March Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGHI A JKLMNJOP JKQRSTUSFVJ A UWHXYZA2B2 YHC2VD2E2HKF2 G2H2NAUI2J2K2UXVH HL2M2UC2UN2FN2 K HUUN2O2UUP2N2UUN2UN2 UN2N2K U UHHN2Q2J HR2N2N2OSHN2N2 NUK UUU N2UU N2N2UHE2 E2S2 S2N2U BUUI | A |
- | |
Winter is long in this climate | B |
and spring a matter of a few days | C |
only a flower or two picked | D |
from mud or from among wet leaves | E |
or at best against treacherous | F |
bitterness of wind and sky shining | G |
teasingly then closing in black | H |
and sudden with fierce jaws | I |
- | |
II | A |
- | |
March | J |
you reminded me of | K |
the pyramids our pyramids | L |
stript of the polished stone | M |
that used to guard them | N |
March | J |
you are like Fra Angelico | O |
at Fiesole painting on plaster | P |
- | |
March | J |
you are like a band of | K |
young poets that have not learned | Q |
the blessedness of warmth | R |
or have forgotten it | S |
At any rate | T |
I am moved to write poetry | U |
for the warmth there is in it | S |
and for the loneliness | F |
a poem that shall have you | V |
in it March | J |
- | |
III | A |
- | |
See | U |
Ashur ban i pal | W |
the archer king on horse back | H |
in blue and yellow enamel | X |
with drawn bow facing lions | Y |
standing on their hind legs | Z |
fangs bared his shafts | A2 |
bristling in their necks | B2 |
- | |
Sacred bulls dragons | Y |
in embossed brickwork | H |
marching in four tiers | C2 |
along the sacred way to | V |
Nebuchadnezzar's throne hall | D2 |
They shine in the sun | E2 |
they that have been marching | H |
marching under the dust of | K |
ten thousand dirt years | F2 |
- | |
Now | G2 |
they are coming into bloom again | H2 |
See them | N |
marching still bared by | A |
the storms from my calender | U |
winds that blow back the sand | I2 |
winds that enfilade dirt | J2 |
winds that by strange craft | K2 |
have whipt up a black army | U |
that by pick and shovel | X |
bare a procession to | V |
the god Marduk | H |
- | |
Natives cursing and digging | H |
for pay unearth dragons with | L2 |
upright tails and sacred bulls | M2 |
alternately | U |
in four tiers | C2 |
lining the way to an old altar | U |
Natives digging at old walls | N2 |
digging me warmth digging me sweet loneliness | F |
high enamelled walls | N2 |
- | |
IV | K |
- | |
My second spring | H |
passed in a monastery | U |
with plaster walls in Fiesole | U |
on the hill above 'Florence | N2 |
My second spring painted | O2 |
a virgin in a blue aureole | U |
sitting on a three legged stool | U |
arms crossed | P2 |
she is intently serious | N2 |
and still | U |
watching an angel | U |
with colored wings | N2 |
half kneeling before her | U |
and smiling the angel's eyes | N2 |
holding the eyes of Mary | U |
as a snake's hold a bird's | N2 |
On the ground there are flowers | N2 |
trees are in leaf | K |
- | |
V | U |
- | |
But now for the battle | U |
Now for murder now for the real thing | H |
My third springtime is approaching | H |
Winds | N2 |
lean serious as a virgin | Q2 |
seeking seeking the flowers of March | J |
- | |
Seeking | H |
flowers nowhere to be found | R2 |
they twine among the bare branches | N2 |
in insatiable eagerness | N2 |
they whirl up the snow | O |
seeking under it | S |
they the winds snakelike | H |
roar among yellow reeds | N2 |
seeking flowers flowers | N2 |
- | |
I spring among them | N |
seeking one flower | U |
in which to warm myself | K |
- | |
I deride with all the ridicule | U |
of misery | U |
my own starved misery | U |
- | |
Counter cutting winds | N2 |
strike against me | U |
refreshing their fury | U |
- | |
Come good cold fellows | N2 |
Have we no flowers | N2 |
Defy then with even more | U |
desperation than ever being | H |
lean and frozen | E2 |
- | |
But though you are lean and frozen | E2 |
think of the blue bulls of Babylon | S2 |
- | |
Fling yourselves upon | S2 |
their empty roses | N2 |
cut savagely | U |
- | |
But | B |
think of the painted monastery | U |
at Fiesole | U |
William Carlos Williams
(1)
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