The Tale Of The Tiger Tree Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CADE FGGHII IGG JKLKMNON PQOQRRSRTGTGUVWVXYZY AA2B2A2C2C2D2C2 KVKE2E2F2PG2VF2IPH2P G2VG2V E2MI2MKKJ2K E2K2L2K2K2K2K2K2GGM2 AK2K2VVK2N2N2C2C2K2K 2O2AO2IIO2O2 P2K2Q2Q2 P2P2R2 AK2Q2Q2C2C2AIIQQK2K2 VK2G2K2VK2K2K2 E2 IGG G2S2VO2O2G2S2VO2O2O2 IALAK2O2O2O2O2K2K2K2 T2E2K2OOE2U2U2V2G2AA G2O2O2LG2LK2LVVVVW2V E2K2VK2K2KK2KX2X2X2G 2X2G2G2AAG2 I EK2C2G2K2G2K2K2X2YAY YK2X2C2C2O2AO2IIO2O2 IG2K2G2K2K2Y2Y2K2 K2QOQG2G2A Fantasy dedicated to the little poet Alice Oliver | A |
Henderson ten years old | B |
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The Fantasy shows how tiger hearts are the cause of war in | C |
all ages It shows how the mammoth forces may be either | A |
friends or enemies of the struggle for peace It shows how | D |
the dream of peace is unconquerable and eternal | E |
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I | - |
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Peace of the Heart my own for long | F |
Whose shining hair the May winds fan | G |
Making it tangled as they can | G |
A mystery still star shining yet | H |
Through ancient ages known to me | I |
And now once more reborn with me | I |
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This is the tale of the Tiger Tree | I |
A hundred times the height of a man | G |
Lord of the race since the world began | G |
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This is my city Springfield | J |
My home on the breast of the plain | K |
The state house towers to heaven | L |
By an arsenal gray as the rain | K |
And suddenly all is mist | M |
And I walk in a world apart | N |
In the forest age when I first knelt down | O |
At your feet O Peace of the Heart | N |
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This is the wonder of twilight | P |
Three times as high as the dome | Q |
Tiger striped trees encircle the town | O |
Golden geysers of foam | Q |
While giant white parrots sail past in their pride | R |
The roofs now are clouds and storms that they ride | R |
And there with the huntsmen of mound builder days | S |
Through jungle and meadow I stride | R |
And the Tiger Tree leaf is falling around | T |
As it fell when the world began | G |
Like a monstrous tiger skin stretched on the ground | T |
Or the cloak of a medicine man | G |
A deep crumpled gossamer web | U |
Fringed with the fangs of a snake | V |
The wind swirls it down from the leperous boughs | W |
It shimmers on clay hill and lake | V |
With the gleam of great bubbles of blood | X |
Or coiled like a rainbow shell | Y |
I feast on the stem of the Leaf as I march | Z |
I am burning with Heaven and Hell | Y |
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II | - |
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The gray king died in his hour | A |
Then we crowned you the prophetess wise | A2 |
Peace of the Heart we deeply adored | B2 |
For the witchcraft hid in your eyes | A2 |
Gift from the sky overmastering all | C2 |
You sent forth your magical parrots to call | C2 |
The plot hatching prince of the tigers | D2 |
To your throne by the red clay wall | C2 |
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Thus came that genius insane | K |
Spitting and slinking | V |
Sneering and vain | K |
He sprawled to your grassy throne drunk on The Leaf | E2 |
The drug that was cunning and splendor and grief | E2 |
He had fled from the mammoth by day | F2 |
He had blasted the mammoth by night | P |
War was his drunkenness | G2 |
War was his dreaming | V |
War was his love and his play | F2 |
And he hissed at your heavenly glory | I |
While his councillors snarled in delight | P |
Asking in irony What shall we learn | H2 |
From this whisperer fragile and white | P |
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And had you not been an enchantress | G2 |
They would not have loitered to mock | V |
Nor spared your white parrots who walked by their paws | G2 |
With bantering venturesome talk | V |
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You made a white fire of The Leaf | E2 |
You sang while the tiger chiefs hissed | M |
You chanted of Peace to the wonderful world | I2 |
And they saw you in dazzling mist | M |
And their steps were no longer insane | K |
Kindness came down like the rain | K |
They dreamed that like fleet young ponies they feasted | J2 |
On succulent grasses and grain | K |
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Then came the black mammoth chief | E2 |
Long haired and shaggy and great | K2 |
Proud and sagacious he marshalled his court | L2 |
You had sent him your parrots of state | K2 |
His trunk in rebellion upcurled | K2 |
A curse at the tiger he hurled | K2 |
Huge elephants trumpeted there by his side | K2 |
And mastodon chiefs of the world | K2 |
But higher magic began | G |
For the turbulent vassals of man | G |
You harnessed their fever you conquered their ire | M2 |
Their hearts turned to flowers through holy desire | A |
For their darling and star you were crowned | K2 |
And their raging demons were bound | K2 |
You rode on the back of the yellow streaked king | V |
His loose neck was wreathed with a mistletoe ring | V |
Primordial elephants loomed by your side | K2 |
And our clay painted children danced by your path | N2 |
Chanting the death of the kingdoms of wrath | N2 |
You wrought until night with us all | C2 |
The fierce brutes fawned at your call | C2 |
Then slipped to their lairs song chained | K2 |
And thus you sang sweetly and reigned | K2 |
Immortal is the inner peace free to beasts and men | O2 |
Beginning in the darkness the mystery will conquer | A |
And now it comforts every heart that seeks for love again | O2 |
And now the mammoth bows the knee | I |
We hew down every Tiger Tree | I |
We send each tiger bound in love and glory to his den | O2 |
Bound in love and wisdom and glory to his den | O2 |
