The Chinese Nightingale Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Vachel Lindsay

The Chinese Nightingale Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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A Song in Chinese Tapestries	A
	-
	-
How how he said Friend Chang I said	B
San Francisco sleeps as the dead	B
Ended license lust and play	C
Why do you iron the night away	C
Your big clock speaks with a deadly sound	D
With a tick and a wail till dawn comes round	D
While the monster shadows glower and creep	E
What can be better for man than sleep	E
	-
I will tell you a secret Chang replied	F
My breast with vision is satisfied	F
And I see green trees and fluttering wings	G
And my deathless bird from Shanghai sings	G
Then he lit five fire crackers in a pan	H
Pop pop said the fire crackers cra cra crack	I
He lit a joss stick long and black	I
Then the proud gray joss in the corner stirred	J
On his wrist appeared a gray small bird	J
And this was the song of the gray small bird	J
Where is the princess loved forever	K
Who made Chang first of the kings of men	L
	-
And the joss in the corner stirred again	L
And the carved dog curled in his arms awoke	M
Barked forth a smoke cloud that whirled and broke	M
It piled in a maze round the ironing place	N
And there on the snowy table wide	F
Stood a Chinese lady of high degree	O
With a scornful witching tea rose face	N
Yet she put away all form and pride	F
And laid her glimmering veil aside	F
With a childlike smile for Chang and for me	O
	-
The walls fell back night was aflower	O
The table gleamed in a moonlit bower	O
While Chang with a countenance carved of stone	P
Ironed and ironed all alone	P
And thus she sang to the busy man Chang	Q
Have you forgotten	R
Deep in the ages long long ago	S
I was your sweetheart there on the sand	T
Storm worn beach of the Chinese land	T
We sold our grain in the peacock town	U
Built on the edge of the sea sands brown	U
Built on the edge of the sea sands brown	U
	-
When all the world was drinking blood	V
From the skulls of men and bulls	W
And all the world had swords and clubs of stone	P
We drank our tea in China beneath the sacred spice trees	A
And heard the curled waves of the harbor moan	P
And this gray bird in Love's first spring	X
With a bright bronze breast and a bronze brown wing	X
Captured the world with his carolling	X
Do you remember ages after	O
At last the world we were born to own	P
You were the heir of the yellow throne	P
The world was the field of the Chinese man	H
And we were the pride of the Sons of Han	Y
We copied deep books and we carved in jade	Z
And wove blue silks in the mulberry shade	Z
	-
I remember I remember	O
That Spring came on forever	O
That Spring came on forever	O
Said the Chinese nightingale	A2
	-
My heart was filled with marvel and dream	B2
Though I saw the western street lamps gleam	B2
Though dawn was bringing the western day	C
Though Chang was a laundryman ironing away	C
Mingled there with the streets and alleys	A
The railroad yard and the clock tower bright	C2
Demon clouds crossed ancient valleys	A
Across wide lotus ponds of light	C2
I marked a giant firefly's flight	C2
	-
And the lady rosy red	B
Flourished her fan her shimmering fan	H
Stretched her hand toward Chang and said	B
Do you remember	O
Ages after	O
Our palace of heart red stone	P
Do you remember	O
The little doll faced children	R
With their lanterns full of moon fire	O
That came from all the empire	O
Honoring the throne	P
The loveliest fete and carnival	D2
Our world had ever known	P
The sages sat about us	E2
With their heads bowed in their beards	F2
With proper meditation on the sight	C2
Confucius was not born	G2
We lived in those great days	H2
Confucius later said were lived aright	C2
And this gray bird on that day of spring	X
With a bright bronze breast and a bronze brown wing	X
Captured the world with his carolling	X
Late at night his tune was spent	C2
Peasants	I2
Sages	J2
Children	R
Homeward went	C2
And then the bronze bird sang for you and me	O
We walked alone Our hearts were high and free	O
I had a silvery name I had a silvery name	K2
I had a silvery name do you remember	O
The name you cried beside the tumbling sea	O
	-
Chang turned not to the lady slim	L2
He bent to his work ironing away	C
But she was arch and knowing and glowing	X
And the bird on his shoulder spoke for him	L2
	-
Darling darling darling darling	X
Said the Chinese nightingale	A2
	-
The great gray joss on a rustic shelf	M2
Rakish and shrewd with his collar awry	O
Sang impolitely as though by himself	M2
Drowning with his bellowing the nightingale's cry	O
Back through a hundred hundred years	N2
