The Last Caesar Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCCBBCCB CCCDDB A EFFEEFFE GHI JCI A BBBBBBBB KLG KLL BBLL MNCCLLCC BBCCAAOO BBCC PPBBHHCCCCBBQQBBCCCF FRR MM

IA
-
Now there was one who came in later daysB
To play at Emperor in the dead of nightC
Stole crown and sceptre and stood forth to lightC
In sudden purple The dawn's straggling raysB
Showed Paris fettered murmuring in amazeB
With red hands at her throat a piteous sightC
Then the new C sar stricken with affrightC
At his own daring shrunk from public gazeB
-
In the Elys e and had lost the dayC
But that around him flocked his birds of preyC
Sharp beaked voracious hungry for the deedC
'Twixt hope and fear beheld great C sar hangD
Meanwhile methinks a ghostly laughter rangD
Through the rotunda of the InvalidesB
-
IIA
-
What if the boulevards at set of sunE
Reddened but not with the sunset's kindly glowF
What if from quai and square the murmured woeF
Swept heavenward pleadingly The prize was wonE
A kingling made and Liberty undoneE
No Emperor this like him awhile agoF
But his Name's shadow that one struck the blowF
Himself the street sweeping gunE
-
This was a man of tortuous heart and brainG
So warped he knew not his own point of viewH
The master of a dark mysterious smileI
-
And there he plotted by the storied SeineJ
And in the fairy gardens of St CloudC
The Sphinx that puzzled Europe for awhileI
-
IIIA
-
I see him as men saw him once a faceB
Of true Napoleon pallor round the eyesB
The wrinkled care mustache spread pinion wiseB
Pointing his smile with odd sardonic graceB
As wearily he turns him in his placeB
And bends before the hoarse Parisian criesB
Then vanishes with glitter of gold laceB
And trumpets blaring to the patient skiesB
-
Not thus he vanished later On his pathK
The Furies waited for the hour and manL
Foreknowing that they waited not in vainG
-
Then fell the day o day of dreadful wrathK
Bow down in shame O crimson girt SedanL
Weep fair Alsace weep loveliest LorainneL
-
So mused I sitting underneath the treesB
In that old garden of the TuileriesB
Watching the dust of twilight sifting downL
Through chestnut boughs just touched with autumn's brownL
-
Not twilight yet but that illusive bloomM
Which holds before the deep edged shadows comeN
For still the garden stood in golden mistC
Still like a river of golden amethystC
The Seine slipt through its pans of fretted stoneL
And near the grille that once fenced in a throneL
The fountains still unbraided to the dayC
The unsubstantial silver of their sprayC
-
A spot to dream in love in waste one's hoursB
Temples and palaces and gilded towersB
And fairy terraces and yet and yetC
Here in her woe came Marie AntoinetteC
Came sweet Corday Du Barry with shrill cryA
Not learning from her betters how to dieA
Here while the nations watched with bated breathO
Was held the saturnalia of Red DeathO
-
For where that slim Egyptian shaft upliftsB
Its point to catch the dawn's and sunset's driftsB
Of various gold the busy Headsman stoodC
Place de la Concorde no the Place of BloodC
-
And all so peaceful now one cannot bringP
Imagination to accept the thingP
Lies all of it some dreamer's wild romanceB
High hearted witty laughter loving FranceB
In whose brain was it that the legend grewH
Of M nads shrieking in this avenueH
Of watch fires burning Famine standing guardC
Of long speared Uhlans in that palace yardC
What ruder sound this soft air ever smoteC
Than a bird's twitter or a bugle's noteC
What darker crimson ever splashed these walksB
Than that of rose leaves dropping from the stalksB
And yet what means that charred and broken wallQ
That sculptured marble splintered like to fallQ
Looming among the trees there And you sayB
This happened as it were but yesterdayB
And here the commune stretched a barricadeC
And there the final desperate stand was madeC
Such things have been How all things change and fadeC
How little lasts in this brave world belowF
Love dies hate cools the C sars come and goF
Gaunt Hunger fattens and the weak grow strongR
Even Republics are not here for longR
-
Ah who can tell what hour may bring the doomM
The lighted torch the tocsin's heavy boomM

Thomas Bailey Aldrich



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