The Daguerreotype Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACBCCDEFFGDHIJHJIK KLMMLNLN NNOOPPNFFQQNBNNBBNNN FFRRRF SNTSRNRUUTFNFVVNPPWX WYZRA2B2C2B2D2D2E2E2 F2SSNG2TG2TG2RRSSF2F 2H2D2H2H2NI2I2ND2NNJ 2NJ2NQK2L2NQNNFFNNB2 B2NNRNNNRRNNRRRLLLYN YH2H2NM2UNNNMMLLBBNB BLLN2N2LLBBLO2O2LLLN NLLLLLLP2RLRZRP2RZL LLLLLQ2BBBQ2Q2LLR2R2This then is she | A |
My mother as she looked at seventeen | B |
When she first met my father Young incredibly | A |
Younger than spring without the faintest trace | C |
Of disappointment weariness or tean | B |
Upon the childlike earnestness and grace | C |
Of the waiting face | C |
Those close wound ropes of pearl | D |
Or common beads made precious by their use | E |
Seem heavy for so slight a throat to wear | F |
But the low bodice leaves the shoulders bare | F |
And half the glad swell of the breast for news | G |
That now the woman stirs within the girl | D |
And yet | H |
Even so the loops and globes | I |
Of beaten gold | J |
And jet | H |
Hung in the stately way of old | J |
From the ears' drooping lobes | I |
On festivals and Lord's day of the week | K |
Show all too matron sober for the cheek | K |
Which now I look again is perfect child | L |
Or no or no 't is girlhood's very self | M |
Moulded by some deep mischief ridden elf | M |
So meek so maiden mild | L |
But startling the close gazer with the sense | N |
Of passions forest shy and forest wild | L |
And delicate delirious merriments | N |
- | |
As a moth beats sidewise | N |
And up and over and tries | N |
To skirt the irresistible lure | O |
Of the flame that has him sure | O |
My spirit that is none too strong to day | P |
Flutters and makes delay | P |
Pausing to wonder on the perfect lips | N |
Lifting to muse upon the low drawn hair | F |
And each hid radiance there | F |
But powerless to stem the tide race bright | Q |
The vehement peace which drifts it toward the light | Q |
Where soon ah now with cries | N |
Of grief and giving up unto its gain | B |
It shrinks no longer nor denies | N |
But dips | N |
Hurriedly home to the exquisite heart of pain | B |
And all is well for I have seen them plain | B |
The unforgettable the unforgotten eyes | N |
Across the blinding gush of these good tears | N |
They shine as in the sweet and heavy years | N |
When by her bed and chair | F |
We children gathered jealously to share | F |
The sunlit aura breathing myrrh and thyme | R |
Where the sore stricken body made a clime | R |
Gentler than May and pleasanter than rhyme | R |
Holier and more mystical than prayer | F |
- | |
God how thy ways are strange | S |
That this should be even this | N |
The patient head | T |
Which suffered years ago the dreary change | S |
That these so dewy lips should be the same | R |
As those I stooped to kiss | N |
And heard my harrowing half spoken name | R |
A little ere the one who bowed above her | U |
Our father and her very constant lover | U |
Rose stoical and we knew that she was dead | T |
Then I who could not understand or share | F |
His antique nobleness | N |
Being unapt to bear | F |
The insults which time flings us for our proof | V |
Fled from the horrible roof | V |
Into the alien sunshine merciless | N |
The shrill satiric fields ghastly with day | P |
Raging to front God in his pride of sway | P |
And hurl across the lifted swords of fate | W |
That ringed Him where He sat | X |
My puny gage of scorn and desolate hate | W |
Which somehow should undo Him after all | Y |
That this girl face expectant virginal | Z |
Which gazes out at me | R |
Boon as a sweetheart as if nothing loth | A2 |
Save for the eyes with other presage stored | B2 |
To pledge me troth | C2 |
And in the kingdom where the heart is lord | B2 |
Take sail on the terrible gladness of the deep | D2 |
Whose winds the gray Norns keep | D2 |
That this should be indeed | E2 |
The flesh which caught my soul a flying seed | E2 |
Out of the to and fro | F2 |
Of scattering hands where the seedsman Mage | S |
Stooping from star to star and age to age | S |
Sings as he sows | N |
That underneath this breast | G2 |
Nine moons I fed | T |
Deep of divine unrest | G2 |
While over and over in the dark she said | T |
Bless egrave d but not as happier children blessed | G2 |
That this should be | R |
Even she | R |
God how with time and change | S |
Thou makest thy footsteps strange | S |
Ah now I know | F2 |
They play upon me and it is not so | F2 |
