The Tale Of The Tiger-tree Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A B CDDEFF FDD GHIHJKLK MNLNOOPOQDQDRSTSUVWV XYZYA2A2B2A2 HSHC2C2D2ME2SD2FMF2M E2SE2S C2JG2JHHH2H C2I2J2I2I2I2I2I2DDK2 XI2I2SSI2L2L2A2A2I2I 2M2XM2FFM2M2 N2I2O2O2 N2N2P2 XI2O2O2A2A2XFFNNI2I2 SI2E2I2SI2I2I2 C2 FDD E2Q2SM2M2E2Q2SM2M2M2 FXIXI2M2M2M2M2I2I2I2 R2C2I2LLC2S2S2T2E2XX E2 M2M2IE2II2ISSSSU2S C2I2SI2I2HI2HV2V2V2E 2V2E2E2XXE2 F BI2A2E2I2E2I2I2V2VXV VI2V2 A2A2M2W2

A Fantasy dedicated to the little poet Alice Oliver Henderson ten years oldA
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The Fantasy shows how tiger hearts are the cause of war in all ages It shows how the mammoth forces may be either friends or enemies of the struggle for peace It shows how the dream of peace is unconquerable and eternalB
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I-
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Peace of the Hea rt my own for longC
Whose shining hair the May winds fanD
Making it tangled as they canD
A mystery still star shining yetE
Through ancient ages known to meF
And now once more reborn with meF
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This is the tale of the Tiger TreeF
A hundred times the height of a manD
Lord of the race since the world beganD
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This is my city SpringfieldG
My home on the breast of the plainH
The state house towers to heavenI
By an arsenal gray as the rainH
And suddenly all is mistJ
And I walk in a world apartK
In the forest age when I first knelt downL
At your feet O Peace of the HeartK
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This is the wonder of twilightM
Three times as high as the domeN
Tiger striped trees encircle the townL
Golden geysers of foamN
While giant white parrots sail past in their prideO
The roofs now are clouds and storms that they rideO
And there with the huntsmen of mound builder daysP
Through jungle and meadow I strideO
And the Tiger Tree leaf is falling aroundQ
As it fell when the world beganD
Like a monstrous tiger skin stretched on the groundQ
Or the cloak of a medicine manD
A deep crumpled gossamer webR
Fringed with the fangs of a snakeS
The wind swirls it down from the leperous boughsT
It shimmers on clay hill and lakeS
With the gleam of great bubbles of bloodU
Or coiled like a rainbow shellV
I feast on the stem of the Leaf as I marchW
I am burning with Heaven and HellV
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II-
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The gray king died in his hourX
Then we crowned you the prophetess wiseY
Peace of the Heart we deeply adoredZ
For the witchcraft hid in your eyesY
Gift from the sky overmastering allA2
You sent forth your magical parrots to callA2
The plot hatching prince of the tigersB2
To your throne by the red clay wallA2
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Thus came that genius insaneH
Spitting and slinkingS
Sneering and vainH
He sprawled to your grassy throne drunk on The LeafC2
The drug that was cunning and splendor and griefC2
He had fled from the mammoth by dayD2
He had blasted the mammoth by nightM
War was his drunkennessE2
War was his dreamingS
War was his love and his playD2
And he hissed at your heavenly gloryF
While his councillors snarled in delightM
Asking in irony What shall we learnF2
From this whisperer fragile and whiteM
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And had you not been an enchantressE2
They would not have loitered to mockS
Nor spared your white parrots who walked by their pawsE2
With bantering venturesome talkS
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You made a white fire of The LeafC2
You sang while the tiger chiefs hissedJ
You chanted of Peace to the wonderful worldG2
And they saw you in dazzling mistJ
And their steps were no longer insaneH
Kindness came down like the rainH
They dreamed that like fleet young ponies they feastedH2
On succulent grasses and grainH
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Then came the black mammoth chiefC2
Long haired and shaggy and greatI2
Proud and sagacious he marshalled his courtJ2
You had sent him your parrots of stateI2
His trunk in rebellion upcurledI2
A curse at the tiger he hurledI2
Huge elephants trumpeted there by his sideI2
And mastodon chiefs of the worldI2
But higher magic beganD
For the turbulent vassals of manD
You harnessed their fever you conquered their ireK2
Their hearts turned to flowers through holy desireX
For their darling and star you were crownedI2
And their raging demons were boundI2
You rode on the back of the yellow streaked kingS
His loose neck was wreathed with a mistletoe ringS
Primordial elephants loomed by your sideI2
And our clay painted children danced by your pathL2
Chanting the death of the kingdoms of wrathL2
You wrought until night with us allA2
The fierce brutes fawned at your callA2