Hear the waves as they climb the piers	N2
Hear the howl of the silver seas	A
Hear the thunder	O
Hear the gongs of holy China	O2
How the waves and tunes combine	P2
In a rhythmic clashing wonder	O
Incantation old and fine	P2
'Dragons dragons Chinese dragons	Q2
Red fire crackers and green fire crackers	R2
And dragons dragons Chinese dragons '	-
	-
Then the lady rosy red	C2
Turned to her lover Chang and said	C2
Dare you forget that turquoise dawn	S2
When we stood in our mist hung velvet lawn	S2
And worked a spell this great joss taught	C2
Till a God of the Dragons was charmed and caught	C2
From the flag high over our palace home	T2
He flew to our feet in rainbow foam	T2
A king of beauty and tempest and thunder	O
Panting to tear our sorrows asunder	O
A dragon of fair adventure and wonder	O
We mounted the back of that royal slave	U2
With thoughts of desire that were noble and grave	U2
We swam down the shore to the dragon mountains	Q2
We whirled to the peaks and the fiery fountains	Q2
To our secret ivory house we were bourne	G2
We looked down the wonderful wing filled regions	Q2
Where the dragons darted in glimmering legions	Q2
Right by my breast the nightingale sang	X
The old rhymes rang in the sunlit mist	C2
That we this hour regain	V2
Song fire for the brain	V2
When my hands and my hair and my feet you kissed	C2
When you cried for your heart's new pain	V2
What was my name in the dragon mist	C2
In the rings of rainbowed rain	V2
	-
Sorrow and love glory and love	W2
Said the Chinese nightingale	A2
Sorrow and love glory and love	W2
Said the Chinese nightingale	A2
	-
And now the joss broke in with his song	X
Dying ember bird of Chang	X
Soul of Chang do you remember	O
Ere you returned to the shining harbor	O
There were pirates by ten thousand	C2
Descended on the town	U
In vessels mountain high and red and brown	U
Moon ships that climbed the storms and cut the skies	X2
On their prows were painted terrible bright eyes	X2
But I was then a wizard and a scholar and a priest	C2
I stood upon the sand	C2
With lifted hand I looked upon them	Y2
And sunk their vessels with my wizard eyes	X2
And the stately lacquer gate made safe again	L
Deep deep below the bay the sea weed and the spray	C
Embalmed in amber every pirate lies	X2
Embalmed in amber every pirate lies	X2
	-
Then this did the noble lady say	C
Bird do you dream of our home coming day	C
When you flew like a courier on before	O
From the dragon peak to our palace door	O
And we drove the steed in your singing path	Z2
The ramping dragon of laughter and wrath	Z2
And found our city all aglow	S
And knighted this joss that decked it so	S
There were golden fishes in the purple river	O
And silver fishes and rainbow fishes	A3
There were golden junks in the laughing river	O
And silver junks and rainbow junks	A3
There were golden lilies by the bay and river	O
And silver lilies and tiger lilies	A3
And tinkling wind bells in the gardens of the town	U
By the black lacquer gate	C2
Where walked in state	C2
The kind king Chang	X
And his sweet heart mate	C2
With his flag born dragon	R
And his crown of pearl and jade	C2
And his nightingale reigning in the mulberry shade	C2
And sailors and soldiers on the sea sands brown	U
And priests who bowed them down to your song	X
By the city called Han the peacock town	U
By the city called Han the nightingale town	U
The nightingale town	U
	-
Then sang the bird so strangely gay	C
Fluttering fluttering ghostly and gray	C
A vague unravelling final tune	B3
Like a long unwinding silk cocoon	B3
Sang as though for the soul of him	L2
Who ironed away in that bower dim	L2
I have forgotten	R
Your dragons great	C2
Merry and mad and friendly and bold	C2
Dim is your proud lost palace gate	C2
I vaguely know	S
There were heroes of old	C2
Troubles more than the heart could hold	C2
There were wolves in the woods	A3
Yet lambs in the fold	C2
Nests in the top of the almond tree	O
The evergreen tree and the mulberry tree	O
Life and hurry and joy forgotten	R
Years on years I but half remember	O
Man is a torch then ashes soon	B3
May and June then dead December	O
Dead December then again June	B3
Who shall end my dream's confusion	R
Life is a loom weaving illusion	R
I remember I remember	O
There were ghostly veils and laces	A3
In the shadowy bowery places	A3
With lovers' ardent faces	A3
Bending to one another	O
Speaking each his part	C2
They infinitely echo	S
In the red cave of my heart	C2
'Sweetheart sweetheart sweetheart '	-
They said to one another	O
They spoke I think of perils past	C2
They spoke I think of peace at last	C2
One thing I remember	O
Spring came on forever	O
Spring came on forever	O
Said the Chinese nightingale	A2