The Shield Of Achilles Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBBCDED FGFGHII JKJKKLL ABMNCOPQ RSRSSTT UVUVVWW AXYZA2B2C2B2 D2E2D2E2E2F2F2 C2G2H2G2I2J2BJ2| She looked over his shoulder | A |
| For vines and olive trees | B |
| Marble well governed cities | B |
| And ships upon untamed seas | B |
| But there on the shining metal | C |
| His hands had put instead | D |
| An artificial wilderness | E |
| And a sky like lead | D |
| - | |
| A plain without a feature bare and brown | F |
| No blade of grass no sign of neighborhood | G |
| Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down | F |
| Yet congregated on its blankness stood | G |
| An unintelligible multitude | H |
| A million eyes a million boots in line | I |
| Without expression waiting for a sign | I |
| - | |
| Out of the air a voice without a face | J |
| Proved by statistics that some cause was just | K |
| In tones as dry and level as the place | J |
| No one was cheered and nothing was discussed | K |
| Column by column in a cloud of dust | K |
| They marched away enduring a belief | L |
| Whose logic brought them somewhere else to grief | L |
| - | |
| She looked over his shoulder | A |
| For ritual pieties | B |
| White flower garlanded heifers | M |
| Libation and sacrifice | N |
| But there on the shining metal | C |
| Where the altar should have been | O |
| She saw by his flickering forge light | P |
| Quite another scene | Q |
| - | |
| Barbed wire enclosed an arbitrary spot | R |
| Where bored officials lounged one cracked a joke | S |
| And sentries sweated for the day was hot | R |
| A crowd of ordinary decent folk | S |
| Watched from without and neither moved nor spoke | S |
| As three pale figures were led forth and bound | T |
| To three posts driven upright in the ground | T |
| - | |
| The mass and majesty of this world all | U |
| That carries weight and always weighs the same | V |
| Lay in the hands of others they were small | U |
| And could not hope for help and no help came | V |
| What their foes like to do was done their shame | V |
| Was all the worst could wish they lost their pride | W |
| And died as men before their bodies died | W |
| - | |
| She looked over his shoulder | A |
| For athletes at their games | X |
| Men and women in a dance | Y |
| Moving their sweet limbs | Z |
| Quick quick to music | A2 |
| But there on the shining shield | B2 |
| His hands had set no dancing floor | C2 |
| But a weed choked field | B2 |
| - | |
| A ragged urchin aimless and alone | D2 |
| Loitered about that vacancy a bird | E2 |
| Flew up to safety from his well aimed stone | D2 |
| That girls are raped that two boys knife a third | E2 |
| Were axioms to him who'd never heard | E2 |
| Of any world where promises were kept | F2 |
| Or one could weep because another wept | F2 |
| - | |
| The thin lipped armorer | C2 |
| Hephaestos hobbled away | G2 |
| Thetis of the shining breasts | H2 |
| Cried out in dismay | G2 |
| At what the god had wrought | I2 |
| To please her son the strong | J2 |
| Iron hearted man slaying Achilles | B |
| Who would not live long | J2 |
W. H. Auden
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About The Shield Of Achilles
The Shield Of Achilles is a poem by W. H. Auden. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about The Shield Of Achilles poem by W. H. Auden
Best Poems of W. H. Auden