A Strange City Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKBLAMNDOPQ RSTUSAVWXYZA2B2C2D2E 2E2F2G2E2WE2 RH2E2MI2J2SK2L2M2G2E 2N2O2P2Q2R2S2K2T2E2A U2E2E2E2E2E2V2E2W2X2 Y2E2CZ2A3B3E2PC3D3 U2E3E2E2RE2G2S2E2E2E 2F3G3E2E2H3I3BJ3K3SF 2L3M3T2N3E2E2O3I2| A wondrous city that had temples there | A |
| More rich than that one built by David's son | B |
| Which called forth Ophir's gold when Israel | C |
| Made Lebanon half naked for her sake | D |
| I saw white towers where so called traitors died | E |
| True men whose tongues were bells to honest hearts | F |
| And rang out boldly in false monarch's ears | G |
| Saw old black gateways on whose arches crouched | H |
| Stone lions with their bodies gnawed by age | I |
| I looked with awe on iron gates that could | J |
| Tell bloody stones if they had our tongues | K |
| I saw tall mounted spires shine in the sun | B |
| That stood amidst their army of low streets | L |
| I saw in buildings pictures statues rare | A |
| Made in those days when Rome was young and new | M |
| In marble quarried from Carrara's hills | N |
| Statues by sculptors that could almost make | D |
| Fine cobwebs out of stone so light they worked | O |
| Pictures that breathe in us a living soul | P |
| Such as we seldom feel come from that life | Q |
| The artist copies Many a lovely sight | R |
| Such as the half sunk barge with bales of hay | S |
| Or sparkling coals employed my wondering eyes | T |
| I saw old Thames whose ripples swarmed with stars | U |
| Bred by the sun on that fine summer's day | S |
| I saw in fancy fowl and green banks there | A |
| And Liza's barge rowed past a thousand swans | V |
| I walked in parks and heard sweet music cry | W |
| In solemn courtyards midst the men at arms | X |
| Which suddenly would leap those stony walls | Y |
| And spring up with loud laughter into trees | Z |
| I walked in busy streets where music oft | A2 |
| Went on the march with men and ofttimes heard | B2 |
| The organ in cathedral when the boys | C2 |
| Like nightingales sang in that thunderstorm | D2 |
| The organ with its rich and solemn tones | E2 |
| As near a God's voice as a man conceives | E2 |
| Nor ever dreamt the silent misery | F2 |
| That solemn organ brought to homeless men | G2 |
| I heard the drums and soft brass instruments | E2 |
| Led by the silver cornets clear and high | W |
| Whose sounds turned playing children into stones | E2 |
| - | |
| I saw at night the City's lights shine bright | R |
| A greater milky way how in its spell | H2 |
| It fascinated with ten thousand eyes | E2 |
| Like those sweet wiles of an enchantress who | M |
| Would still detain her knight gone cold in love | I2 |
| It was an iceberg with long arms unseen | J2 |
| That felt the deep for vessels far away | S |
| All things seemed strange I stared like any child | K2 |
| That pores on some old face and sees a world | L2 |
| Which its familiar granddad and his dame | M2 |
| Hid with their love and laughter until then | G2 |
| My feet had not yet felt the cruel rocks | E2 |
| Beneath the pleasant moss I seemed to tread | N2 |
| But soon my ears grew weary of that din | O2 |
| My eyes grew tired of all that flesh and stone | P2 |
| And as a snail that crawls on a smooth stalk | Q2 |
| Will reach the end and find a sharpened thorn | R2 |
| So did I reach the cruel end at last | S2 |
| I saw the starving mother and her child | K2 |
| Who feared that Death would surely end its sleep | T2 |
| And cursed the wolf of Hunger with her moans | E2 |
| And yet methought when first I entered there | A |
| Into that city with my wondering mind | U2 |
| How marvellous its many sights and sounds | E2 |
| The traffic with its sound of heavy seas | E2 |
| That have and would again unseat the rocks | E2 |
| How common then seemed Nature's hills and fields | E2 |
| Compared with these high domes and even streets | E2 |
| And churches with white towers and bodies black | V2 |
| The traffic's sound was music to my ears | E2 |
| A sound of where the white waves hour by hour | W2 |
| Attack a reef of coral rising yet | X2 |
| Or where a mighty warship in a fog | Y2 |
| Steams into a large fleet of little boats | E2 |
| Aye and that fog was strange and wonderful | C |
| That made men blind and grope their way at noon | Z2 |
| I saw that City with fierce human surge | A3 |
| With millions of dark waves that still spread out | B3 |
| To swallow more of their green boundaries | E2 |
| Then came a day that noise so stirred my soul | P |
| I called them hellish sounds and thought red war | C3 |
| Was better far than peace in such a town | D3 |
| - | |
| To hear that din all day sometimes my mind | U2 |
| Went crazed and it seemed strange as I were lost | E3 |
| In some vast forest full of chattering apes | E2 |
| How sick I grew to hear that lasting noise | E2 |
| And all those people forced across my sight | R |
| Knowing the acres of green fields and woods | E2 |
| That in some country parts outnumbered men | G2 |
| In half an hour ten thousand men I passed | S2 |
| More than nine thousand should have been green trees | E2 |
| There on a summer's day I saw such crowds | E2 |
| That where there was no man man's shadow was | E2 |
| Millions all cramped together in one hive | F3 |
| Storing methought more bitter stuff than sweet | G3 |
| The air was foul and stale from their green homes | E2 |
| Young blood had brought its fresh and rosy cheeks | E2 |
| Which soon turned colour like blue streams in flood | H3 |
| Aye solitude black solitude indeed | I3 |
| To meet a million souls and know not one | B |
| This world must soon grow stale to one compelled | J3 |
| To look all day at faces strange and cold | K3 |
| Oft full of smoke that town its summer's day | S |
| Was darker than a summer's night at sea | F2 |
| Poison was there and still men rushed for it | L3 |
| Like cows for acorns that have made them sick | M3 |
| That town was rich and old man's flesh was cheap | T2 |
| But common earth was dear to buy one foot | N3 |
| If I must be fenced in then let my fence | E2 |
| Be some green hedgerow under its green sprays | E2 |
| That shake suspended let me walk in joy | O3 |
| As I do now in these dear months I love | I2 |
William Henry Davies
(1)
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