Analysis of A GRECIAN TALE
A GRECIAN TALE
My soul, like a languid, lamenting bird,
Gazes to the east, with its distant, red face;
I desire to escape from the doleful, urban herd,
And depart for a sojourn, to a faraway place.
The sounds of a subway are of a dismal strain;
They die by Central Park in the gray, vaporous dark.
Graffiti on the oaks of brownish, wilting bark
Renders my aesthetic mind weary with disdain.
My spirit of a troubadour, hungry for meadows,
Immured with the city, clasped around my feet,
Will break beyond the tears of these dreamless ghettos,
On a journey to the past-to the Isle Of Crete.
Tall, ivory pillars, of brilliant colonnades,
Grace my white shroud, as I pace on promenades;
Roving through grand dunes of billowing, gold sand,
I feel the royal hold of Apollo’s noble hand.
At last! - I am free; In regal felicity,
I saunter, laved by breezes, blissfully sweet and mild,
As I behold the unbridled, transcendent and wild
Pelagic domain of the exuberant sea.
The Mediterranean’s effervescent breath
Fills my lungs with the wines of Dionysus.
As I pass beyond the veils of intangible death,
Carmine blooms shine, and all becomes miraculous.
There, among statues, on this ancient, Greek traverse,
Like a lover’s suspiration, fulfilled in a dream
Of a freshet of fountains, glistening in a stream,
Thalassic furrows gleam- like ethereal verse.
Soft zephyrs veer through the courtyard of a palace,
Caressing the rims of an eminent chalice,
Stirring ripples in the sovereign wine,
Glimmering in the rays of the immaculate sunshine.
Illustrious marble steps mount a precipice;
Overlooking the oceanic canvas,
I contemplate the death of tragic Icarus,
Above foamy rolls- I weep upon the cornice.
Among cascading brooks, an immense garden shines-
Home to a thousand potent wines and elations;
It ferments amid Hera’s dappled, dangling vines:
A bower of fragrant hues, and mystic revelations!
Pearly fountains fall, as I behold the flowers: -
The enchanting, rosy-red florets of every year;
A Macedonian sentinel of the intoxicating showers
Threatens my adventure with a long, silver spear.
Aphrodite’s white lyres sound like Spanish guitars,
Adorned with the luster of enamored, white stars.
I turn from Alexander, where an orphic breeze veers,
Leaving the blooms of Orpheus, resisting blissful tears.
I pass redolent hedgerows, of ornate enclaves,
In the soft wake of Sappho, I approach wild waves.
A strange, wooden ship of ghostly sails awaits my heel;
I board the cryptic schooner, and it creaks where the currents reel.
The large, foreboding vessel knows no other hand but I.
I clasp the splintered wheel, beneath a baleful sky.
Something is beneath the boat; (why I do not know)
All that I can fathom is the kraken dwells below.
Through a storm I pervade, beyond the gleaming sand;
I sail at topmast, northward, to the deep Aegean Sea,
Until the sirens are left with no sonatas to assail me;
I find a forgiving harbor- Onto the glorious mainland!
I reach the Acropolis, and I witness the ancient plays.
A goddess of wisdom scents the Parthenon with grace.
By an alabaster temple, Athena’s fair face
Smiles as I bless her, with amaranthine bouquets.
My heart, gravely moved, beholding her Doric rose,
Is engulfed in a florid, mountainous repose.
The fire of her kiss leaves my soul profoundly weak.
I have visions of celestial reason- of which I can not speak.
I see in the distance, spirited, fine and black,
A stallion beaming in the sun, awaiting my plea:
“I implore, tenacious breed, to saddle your raven back;
Let us ride beyond the wind- beside the splendid sea! ”
We pass through a viny, trellis-lined portal,
Beyond the azure glow of a tall, resplendent tree;
We reach the blue dominion of His teeming majesty-
The great and stony titan: - Poseidon- The Immortal!
The pure, valiant spirits of my gallant horse and I
Witness the quintessence of the infinite fly by;
Beneath the bronze of the sky, across the diamond shore we race,
Increasing the speed of our incredible pace.
Lifted above the world, beyond curtains of time and space,
Together we breach all earthly realms as we ride,
Entering an effulgent place beside the tide;
We behold upon the billows-a glimpse of heaven’s face!
Rising above the crest of topless ecstasies,
We witness beyond a glided gate a glimmer-
Blooming into an ardent, ravishing shimmer-
Containing all kinds of ineffable rubies.
And so, like Zeus, on Mount Olympus I ascend,
To absorb all that is rapturous and lofty.
But like all true bards who transcend an ecstasy,
I relinquish my spirit and my wings in the end.
My muse whispers into my ears: “You must return home.”
The sunlight disappears, withering on the vanishing foam.
Shedding red, the dream is pierced, as if with a rending fork.
The beach sheds amber tears, as I behold New York.
And so, my fair pedigree of the banished sand,
Because reality has claimed my intellect,
I must bid you farewell, left only to recollect
A nebulous vestige of your enchanted land.
John Lars Zwerenz
Scheme | X ABAB CDD C EFEF B XGG HIIH JBJK LMML KXNN KKKB OBOX PQPQ RRXX SSTT UUVV GHHG WBBW EEXX YHYH ZHHZ UUBB B1 1 B B2 2 X 3 HH3 4 4 5 5 G6 6 G B |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101 1110100101 10101111011 10101011010101 0011010101011 01101110101 11110100111 010101110101 101010110101 11010101011 1101010111 11010111110 101010110111 1100101101 1111111101 10111110011 11010111101 111110100100 1101110100101 1101001001001 010011001001 010101 11110111 1110101101001 101101010100 10111110110 1010101001 101110100001 111101001 11011011010 010011110010 101000101 1000011001001 010010110100 100001010 1100111010 01101110101 010101101101 1101010101 10101111001 0101101010010 101011101010 0010101111001 001010010010010 101010101101 01011111001 011010101011 111010111011 10011100010101 1110011011 00111110111 0110111010111 110101001110101 01010101110111 110101010101 101010111111 111110101101 101101010101 1111101010101 010101111101011 110010101001001 110010001100101 010110101011 1110010111 111101101 111010100101 101001010001 0101011110101 1110101010111111 110010100101 0101000101011 10101011101101 1110101010101 1110110110 0101011010101 11010101110100 01010100100010 0110101110101 1000101010011 010110101010111 0100111001001 10010101101101 010111101111 1001110101 10101010011101 1001011101 110010101010 100111010010 010111010010 011111010101 101111100010 111111011100 1010110011001 1110011111011 0101100101001 10101111110101 011101110111 011110010101 011011110 11111110101 010010110101 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 4,928 |
Words | 860 |
Sentences | 41 |
Stanzas | 29 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 3, 1, 4, 1, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1 |
Lines Amount | 102 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 136 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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"A GRECIAN TALE" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/111333/a-grecian-tale>.
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