Jetsam Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOAPQPR STUVWKVVPXSVYVVZVVVO A2B2 FC2FFD2FFFFFE2F2G2FH 2FI2PFSJ2VFFFK2SFFVV L2M2VVVN2FFO2P2S FN2VQ2FR2FFPN2S2VT2U 2VFFV2VW2X2Y2I2PPQ2R 2FYFFFZVFFVF FYVZ2FFVVVA3VFPFPYFF Q2VA2VN2FVQ2PVB3C3D3 FE3F3G3N2H3N2VI3VJ3K 3L3FPF FVVVFVVM3VKFYVN3FQ2V VO3W2N2I2VA3FA3M2VFB 3VVVFN2VQ2FVQ2Q2FVQ2 I3VFVVVQ2P3FZ2H3Q2PI wonder can this be the world it was | A |
At sunset I remember the sky fell | B |
Green as pale meadows at the long street ends | C |
But overhead the smoke wrack hugged the roofs | D |
As if to shut the city from God's eyes | E |
Till dawn should quench the laughter and the lights | F |
Beneath the gas flare stolid faces passed | G |
Too dull for sin old loosened lips set hard | H |
To drain the stale lees from the cup of sense | I |
Or if a young face yearned from out the mist | J |
Made by its own bright hair the eyes were wan | K |
With desolate fore knowledge of the end | L |
My life lay waste about me as I walked | M |
From the gross dark of unfrequented streets | N |
The face of my own youth peered forth at me | O |
Struck white with pity at the thing I was | A |
And globed in ghostly fire thrice virginal | P |
With lifted face star strong went one who sang | Q |
Lost verses from my youth's gold canticle | P |
Out of the void dark came my face and hers | R |
One vivid moment then the street was there | S |
Bloat shapes and mean eyes blotted the sear dusk | T |
And in the curtained window of a house | U |
Whence sin reeked on the night a shameful head | V |
Was silhouetted black as Satan's face | W |
Against eternal fires I stumbled on | K |
Down the dark slope that reaches riverward | V |
Stretching blind hands to find the throat of God | V |
And crush Him in his lies The river lay | P |
Coiled in its factory filth and few lean trees | X |
All was too hateful I could not die there | S |
I whom the Spring had strained unto her breast | V |
Whose lips had felt the wet vague lips of dawn | Y |
So under the thin willows' leprous shade | V |
And through the tangled ranks of riverweed | V |
I pushed till lo God heard me I came forth | Z |
Where 'neath the shoreless hush of region light | V |
Through a new world undreamed of undesired | V |
Beyond imagining of man's weary heart | V |
Far to the white marge of the wondering sea | O |
This still plain widens and this moon rains down | A2 |
Insufferable ecstasy of peace | B2 |
- | |
My heart is man's heart strong to bear this night's | F |
Unspeakable affliction of mute love | C2 |
That crazes lesser things The rocks and clods | F |
Dissemble feign a busy intercourse | F |
The bushes deal in shadowy subterfuge | D2 |
Lurk dull dart spiteful out make heartless signs | F |
Utter awestricken purpose of no sense | F |
But I walk quiet crush aside the hands | F |
Stretched furtively to drag me madmen's ways | F |
I know the thing they suffer and the tricks | F |
They must be at to help themselves endure | E2 |
I would not be too boastful I am weak | F2 |
Too weak to put aside the utter ache | G2 |
Of this lone splendor long enough to see | F |
Whether the moon is still her white strange self | H2 |
Or something whiter stranger even the face | F |
Which by the changed face of my risen youth | I2 |
Sang globed in fire her golden canticle | P |
I dare not look again another gaze | F |
Might drive me to the wavering coppice there | S |
Where bat winged madness brushed me the wild laugh | J2 |
Of naked nature crashed across my blood | V |
So rank it was with earthy presences | F |
Faun shapes in goatish dance young witches' eyes | F |
Slanting deep invitation whinnying calls | F |
Ambiguous shocks and whirlwinds of wild mirth | K2 |
They had undone me in the darkness there | S |
But that within me smiting through my lids | F |
Lowered to shut in the thick whirl of sense | F |
The dumb light ached and rummaged and with out | V |
The soaring splendor summoned me aloud | V |
To leave the low dank thickets of the flesh | L2 |
Where man meets beast and makes his lair with him | M2 |
For spirit reaches of the strenuous vast | V |
Where stalwart stars reap grain to make the bread | V |
God breaketh at his tables and is glad | V |
I came out in the moonlight cleansed and strong | N2 |
And gazed up at the lyric face to see | F |
All sweetness tasted of in earthen cups | F |
Ere it be dashed and spilled all radiance flung | O2 |
Beyond experience every benison dream | P2 |
Treasured and mystically crescent there | S |
- | |
O who will shield me from her Who will place | F |
A veil between me and the fierce in throng | N2 |
Of her inexorable benedicite | V |
See I have loved her well and been with her | Q2 |
Through tragic twilights when the stricken sea | F |
Groveled with fear or when she made her throne | R2 |
In imminent cities built of gorgeous winds | F |
And paved with lightnings or when the sobering stars | F |
Would lead her home 'mid wealth of plundered May | P |
Along the violet slopes of evensong | N2 |
Of all the sights that starred the dreamy year | S2 |
For me one sight stood peerless and apart | V |
Bright rivers tacit low hills prone and dumb | T2 |
Forests that hushed their tiniest voice to hear | U2 |
Skies for the unutterable advent robed | V |
In purple like the opening iris buds | F |
And by some lone expectant pool one tree | F |
Whose gray boughs shivered with excess of awe | V2 |
As with preluding gush of amber light | V |
And herald trumpets softly lifted through | W2 |
Across the palpitant horizon marge | X2 |
Crocus filleted came the singing moon | Y2 |
Out of her changing lights I wove my youth | I2 |
A place to dwell in sweet and spiritual | P |
And all the bitter years of my exile | P |
My heart has called afar off unto her | Q2 |