Why 't is a girl I never saw before | H2 |
A little thing to flatter and make weep | D2 |
To tease until her heart is sore | H2 |
Then kiss and clear the score | H2 |
A gypsy run the fields | N |
A little liberal daughter of the earth | I2 |
Good for what hour of truancy and mirth | I2 |
The careless season yields | N |
Hither side the flood of the year and yonder of the neap | D2 |
Then thank you thanks again and twenty light good byes | N |
O shrined above the skies | N |
Frown not clear brow | J2 |
Darken not holy eyes | N |
Thou knowest well I know that it is thou | J2 |
Only to save me from such memories | N |
As would unman me quite | Q |
Here in this web of strangeness caught | K2 |
And prey to troubled thought | L2 |
Do I devise | N |
These foolish shifts and slight | Q |
Only to shield me from the afflicting sense | N |
Of some waste influence | N |
Which from this morning face and lustrous hair | F |
Breathes on me sudden ruin and despair | F |
In any other guise | N |
With any but this girlish depth of gaze | N |
Your coming had not so unsealed and poured | B2 |
The dusty amphoras where I had stored | B2 |
The drippings of the winepress of my days | N |
I think these eyes foresee | N |
Now in their unawakened virgin time | R |
Their mother's pride in me | N |
And dream even now unconsciously | N |
Upon each soaring peak and sky hung lea | N |
You pictured I should climb | R |
Broken premonitions come | R |
Shapes gestures visionary | N |
Not as once to maiden Mary | N |
The manifest angel with fresh lilies came | R |
Intelligibly calling her by name | R |
But vanishingly dumb | R |
Thwarted and bright and wild | L |
As heralding a sin defiled | L |
Earth encumbered blood begotten passionate man child | L |
Who yet should be a trump of mighty call | Y |
Blown in the gates of evil kings | N |
To make them fall | Y |
Who yet should be a sword of flame before | H2 |
The soul's inviolate door | H2 |
To beat away the clang of hellish wings | N |
Who yet should be a lyre | M2 |
Of high unquenchable desire | U |
In the day of little things | N |
Look where the amphoras | N |
The yield of many days | N |
Trod by my hot soul from the pulp of self | M |
And set upon the shelf | M |
In sullen pride | L |
The Vineyard master's tasting to abide | L |
O mother mine | B |
Are these the bringings in the doings fine | B |
Of him you used to praise | N |
Emptied and overthrown | B |
The jars lie strown | B |
These for their flavor duly nursed | L |
Drip from the stopples vinegar accursed | L |
These I thought honied to the very seal | N2 |
Dry dry a little acid meal | N2 |
A pinch of mouldy dust | L |
Sole leavings of the amber mantling must | L |
These rude to look upon | B |
But flasking up the liquor dearest won | B |
Through sacred hours and hard | L |
With watching and with wrestlings and with grief | O2 |
Even of these of these in chief | O2 |
The stale breath sickens reeking from the shard | L |
Nothing is left Aye how much less than naught | L |
What shall be said or thought | L |
Of the slack hours and waste imaginings | N |
The cynic rending of the wings | N |
Known to that froward that unreckoning heart | L |
Whereof this brewage was the precious part | L |
Treasured and set away with furtive boast | L |
O dear and cruel ghost | L |
Be merciful be just | L |
See I was yours and I am in the dust | L |
Then look not so as if all things were well | P2 |
Take your eyes from me leave me to my shame | R |
Or else if gaze they must | L |
Steel them with judgment darken them with blame | R |
But by the ways of light ineffable | Z |
You bade me go and I have faltered from | R |
By the low waters moaning out of hell | P2 |
Whereto my feet have come | R |
Lay not on me these intolerable | Z |
Looks of rejoicing love of pride of happy trust | L |
- | |
Nothing dismayed | L |
By all I say and all I hint not made | L |
Afraid | L |
O then stay by me Let | L |
These eyes afflict me cleanse me keep me yet | L |
Brave eyes and true | Q2 |
See how the shrivelled heart that long has lain | B |
Dead to delight and pain | B |
Stirs and begins again | B |
To utter pleasant life as if it knew | Q2 |
The wintry days were through | Q2 |
As if in its awakening boughs it heard | L |
The quick sweet spoken bird | L |
Strong eyes and brave | R2 |
Inexorable to save | R2 |
William Vaughn Moody
(1)
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