Then slipped to their lairs song chainedI2
And thus you sang sweetly and reignedI2
Immortal is the inner peace free to beasts and menM2
Beginning in the darkness the mystery will conquerX
And now it comforts every heart that seeks for love againM2
And now the mammoth bows the kneeF
We hew down every Tiger TreeF
We send each tiger bound in love and glory to his denM2
Bound in love and wisdom and glory to his denM2
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III-
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Beware of the trumpeting swineN2
Came the howl from the northward that nightI2
Twice rebel tigers warning was stillO2
If we held not beside them it boded us illO2
From the parrots translating the cry-
And the apes in the trees came the whineN2
Beware of the trumpeting swineN2
Beware of the faith of a mammothP2
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Beware of the faith of a tigerX
Came the roar from the southward that nightI2
Trumpeting mammoths warning us stillO2
If we held not beside them it boded us illO2
The frail apes wailed to us allA2
The parrots re choed the callA2
Beware of the faith of a tigerX
From the heights of the forest the watchers could seeF
The tiger cats crunching the Leaf of the TreeF
Lashing themselves and scattering foamN
Killing our huntsmen hurrying homeN
The chiefs of the mammoths our mastery spurnedI2
And eastward restlessly fumed and burnedI2
The peacocks squalled out the news of their drillingS
And told how they trampled maneuvered and turnedI2
Ten thousand man hating tigersE2
Whirling down from the north like a floodI2
Ten thousand mammoths oncomingS
From the south as avengers of bloodI2
Our child queen was mourning her magic was deadI2
The roots of the Tiger Tree reeking with redI2
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IVC2
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This is the tale of the Tiger TreeF
A hundred times the height of a manD
Lord of the race since the world beganD
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We marched to the mammothsE2
We pledged them our steelQ2
And scorning you sangS
We are menM2
We are menM2
We mounted their necksE2
And they stamped a wide reelQ2
We sangS
We are fighting the hell cats againM2
We are mound builder menM2
We are elephant menM2
We left you there lonelyF
Beauty your powerX
Wisdom your watchmanI
To hold the clay towerX
While the black mammoths boomedI2
You are elephant menM2
MenM2
MenM2
Elephant menM2
The dawn winds prophesied battles untoldI2
While the Tiger Trees roared of the glories of oldI2
Of the masterful spirits and hardI2
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The drunken cats came in their joyR2
In the sunrise a glittering waveC2
We are tigers are tigers they yowledI2
DownL
DownL
Go the swine to the graveC2
But we trampS2
TrampS2
Trampled them thereT2
Then charged with our sabres and spearsE2
The swish of the sabreX
The swish of the sabreX
Was a marvellous tune in our earsE2
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We yelled We are menM2
We are menM2
As we bled to death in the sunI
Then staunched our horrible woundsE2
With the cry that the battle was wonI
And at lastI2
When the black mammoth legionI
Split the night with their songS
Right is braver than wrongS
Right is stronger than wrongS
The buzzards came tauntingS
Down from the northU2
Tiger nations are sweeping alongS
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Then we ate of the ravening LeafC2
As our savage fathers of oldI2
No longer our wounds made us weakS
No longer our pulses were coldI2
Though half of my troops were afootI2
For the great who had borne them were slainH
We dreamed we were tigers and leapedI2
And foamed with that vision insaneH
We cried We are soldiers of doomV2
DoomV2
Sabres of glory and doomV2
We wreathed the king of the mammothsE2
In the tiger leaves' terrible bloomV2
We flattered the king of the mammothsE2
Loud rattling sabres and spearsE2
The swish of the sabreX
The swish of the sabreX
Was a marvellous tune in his earsE2
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VF
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This was the end of the battleB
The tigers poured by in a tideI2
Over us all with their caterwaul callA2
We are the tigersE2
They criedI2
We are the sabresE2
They criedI2
But we laughed while our blades swept wideI2
While the dawn rays stabbed through the gloomV2
We are suns on fire was our yellV
Suns on fireX
But man child and mastodon fellV
Mammoth and elephant fellV
The fangs of the devil cats closed on the worldI2
Plunged it to blackness and doomV2
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The desolate red clay wallA2
Echoed the parrots' callA2
Immortal is the inner peace free to beasts and menM2
Beginning in the darkness theW2

Vachel Lindsay



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