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III | - |
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Beware of the trumpeting swine | P2 |
Came the howl from the northward that night | K2 |
Twice rebel tigers warning was still | Q2 |
If we held not beside them it boded us ill | Q2 |
From the parrots translating the cry | - |
And the apes in the trees came the whine | P2 |
Beware of the trumpeting swine | P2 |
Beware of the faith of a mammoth | R2 |
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Beware of the faith of a tiger | A |
Came the roar from the southward that night | K2 |
Trumpeting mammoths warning us still | Q2 |
If we held not beside them it boded us ill | Q2 |
The frail apes wailed to us all | C2 |
The parrots reechoed the call | C2 |
Beware of the faith of a tiger | A |
From the heights of the forest the watchers could see | I |
The tiger cats crunching the Leaf of the Tree | I |
Lashing themselves and scattering foam | Q |
Killing our huntsmen hurrying home | Q |
The chiefs of the mammoths our mastery spurned | K2 |
And eastward restlessly fumed and burned | K2 |
The peacocks squalled out the news of their drilling | V |
And told how they trampled maneuvered and turned | K2 |
Ten thousand man hating tigers | G2 |
Whirling down from the north like a flood | K2 |
Ten thousand mammoths oncoming | V |
From the south as avengers of blood | K2 |
Our child queen was mourning her magic was dead | K2 |
The roots of the Tiger Tree reeking with red | K2 |
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IV | E2 |
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This is the tale of the Tiger Tree | I |
A hundred times the height of a man | G |
Lord of the race since the world began | G |
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We marched to the mammoths | G2 |
We pledged them our steel | S2 |
And scorning you sang | V |
We are men | O2 |
We are men | O2 |
We mounted their necks | G2 |
And they stamped a wide reel | S2 |
We sang | V |
We are fighting the hell cats again | O2 |
We are mound builder men | O2 |
We are elephant men | O2 |
We left you there lonely | I |
Beauty your power | A |
Wisdom your watchman | L |
To hold the clay tower | A |
While the black mammoths boomed | K2 |
You are elephant men | O2 |
Men | O2 |
Men | O2 |
Elephant men | O2 |
The dawn winds prophesied battles untold | K2 |
While the Tiger Trees roared of the glories of old | K2 |
Of the masterful spirits and hard | K2 |
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The drunken cats came in their joy | T2 |
In the sunrise a glittering wave | E2 |
We are tigers are tigers they yowled | K2 |
Down | O |
Down | O |
Go the swine to the grave | E2 |
But we tramp | U2 |
Tramp | U2 |
Trampled them there | V2 |
Then charged with our sabres and spears | G2 |
The swish of the sabre | A |
The swish of the sabre | A |
Was a marvellous tune in our ears | G2 |
We yelled We are men | O2 |
We are men | O2 |
As we bled to death in the sun | L |
Then staunched our horrible wounds | G2 |
With the cry that the battle was won | L |
And at last | K2 |
When the black mammoth legion | L |
Split the night with their song | V |
Right is braver than wrong | V |
Right is stronger than wrong | V |
The buzzards came taunting | V |
Down from the north | W2 |
Tiger nations are sweeping along | V |
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Then we ate of the ravening Leaf | E2 |
As our savage fathers of old | K2 |
No longer our wounds made us weak | V |
No longer our pulses were cold | K2 |
Though half of my troops were afoot | K2 |
For the great who had borne them were slain | K |
We dreamed we were tigers and leaped | K2 |
And foamed with that vision insane | K |
We cried We are soldiers of doom | X2 |
Doom | X2 |
Sabres of glory and doom | X2 |
We wreathed the king of the mammoths | G2 |
In the tiger leaves' terrible bloom | X2 |
We flattered the king of the mammoths | G2 |
Loud rattling sabres and spears | G2 |
The swish of the sabre | A |
The swish of the sabre | A |
Was a marvellous tune in his ears | G2 |
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V | I |
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This was the end of the battle | E |
The tigers poured by in a tide | K2 |
Over us all with their caterwaul call | C2 |
We are the tigers | G2 |
They cried | K2 |
We are the sabres | G2 |
They cried | K2 |
But we laughed while our blades swept wide | K2 |
While the dawn rays stabbed through the gloom | X2 |
We are suns on fire was our yell | Y |
Suns on fire | A |
But man child and mastodon fell | Y |
Mammoth and elephant fell | Y |
The fangs of the devil cats closed on the world | K2 |
Plunged it to blackness and doom | X2 |
The desolate red clay wall | C2 |
Echoed the parrots' call | C2 |
Immortal is the inner peace free to beasts and men | O2 |
Beginning in the darkness the mystery will conquer | A |
And now it comforts every heart that seeks for love again | O2 |
And now the mammoth bows the knee | I |
We hew down every Tiger Tree | I |
We send each tiger bound in love and glory to his den | O2 |
Bound in love and wisdom and glory to his den | O2 |
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A peacock screamed of his beauty | I |
On that broken wall by the trees | G2 |
Chiding his little mate | K2 |
Spreading his fans in the breeze | G2 |
And you with eyes of a bride | K2 |
Knelt on the wall at my side | K2 |
The deathless song in your mouth | Y2 |
A million new tigers swept south | Y2 |
As we laughed at the peacock and died | K2 |
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This is my vision in Springfield | K2 |
Three times as high as the dome | Q |
Tiger striped trees encircle the town | O |
Golden geysers of foam | Q |
Though giant white parrots sail past giving voice | G2 |
Though I walk with Peace of the Heart and rejoice | G2 |
Vachel Lindsay
(1)
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