The Chosen Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBC DCDC EFEF GHGH IJIJ CCCC KLKL MNNN OPOP QNQN RCRC STUT VWVWGreek text which cannot be reproduced | A |
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A woman for whom great gods might strive | B |
I said and kissed her there | C |
And then I thought of the other five | B |
And of how charms outwear | C |
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I thought of the first with her eating eyes | D |
And I thought of the second with hers green gray | C |
And I thought of the third experienced wise | D |
And I thought of the fourth who sang all day | C |
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And I thought of the fifth whom I'd called a jade | E |
And I thought of them all tear fraught | F |
And that each had shown her a passable maid | E |
Yet not of the favour sought | F |
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So I traced these words on the bark of a beech | G |
Just at the falling of the mast | H |
After scanning five yes each and each | G |
I've found the woman desired at last | H |
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I feel a strange benumbing spell | I |
As one ill wished said she | J |
And soon it seemed that something fell | I |
Was starving her love for me | J |
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I feel some curse O FIVE were there | C |
And wanly she swerved and went away | C |
I followed sick night numbed the air | C |
And dark the mournful moorland lay | C |
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I cried O darling turn your head | K |
But never her face I viewed | L |
O turn O turn again I said | K |
And miserably pursued | L |
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At length I came to a Christ cross stone | M |
Which she had passed without discern | N |
And I knelt upon the leaves there strown | N |
And prayed aloud that she might turn | N |
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I rose and looked and turn she did | O |
I cried My heart revives | P |
Look more she said I looked as bid | O |
Her face was all the five's | P |
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All the five women clear come back | Q |
I saw in her with her made one | N |
The while she drooped upon the track | Q |
And her frail term seemed well nigh run | N |
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She'd half forgot me in her change | R |
Who are you Won't you say | C |
Who you may be you man so strange | R |
Following since yesterday | C |
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I took the composite form she was | S |
And carried her to an arbour small | T |
Not passion moved but even because | U |
In one I could atone to all | T |
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And there she lies and there I tend | V |
Till my life's threads unwind | W |
A various womanhood in blend | V |
Not one but all combined | W |
Thomas Hardy
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