The Riddle For Men
George Meredith 1828 (Portsmouth, Hampshire) – 1909 (Box Hill, Surrey)
I
This Riddle rede or die,
Says History since our Flood,
To warn her sons of power:-
It can be truth, it can be lie;
Be parasite to twist awry;
The drouthy vampire for your blood;
The fountain of the silver flower;
A brand, a lure, a web, a crest;
Supple of wax or tempered steel;
The spur to honour, snake in nest:
'Tis as you will with it to deal;
To wear upon the breast,
Or trample under heel.
II
And rede you not aright,
Says Nature, still in red
Shall History's tale be writ!
For solely thus you lead to light
The trailing chapters she must write,
And pass my fiery test of dead
Or living through the furnace-pit:
Dislinked from who the softer hold
In grip of brute, and brute remain:
Of whom the woeful tale is told,
How for one short Sultanic reign,
Their bodies lapse to mould,
Their souls behowl the plain.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 06, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 108 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCAABCDEDEDE AFGHHFGIJIJIJ |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 797 |
Words | 160 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 13, 13 |
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"The Riddle For Men" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/15653/the-riddle-for-men>.
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