A Woman Young And Old Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEDFGHG AI JKLKMINIDOPQHIRI AE MSTUUSVWREERXXRTTR YHYZRA2RA2TRTR T E B2C2PC2RD2E2F2G2H2I2 H2 E J2XXJ2K2K2K2CCL2M2DL 2N2N2N2SS UO2RRO2RK2RCRK2N2P2M 2CR Q2 R2Q2S2Q2S2I2SST2DU2V 2W2DX2X2Y2F2Y2F2Z2H2 K2K2A3B3XC3D3B3SS RE N2CE3N2NN2F3J2E3J2G3 J2 R RH3RV2KN2KSK RU PQ2OQ2N2 I3DJ3K3 L3N2M3M3M3 N2D RN3RRRRN3RN2M3N2M3M3 M3M3M3I | A |
FATHER AND CHILD | B |
SHE hears me strike the board and say | C |
That she is under ban | D |
Of all good men and women | E |
Being mentioned with a man | D |
That has the worst of all bad names | F |
And thereupon replies | G |
That his hair is beautiful | H |
Cold as the March wind his eyes | G |
- | |
II | A |
BEFORE THE WORLD WAS MADE | I |
- | |
IF I make the lashes dark | J |
And the eyes more bright | K |
And the lips more scarlet | L |
Or ask if all be right | K |
From mirror after mirror | M |
No vanity's displayed | I |
I'm looking for the face I had | N |
Before the world was made | I |
What if I look upon a man | D |
As though on my beloved | O |
And my blood be cold the while | P |
And my heart unmoved | Q |
Why should he think me cruel | H |
Or that he is betrayed | I |
I'd have him love the thing that was | R |
Before the world was made | I |
- | |
III | A |
A FIRST CONFESSION | E |
- | |
I ADMIT the briar | M |
Entangled in my hair | S |
Did not injure me | T |
My blenching and trembling | U |
Nothing but dissembling | U |
Nothing but coquetry | S |
I long for truth and yet | V |
I cannot stay from that | W |
My better self disowns | R |
For a man's attention | E |
Brings such satisfaction | E |
To the craving in my bones | R |
Brightness that I pull back | X |
From the Zodiac | X |
Why those questioning eyes | R |
That are fixed upon me | T |
What can they do but shun me | T |
If empty night replies | R |
- | |
IV | - |
HER TRIUMPH | - |
- | |
I DID the dragon's will until you came | Y |
Because I had fancied love a casual | H |
Improvisation or a settled game | Y |
That followed if I let the kerchief fall | Z |
Those deeds were best that gave the minute wings | R |
And heavenly music if they gave it wit | A2 |
And then you stood among the dragon rings | R |
I mocked being crazy but you mastered it | A2 |
And broke the chain and set my ankles free | T |
Saint George or else a pagan Perseus | R |
And now we stare astonished at the sea | T |
And a miraculous strange bird shrieks at us | R |
- | |
V | T |
- | |
CONSOLATION | E |
- | |
O BUT there is wisdom | B2 |
In what the sages said | C2 |
But stretch that body for a while | P |
And lay down that head | C2 |
Till I have told the sages | R |
Where man is comforted | D2 |
How could passion run so deep | E2 |
Had I never thought | F2 |
That the crime of being born | G2 |
Blackens all our lot | H2 |
But where the crime's committed | I2 |
The crime can be forgot | H2 |
- | |
VI | - |
CHOSEN | E |
- | |
THE lot of love is chosen I learnt that much | J2 |
Struggling for an image on the track | X |
Of the whirling Zodiac | X |
Scarce did he my body touch | J2 |
Scarce sank he from the west | K2 |
Or found a subtetranean rest | K2 |
On the maternal midnight of my breast | K2 |
Before I had marked him on his northern way | C |
And seemed to stand although in bed I lay | C |
I struggled with the horror of daybreak | L2 |
I chose it for my lot If questioned on | M2 |
My utmost pleasure with a man | D |
By some new married bride I take | L2 |
That stillness for a theme | N2 |
Where his heart my heart did seem | N2 |
And both adrift on the miraculous stream | N2 |
Where wrote a learned astrologer | S |
The Zodiac is changed into a sphere | S |
- | |
VII | - |
PARTING | U |
i He Dear I must be gone | O2 |
While night Shuts the eyes | R |
Of the household spies | R |
That song announces dawn | O2 |
i She No night's bird and love's | R |
Bids all true lovers rest | K2 |
While his loud song reproves | R |
The murderous stealth of day | C |
i He Daylight already flies | R |
From mountain crest to crest | K2 |
