John Sutter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAC DEDE FGFG HIHI JKJK LMLM NONO PQPQ RSRT| I was the patriarch of the shining land | A |
| Of the blond summer and metallic grain | B |
| Men vanished at the motion of my hand | A |
| And when I beckoned they would come again | C |
| - | |
| The earth grew dense with grain at my desire | D |
| The shade was deepened at the springs and streams | E |
| Moving in dust that clung like pillared fire | D |
| The gathering herds grew heavy in my dreams | E |
| - | |
| Across the mountains naked from the heights | F |
| Down to the valley broken settlers came | G |
| And in my houses feasted through the nights | F |
| Rebuilt their sinews and assumed a name | G |
| - | |
| In my clear rivers my own men discerned | H |
| The motive for the ruin and the crime | I |
| Gold heavier than earth a wealth unearned | H |
| Loot for two decades from the heart of Time | I |
| - | |
| Metal intrinsic value deep and dense | J |
| Preanimate inimitable still | K |
| Real but an evil with no human sense | J |
| Dispersed the mind to concentrate the will | K |
| - | |
| Grained by alchemic change the human kind | L |
| Turned from themselves to rivers and to rocks | M |
| With dynamite broke metal unrefined | L |
| Measured their moods by geologic shocks | M |
| - | |
| With knives they dug the metal out of stone | N |
| Turned rivers back for gold through ages piled | O |
| Drove knives to hearts and faced the gold alone | N |
| Valley and river ruined and reviled | O |
| - | |
| Reviled and ruined me my servant slew | P |
| Strangled him from the figtree by my door | Q |
| When they had done what fury bade them do | P |
| I was a cursing beggar stripped and sore | Q |
| - | |
| What end impersonal what breathless age | R |
| Incontinent of quiet and of years | S |
| What calm catastrophe will yet assuage | R |
| This final drouth of penitential tears | T |
Yvor Winters
(1)
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