The Threshold Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFDFCCCF GDHDEIJKCCCI LCLCMNEDCCCO PDQDRRRRCCCR RCRCMNCCCO| In their deepest caverns of limestone | A |
| They pictured the Gods of Food | B |
| The Horse the Elk and the Bison | C |
| That the hunting might be good | D |
| With the Gods of Death and Terror | E |
| The Mammoth Tiger and Bear | F |
| And the pictures moved in the torchlight | D |
| To show that the Gods were there | F |
| But that was before Ionia | C |
| Or the Seven Holy Islands of Ionia | C |
| Any of the Mountains of Ionia | C |
| Had bared their peaks to the air | F |
| - | |
| The close years packed behind them | G |
| As the glaciers bite and grind | D |
| Filling the new gouged valleys | H |
| With Gods of every kind | D |
| Gods of all reaching power | E |
| Gods of all searching eyes | I |
| But each to be wooed by worship | J |
| And won by sacrifice | K |
| Till after many winters rose Ionia | C |
| Strange men brooding in Ionia | C |
| Crystal eyed Sages of Ionia | C |
| Who said quot These tales are lies | I |
| - | |
| quot We dream one Breath in all things | L |
| quot That blows all things between | C |
| quot We dream one Matter in all things | L |
| quot Eternal changeless unseen | C |
| quot 'That the heart of the Matter is single | M |
| quot Till the Breath shall bid it bring forth | N |
| quot By choosing or losing its neighbour | E |
| quot All things made upon Earth quot | D |
| But Earth was wiser than Ionia | C |
| Babylon and Egypt than Ionia | C |
| And they overlaid the teaching of Ionia | C |
| And the Truth was choked at birth | O |
| - | |
| It died at the Gate of Knowledge | P |
| The Key to the Gate in its hand | D |
| And the anxious priests and wizards | Q |
| Re blinded the wakening land | D |
| For they showed by answering echoes | R |
| And chasing clouds as they rose | R |
| How shadows should stand for bulwarks | R |
| Between mankind and its woes | R |
| It was then that men bethought them of Ionia | C |
| The few that had not allforgot Ionia | C |
| Or the Word that was whispered in Ionia | C |
| And they turned from the shadows and the shows | R |
| - | |
| They found one Breath in all things | R |
| That moves all things between | C |
| They proved one Matter in all things | R |
| Eternal changeless unseen | C |
| That the heart of the Matter was single | M |
| Till the Breath should bid it bring forth | N |
| Even as men whispered in Ionia | C |
| Resolute unsatisfied Ionia | C |
| Ere the Word was stifled in Ionia | C |
| All things known upon earth | O |
Rudyard Kipling
(1)
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