In Praise Of Limestone Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLGMNOPQRS TUVWXFFYZA2B2C2GD2BE 2F2IG2NH2I2J2K2L2FM2 N2FBN2N2O2P2Q2R2RGS2 T2 U2N2U2V2W2IU2X2IMGN2 Y2N2Z2N2MA3FRN2B3FPC 3D3ON2E3F3S2S2RNIf it form the one landscape that we the inconstant ones | A |
Are consistently homesick for this is chiefly | B |
Because it dissolves in water Mark these rounded slopes | C |
With their surface fragrance of thyme and beneath | D |
A secret system of caves and conduits hear the springs | E |
That spurt out everywhere with a chuckle | F |
Each filling a private pool for its fish and carving | G |
Its own little ravine whose cliffs entertain | H |
The butterfly and the lizard examine this region | I |
Of short distances and definite places | J |
What could be more like Mother or a fitter background | K |
For her son the flirtatious male who lounges | L |
Against a rock in the sunlight never doubting | G |
That for all his faults he is loved whose works are but | M |
Extensions of his power to charm From weathered outcrop | N |
To hill top temple from appearing waters to | O |
Conspicuous fountains from a wild to a formal vineyard | P |
Are ingenious but short steps that a child's wish | Q |
To receive more attention than his brothers whether | R |
By pleasing or teasing can easily take | S |
- | |
Watch then the band of rivals as they climb up and down | T |
Their steep stone gennels in twos and threes at times | U |
Arm in arm but never thank God in step or engaged | V |
On the shady side of a square at midday in | W |
Voluble discourse knowing each other too well to think | X |
There are any important secrets unable | F |
To conceive a god whose temper tantrums are moral | F |
And not to be pacified by a clever line | Y |
Or a good lay for accustomed to a stone that responds | Z |
They have never had to veil their faces in awe | A2 |
Of a crater whose blazing fury could not be fixed | B2 |
Adjusted to the local needs of valleys | C2 |
Where everything can be touched or reached by walking | G |
Their eyes have never looked into infinite space | D2 |
Through the lattice work of a nomad's comb born lucky | B |
Their legs have never encountered the fungi | E2 |
And insects of the jungle the monstrous forms and lives | F2 |
With which we have nothing we like to hope in common | I |
So when one of them goes to the bad the way his mind works | G2 |
Remains incomprehensible to become a pimp | N |
Or deal in fake jewellery or ruin a fine tenor voice | H2 |
For effects that bring down the house could happen to all | I2 |
But the best and the worst of us | J2 |
That is why I suppose | K2 |
The best and worst never stayed here long but sought | L2 |
Immoderate soils where the beauty was not so external | F |
The light less public and the meaning of life | M2 |
Something more than a mad camp 'Come ' cried the granite wastes | N2 |
How evasive is your humour how accidental | F |
Your kindest kiss how permanent is death Saints to be | B |
Slipped away sighing Come purred the clays and gravels | N2 |
On our plains there is room for armies to drill rivers | N2 |
Wait to be tamed and slaves to construct you a tomb | O2 |
In the grand manner soft as the earth is mankind and both | P2 |
Need to be altered Intendant Caesars rose and | Q2 |
Left slamming the door But the really reckless were fetched | R2 |
By an older colder voice the oceanic whisper | R |
I am the solitude that asks and promises nothing | G |
That is how I shall set you free There is no love | S2 |
There are only the various envies all of them sad | T2 |
- | |
They were right my dear all those voices were right | U2 |
And still are this land is not the sweet home that it looks | N2 |
Nor its peace the historical calm of a site | U2 |
Where something was settled once and for all A back ward | V2 |
And dilapidated province connected | W2 |
To the big busy world by a tunnel with a certain | I |
Seedy appeal is that all it is now Not quite | U2 |
It has a worldy duty which in spite of itself | X2 |
It does not neglect but calls into question | I |
All the Great Powers assume it disturbs our rights The poet | M |
Admired for his earnest habit of calling | G |
The sun the sun his mind Puzzle is made uneasy | N2 |
By these marble statues which so obviously doubt | Y2 |
His antimythological myth and these gamins | N2 |
Pursuing the scientist down the tiled colonnade | Z2 |
With such lively offers rebuke his concern for Nature's | N2 |
Remotest aspects I too am reproached for what | M |
And how much you know Not to lose time not to get caught | A3 |
Not to be left behind not please to resemble | F |
The beasts who repeat themselves or a thing like water | R |
Or stone whose conduct can be predicted these | N2 |
Are our common prayer whose greatest comfort is music | B3 |
Which can be made anywhere is invisible | F |
And does not smell In so far as we have to look forward | P |
To death as a fact no doubt we are right But if | C3 |
Sins can be forgiven if bodies rise from the dead | D3 |
These modifications of matter into | O |
Innocent athletes and gesticulating fountains | N2 |
Made solely for pleasure make a further point | E3 |
The blessed will not care what angle they are regarded from | F3 |
Having nothing to hide Dear I know nothing of | S2 |
Either but when I try to imagine a faultless love | S2 |
Or the life to come what I hear is the murmur | R |
Of underground streams what I see is a limestone landscape | N |
W. H. Auden
(2)
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