Lapis Lazuli Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBDAEFG BHBIJBKBLMLLNOPQ RLRQQQQSLTL LBLBUB VBWQWQXIXIQLQL| For Harry Clifton | A |
| - | |
| I have heard that hysterical women say | B |
| They are sick of the palette and fiddle bow | C |
| Of poets that are always gay | B |
| For everybody knows or else should know | D |
| That if nothing drastic is done | A |
| Aeroplane and Zeppelin will come out | E |
| Pitch like King Billy bomb balls in | F |
| Until the town lie beaten flat | G |
| - | |
| All perform their tragic play | B |
| There struts Hamlet there is Lear | H |
| That's Ophelia that Cordelia | B |
| Yet they should the last scene be there | I |
| The great stage curtain about to drop | J |
| If worthy their prominent part in the play | B |
| Do not break up their lines to weep | K |
| They know that Hamlet and Lear are gay | B |
| Gaiety transfiguring all that dread | L |
| All men have aimed at found and lost | M |
| Black out Heaven blazing into the head | L |
| Tragedy wrought to its uttermost | L |
| Though Hamlet rambles and Lear rages | N |
| And all the drop scenes drop at once | O |
| Upon a hundred thousand stages | P |
| It cannot grow by an inch or an ounce | Q |
| - | |
| On their own feet they came or On shipboard ' | - |
| Camel back horse back ass back mule back | R |
| Old civilisations put to the sword | L |
| Then they and their wisdom went to rack | R |
| No handiwork of Callimachus | Q |
| Who handled marble as if it were bronze | Q |
| Made draperies that seemed to rise | Q |
| When sea wind swept the corner stands | Q |
| His long lamp chimney shaped like the stem | S |
| Of a slender palm stood but a day | L |
| All things fall and are built again | T |
| And those that build them again are gay | L |
| - | |
| Two Chinamen behind them a third | L |
| Are carved in lapis lazuli | B |
| Over them flies a long legged bird | L |
| A symbol of longevity | B |
| The third doubtless a serving man | U |
| Carries a musical instmment | B |
| - | |
| Every discoloration of the stone | V |
| Every accidental crack or dent | B |
| Seems a water course or an avalanche | W |
| Or lofty slope where it still snows | Q |
| Though doubtless plum or cherry branch | W |
| Sweetens the little half way house | Q |
| Those Chinamen climb towards and I | X |
| Delight to imagine them seated there | I |
| There on the mountain and the sky | X |
| On all the tragic scene they stare | I |
| One asks for mournful melodies | Q |
| Accomplished fingers begin to play | L |
| Their eyes mid many wrinkles their eyes | Q |
| Their ancient glittering eyes are gay | L |
William Butler Yeats
(2)
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