rumor | B |
Of human consciousness has gone abroad in the world | I2 |
The sane uninfected far outer universes | B2 |
Flee it in a panic of escape as men flee the plague | J2 |
Taking a city for look at the fruits of consciousness | B2 |
As in young Walter Margrave when he'd been sentenced for | K2 |
murder he was thinking when they brought him back | L2 |
To the cell in jail | E2 |
'I've only a moment to arrange my thoughts | B2 |
I must think quickly I must think clearly | S |
And settle the world in my mind before I kick off ' but to feel | M2 |
the curious eyes of his fellow prisoners | B2 |
And the wry mouthed guard's and so forth torment him through | N2 |
the steel bars put his mind in a stupor he could only | S |
Sit frowning ostentatiously unafraid 'But I can control my | O2 |
mind their eyes can't touch my will | P2 |
One against all What use is will at this end of everything A | Q |
kind of nausea is the chief feeling | T |
In my stomach and throat but in my head pride I fought | Q2 |
a good fight and they can't break me alone unbroken | C |
Against a hundred and twenty three million people They are | R2 |
going to kill the best brain perhaps in the world | I2 |
That might have made such discoveries in science | B2 |
As would set the world centuries ahead for I had the mind and | S2 |
the power Boo it's their loss Blind fools | B2 |
Killing their best ' When his mind forgot the eyes it made rapid | T2 |
capricious pictures instead of words | B2 |
But not of the medical school and the laboratories its late intense | B2 |
interest not at all of his crime glimpses | B2 |
Of the coast range at home the V of a westward canyon with | U2 |
the vibrating | T |
Blue line of the ocean strung sharp across it that domed hill up | J |
the valley two cows like specks on the summit | V2 |
And a beautiful colored jungle of poison oak at the foot his | B2 |
sister half naked washing her hair | W2 |
'My dirty sister ' whose example and her lovers had kept him | X2 |
chaste by revulsion the reed grown mouth of the river | B |
And the sand bar against the stinging splendor of the sea | S |
and anguish behind all the pictures | B2 |
He began to consider his own mind again 'like a wall they | Y2 |
hang on ' Hang The anguish came forward an actual | Z2 |
Knife between two heartbeats the organ stopped and then raced | A3 |
He experimented awhile with his heart | B3 |
Making in his mind a picture of a man hanged pretending to | N2 |
himself it was to happen next moment | D |
Trying to observe whether the beat suspended 'suspended ' he | S |
thought in systole or in diastole | S |
The effect soon failed the anguish remained 'Ah my slack | L2 |
lawyer damn him let slip chance after chance | B2 |
Scared traitor ' Then broken pictures of the scenes in court the | Q |
jury the judge the idlers and not one face | B2 |
But bleak with hatred 'But I met their eyes one against all ' | - |
Suddenly his mind became incapable | Z2 |
Of making pictures or words but still wildly active striking in | P |
all directions like a snake in a fire | B |
Finding nothing but the fiery element of its own anguish He got | C3 |
up and felt the guard's eyes and sat down | D3 |
Turned side face resting his chin on his fist frowning and | S2 |
trembling He saw clearly in his mind the little | Z2 |
Adrenal glands perched on the red brown kidneys as if all his | B2 |
doomed tissues became transparent | D |
Pouring in these passions their violent secretion | C |
Into his blood stream raising the tension unbearably And the | Q |
thyroids tension tension A long course of that | E3 |
Should work grave changes 'If they tortured a man like a laboratory | S |
dog for discovery there'd be value gained but by | O2 |
process | B2 |
Of law for vengeance because his glands and his brain have | F3 |
made him act in another than common manner | B |
You incredible breed of asses ' He smiled self consciously in | P |
open scorn of the people the guard at the door | K2 |
To observe that smile 'my God do I care about the turnkey's | B2 |
opinion 'suddenly his mind again | G3 |
Was lashing like a burnt snake Then it was torpid for a while | H3 |
This continued for months | B2 |
- | |
His father had come to visit him he saw the ruinous white haired head | I3 |
Through two steel wickets under the bluish electric light that | E3 |
seemed to peel the skin from the face | B2 |
Walter said cheerfully too loudly 'Hullo You look like a skull ' | - |
The shaven sunk jaws in answer chewed | J3 |
Inaudible words Walter with an edge of pleasure thought 'Once | B2 |
he was stronger than I I used to admire | K3 |
This poor old man's strength when I was a child ' and said 'Buck | L2 |
up old fellow it will soon be over Here's nothing | L2 |
To cry for Do you think I'm afraid to die It's good people that | E3 |
fear death people with the soft streak | L2 |
Of goodness in them fear death but I you know am a monster | B |
don't you read the papers Caught at last | L3 |
I fought a hundred and twenty three million people How's | B2 |
Hazel How's the farm I could get out of this scrape | M3 |
By playing dementia but I refuse to there's not an alienist living | L2 |
Could catch me out I'm the king of Spain dying for the world | I2 |
I've been persecuted since I was born | N3 |
By a secret sect they stuck pins into me | S |
And fed me regular doses of poison for a certain reason Why | O2 |
do you pretend that you're my father | B |
God is Believe me I could get by with it | O3 |
But I refuse ' | - |
Old Margrave looked timidly at the two guards | B2 |
listening and drew his brown tremulous hand | P3 |
Across his eyes below the white hair 'I thought of going to try | O2 |
to see the governor Walter ' | - |
'That's it ' 'Don't hope for anything Walter they tell me that | E3 |
there's no hope They say that I shan't even | P |
Be allowed to see him ' 'By God ' the young man said trembling | L2 |
'you can if you want to Never believe that lawyer | B |
If I d had Dorking but you couldn't afford him Poor men have | F3 |
no right to breed sons I'd not be here | Q3 |
If you'd had money to put me through college Tell the governor | B |
I know he won't pardon but he can commute the sentence to | N2 |
life imprisonment Then I can read and study | S |
I can help the penitentiary doctor I can do something to help | R3 |
humanity Tell him it's madness | B2 |
To throw such a brain as mine into the garbage Don't deny my | O2 |
guilt but tell him my reasons | B2 |
I kidnapp | R3 |
Robinson Jeffers
(1)
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