The Bankrupt Peace Maker Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ GGKKLLBBMMNNGGOOPPQQ RRSSTTUUVVWWLLI opened the ink well and smoke filled the room | A |
The smoke formed the giant frog cat of my doom | A |
His web feet left dreadful slime tracks on the floor | B |
He had hammer and nails that he laid by the door | B |
He sprawled on the table claw hands in my hair | C |
He looked through my heart to the mud that was there | C |
Like a black mailer hating his victim he spoke | D |
When I see all your squirming I laugh till I choke | D |
Singing of peace Railing at battle | E |
Soothing a handful with saccharine prattle | E |
All the millions of earth have voted for fight | F |
You are voting for talk with hands lily white | F |
He leaped to the floor then grew seven feet high | G |
Beautiful terrible scorn in his eye | G |
The Devil Eternal Apollo grown old | H |
With beard of bright silver and garments of gold | H |
What will you do to end war for good | I |
Will you stand by the book case be nailed to the wood | I |
I stretched out my arms He drove the nails deep | J |
Silently coolly The house was asleep | J |
I hung for three years forbidden to die | G |
I seemed but a shadow the servants passed by | G |
At the end of the time with hot irons he returned | K |
The Quitter Sublime on my bosom he burned | K |
As he seared me he hissed You are wearing away | L |
The good angels tell me you leave them today | L |
You want to come down from the nails in the door | B |
The victor must hang there three hundred years more | B |
If any prig saint would outvote all mankind | M |
He must use an immortally resolute mind | M |
Think what the saints of Benares endure | N |
Through infinite birthpangs their courage is sure | N |
Self tortured self ruled they build their powers high | G |
Until they are gods overmaster the sky | G |
Then he pulled out the nails He shouted Come in | O |
To heal me there stepped in a lady of sin | O |
Her hand was in mine We walked in the sun | P |
She said Now forget them the Saxon and Hun | P |
You are dreary and aged and silly and weak | Q |
Let us smell the sweet groves Let the summertime speak | Q |
We walked to the river We swam there in state | R |
I was a serpent She was my mate | R |
I forgot in the marsh as I tumbled about | S |
That trial in my room where I did not hold out | S |
Since I was a serpent my mate seemed to me | T |
As a mermaiden seems to a fisher at sea | T |
Or a whisky soaked girl to a whisky soaked king | U |
I woke She had turned to a ravening thing | U |
On the table a buzzard with leperous head | V |
She tore up my rhymes and my drawings She said | V |
I am your own cheap bankrupt soul | W |
Will you die for the nations making them whole | W |
We joy in the swamp and here we are gay | L |
WILL YOU BRING YOUR FINE PEACE TO THE NATIONS TODAY | L |
Vachel Lindsay
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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