Lo after many days love finds its own | R2 |
The futile adorations the waste tears | F |
The hymns that fluttered low in the false dawn | Y |
She has uptreasured as a lover's gifts | F |
They are the mystic garment that she wears | F |
Against the bridal and the crocus flowers | F |
She twined her brow with at the going forth | Z |
They are the burden of the song she made | V |
In coming through the quiet fields of space | F |
And breathe between her passion parted lips | F |
Calling me out along the flowering road | V |
Which summers through the dimness of the sea | F |
- | |
Hark where the deep feels round its thousand shores | F |
To find remembered respite and far drawn | Y |
Through weed strewn shelves and crannies of the coast | V |
The myriad silence yearns to myriad speech | Z2 |
O sea that yearns a day shall thy tongues be | F |
So eloquent and heart shall all thy tongues | F |
Be dumb to speak thy longing Say I hold | V |
Life as a broken jewel in my hand | V |
And fain would buy a little love with it | V |
For comfort say I fain would make it shine | A3 |
Once in remembering eyes ere it be dust | V |
Were life not worthy spent Then what of this | F |
When all my spirit hungers to repay | P |
The beauty that has drenched my soul with peace | F |
Once at a simple turning of the way | P |
I met God walking and although the dawn | Y |
Was large behind Him and the morning stars | F |
Circled and sang about his face as birds | F |
About the fieldward morning cottager | Q2 |
My coward heart said faintly Let us haste | V |
Day grows and it is far to market town | A2 |
Once where I lay in darkness after fight | V |
Sore smitten thrilled a little thread of song | N2 |
Searching and searching at my muffled sense | F |
Until it shook sweet pangs through all my blood | V |
And I beheld one globed in ghostly fire | Q2 |
Singing star strong her golden canticle | P |
And her mouth sang The hosts of Hate roll past | V |
A dance of dust motes in the sliding sun | B3 |
Love's battle comes on the wide wings of storm | C3 |
From east to west one legion Wilt thou strive | D3 |
Then since the splendor of her sword bright gaze | F |
Was heavy on me with yearning and with scorn | E3 |
My sick heart muttered Yea the little strife | F3 |
Yet see the grievous wounds I fain would sleep | G3 |
O heart shalt thou not once be strong to go | N2 |
Where all sweet throats are calling once be brave | H3 |
To slake with deed thy dumbness Let us go | N2 |
The path her singing face looms low to point | V |
Pendulous blanched with longing shedding flame | I3 |
Of silver on the brown grope of the flood | V |
For all my spirit's soilure is put by | J3 |
And all my body's soilure lacking now | K3 |
But the last lustral sacrament of death | L3 |
To make me clean for those near searching eyes | F |
That question yonder whether all be well | P |
And pause a little ere they dare rejoice | F |
- | |
Question and be thou answered passionate face | F |
For I am worthy worthy now at last | V |
After so long unworth strong now at last | V |
To give myself to beauty and be saved | V |
Now being man to give myself to thee | F |
As once the tumult of my boyish heart | V |
Companioned thee with rapture through the world | V |
Forth from a land whereof no poet's lip | M3 |
Made mention how the leas were lily sprent | V |
Into a land God's eyes had looked not on | K |
To love the tender bloom upon the hills | F |
To morrow when the fishers come at dawn | Y |
Upon that shell of me the sea has tossed | V |
To land as fit for earth to use again | N3 |
Men meeting at the shops and corner streets | F |
Will speak a word of pity glossing o'er | Q2 |
With altered accent dubious sweep of hand | V |
Their virile just contempt for one who failed | V |
But they can never cast my earnings up | O3 |
Who know so well my losses Even you | W2 |
Who in the mild light of the spirit walk | N2 |
And hold yourselves acquainted with the truth | I2 |
Be not too swift to judge and cast me out | V |
You shall find other nobler ways than mine | A3 |
To work your soul's redemption glorious noons | F |
Of battle 'neath the heaven suspended sign | A3 |
And nightly refuge 'neath God's gis rim | M2 |
Increase of wisdom and acquaintance held | V |
With the heart's austerities still governance | F |
And ripening of the blood in the weekday sun | B3 |
To make the full orbed consecrated fruit | V |
At life's end for the Sabbath supper meet | V |
I shall not sit beside you at that feast | V |
For ere a seedling of my golden tree | F |
Pushed off its petals to get room to grow | N2 |
I stripped the boughs to make an April gaud | V |
And wreathe a spendthrift garland for my hair | Q2 |
But mine is not the failure God deplores | F |
For I of old am beauty's votarist | V |
Long recreant often foiled and led astray | Q2 |
But resolute at last to seek her there | Q2 |
Where most she does abide and crave with tears | F |
That she assoil me of my blemishment | V |
Low looms her singing face to point the way | Q2 |
Pendulous blanched with longing shedding flame | I3 |
Of silver on the brown grope of the flood | V |
The stars are for me the horizon wakes | F |
Its pilgrim chanting and the little sand | V |
Grows musical of hope beneath my feet | V |
The waves that leap to meet my swimming breast | V |
Gossip sweet secrets of the light drenched way | Q2 |
And when the deep throbs of the rising surge | P3 |
Pulse upward with me and a rain of wings | F |
Blurs round the moon's pale place she stoops to reach | Z2 |
Still welcome of bright hands across the wave | H3 |
And sings low low globed all in ghostly fire | Q2 |
Lost verses from my youth's gold canticle | P |
William Vaughn Moody
(1)
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