The Yachts Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAA ABC ADA EEF GEH AIJ EBA KLA AMH NAO PED| contend in a sea which the land partly encloses | A |
| shielding them from the too heavy blows | A |
| of an ungoverned ocean which when it chooses | A |
| - | |
| tortures the biggest hulls the best man knows | A |
| to pit against its beatings and sinks them pitilessly | B |
| Mothlike in mists scintillant in the minute | C |
| - | |
| brilliance of cloudless days with broad bellying sails | A |
| they glide to the wind tossing green water | D |
| from their sharp prows while over them the crew crawls | A |
| - | |
| ant like solicitously grooming them releasing | E |
| making fast as they turn lean far over and having | E |
| caught the wind again side by side head for the mark | F |
| - | |
| In a well guarded arena of open water surrounded by | G |
| lesser and greater craft which sycophant lumbering | E |
| and flittering follow them they appear youthful rare | H |
| - | |
| as the light of a happy eye live with the grace | A |
| of all that in the mind is feckless free and | I |
| naturally to be desired Now the sea which holds them | J |
| - | |
| is moody lapping their glossy sides as if feeling | E |
| for some slightest flaw but fails completely | B |
| Today no race Then the wind comes again The yachts | A |
| - | |
| move jockeying for a start the signal is set and they | K |
| are off Now the waves strike at them but they are too | L |
| well made they slip through though they take in canvas | A |
| - | |
| Arms with hands grasping seek to clutch at the prows | A |
| Bodies thrown recklessly in the way are cut aside | M |
| It is a sea of faces about them in agony in despair | H |
| - | |
| until the horror of the race dawns staggering the mind | N |
| the whole sea become an entanglement of watery bodies | A |
| lost to the world bearing what they cannot hold Broken | O |
| - | |
| beaten desolate reaching from the dead to be taken up | P |
| they cry out failing failing their cries rising | E |
| in waves still as the skillful yachts pass over | D |
William Carlos Williams
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Yachts poem by William Carlos Williams
Best Poems of William Carlos Williams