Vacillation Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDECFDCFE A GHIHIHJJ A KLMNKNOP QDRSRDTU P VKWXWYYCCC P ZAA2PVB2 C2CICD2D2 A C2CIC2 VPE2F2 G2CG2H2 P I2I2J2J2K2K2 P PPUTCCPPL2L2M2M2I | A |
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Between extremities | B |
Man runs his course | C |
A brand or flaming breath | D |
Comes to destroy | E |
All those antinomies | C |
Of day and night | F |
The body calls it death | D |
The heart remorse | C |
But if these be right | F |
What is joy | E |
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II | A |
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A tree there is that from its topmost bough | G |
Is half all glittering flame and half all green | H |
Abounding foliage moistened with the dew | I |
And half is half and yet is all the scene | H |
And half and half consume what they renew | I |
And he that Attis' image hangs between | H |
That staring fury and the blind lush leaf | J |
May know not what he knows but knows not grief | J |
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III | A |
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Get all the gold and silver that you can | K |
Satisfy ambition animate | L |
The trivial days and ram them with the sun | M |
And yet upon these maxims meditate | N |
All women dote upon an idle man | K |
Although their children need a rich estate | N |
No man has ever lived that had enough | O |
Of children's gratitude or woman's love | P |
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No longer in Lethean foliage caught | Q |
Begin the preparation for your death | D |
And from the fortieth winter by that thought | R |
Test every work of intellect or faith | S |
And everything that your own hands have wrought | R |
And call those works extravagance of breath | D |
That are not suited for such men as come | T |
proud open eyed and laughing to the tomb | U |
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IV | P |
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My fiftieth year had come and gone | V |
I sat a solitary man | K |
In a crowded London shop | W |
An open book and empty cup | X |
On the marble table top | W |
While on the shop and street I gazed | Y |
My body of a sudden blazed | Y |
And twenty minutes more or less | C |
It seemed so great my happiness | C |
That I was blessed and could bless | C |
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V | P |
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Although the summer Sunlight gild | Z |
Cloudy leafage of the sky | A |
Or wintry moonlight sink the field | A2 |
In storm scattered intricacy | P |
I cannot look thereon | V |
Responsibility so weighs me down | B2 |
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Things said or done long years ago | C2 |
Or things I did not do or say | C |
But thought that I might say or do | I |
Weigh me down and not a day | C |
But something is recalled | D2 |
My conscience or my vanity appalled | D2 |
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VI | A |
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A rivery field spread out below | C2 |
An odour of the new mown hay | C |
In his nostrils the great lord of Chou | I |
Cried casting off the mountain snow | C2 |
'Let all things pass away ' | - |
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Wheels by milk white asses drawn | V |
Where Babylon or Nineveh | P |
Rose some conquer drew rein | E2 |
And cried to battle weary men | F2 |
'Let all things pass away ' | - |
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From man's blood sodden heart are sprung | G2 |
Those branches of the night and day | C |
Where the gaudy moon is hung | G2 |
What's the meaning of all song | H2 |
'Let all things pass away ' | - |
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VII | P |
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The Soul Seek out reality leave things that seem | I2 |
The Heart What be a singer born and lack a theme | I2 |
The Soul Isaiah's coal what more can man desire | J2 |
The Heart Struck dumb in the simplicity of fire | J2 |
The Soul Look on that fire salvation walks within | K2 |
The Heart What theme had Homer but original sin | K2 |
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VIII | P |
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Must we part Von Hugel though much alike for we | P |
Accept the miracles of the saints and honour sanctity | P |
The body of Saint Teresa lies undecayed in tomb | U |
Bathed in miraculous oil sweet odours from it come | T |
Healing from its lettered slab Those self same hands perchance | C |
Eternalised the body of a modern saint that once | C |
Had scooped out pharaoh's mummy I though heart might find relief | P |
Did I become a Christian man and choose for my belief | P |
What seems most welcome in the tomb play a pre destined part | L2 |
Homer is my example and his unchristened heart | L2 |
The lion and the honeycomb what has Scripture said | M2 |
So get you gone Von Hugel though with blessings on your head | M2 |
William Butler Yeats
(1)
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