i She That light is from the moom | N2 |
i He That bird | P2 |
i She Let him sing on | M2 |
I offer to love's play | C |
My dark declivities | R |
- | |
VIII | - |
HER VISION IN THE WOOD | Q2 |
- | |
DRY timber under that rich foliage | R2 |
At wine dark midnight in the sacred wood | Q2 |
Too old for a man's love I stood in rage | S2 |
Imagining men Imagining that I could | Q2 |
A greater with a lesser pang assuage | S2 |
Or but to find if withered vein ran blood | I2 |
I tore my body that its wine might cover | S |
Whatever could rccall the lip of lover | S |
And after that I held my fingers up | T2 |
Stared at the wine dark nail or dark that ran | D |
Down every withered finger from the top | U2 |
But the dark changed to red and torches shone | V2 |
And deafening music shook the leaves a troop | W2 |
Shouldered a litter with a wounded man | D |
Or smote upon the string and to the sound | X2 |
Sang of the beast that gave the fatal wound | X2 |
All stately women moving to a song | Y2 |
With loosened hair or foreheads grief distraught | F2 |
It seemed a Quattrocento painter's throng | Y2 |
A thoughtless image of Mantegna's thought | F2 |
Why should they think that are for ever young | Z2 |
Till suddenly in grief's contagion caught | H2 |
I stared upon his blood bedabbled breast | K2 |
And sang my malediction with the rest | K2 |
That thing all blood and mire that beast torn wreck | A3 |
Half turned and fixed a glazing eye on mine | B3 |
And though love's bitter sweet had all come back | X |
Those bodies from a picture or a coin | C3 |
Nor saw my body fall nor heard it shriek | D3 |
Nor knew drunken with singing as with wine | B3 |
That they had brought no fabulous symbol there | S |
But my heart's victim and its torturer | S |
- | |
IX | R |
A LAST CONFESSION | E |
- | |
WHAT lively lad most pleasured me | N2 |
Of all that with me lay | C |
I answer that I gave my soul | E3 |
And loved in misery | N2 |
But had great pleasure with a lad | N |
That I loved bodily | N2 |
Flinging from his arms I laughed | F3 |
To think his passion such | J2 |
He fancied that I gave a soul | E3 |
Did but our bodies touch | J2 |
And laughed upon his breast to think | G3 |
Beast gave beast as much | J2 |
I gave what other women gave | - |
'That stepped out of their clothes | R |
But when this soul its body off | - |
Naked to naked goes | R |
He it has found shall find therein | H3 |
What none other knows | R |
And give his own and take his own | V2 |
And rule in his own right | K |
And though it loved in misery | N2 |
Close and cling so tight | K |
There's not a bird of day that dare | S |
Extinguish that delight | K |
- | |
X | R |
MEETING | U |
- | |
HIDDEN by old age awhile | P |
In masker's cloak and hood | Q2 |
Each hating what the other loved | O |
Face to face we stood | Q2 |
'That I have met with such ' said he | N2 |
'Bodes me little good ' | - |
'Let others boast their fill ' said I | - |
'But never dare to boast | I3 |
That such as I had such a man | D |
For lover in the past | J3 |
Say that of living men I hate | K3 |
Such a man the most ' | - |
'A loony'd boast of such a love ' | - |
He in his rage declared | L3 |
But such as he for such as me | N2 |
Could we both discard | M3 |
This beggarly habiliment | M3 |
Had found a sweeter word | M3 |
- | |
XI | N2 |
FROM THE 'ANTIGONE' | D |
- | |
OVERCOME O bitter sweetness | R |
Inhabitant of the soft cheek of a girl | N3 |
The rich man and his affairs | R |
The fat flocks and the fields' fatness | R |
Mariners rough harvesters | R |
Overcome Gods upon Parnassus | R |
Overcome the Empyrean hurl | N3 |
Heaven and Earth out of their places | R |
That in the Same calamity | N2 |
Brother and brother friend and friend | M3 |
Family and family | N2 |
City and city may contend | M3 |
By that great glory driven wild | M3 |
Pray I will and sing I must | M3 |
And yet I weep Oedipus' child | M3 |
Descends into the loveless dust | M3 |
William Butler Yeats
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