Grandeur Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CDEFGHIJ IKILIMI KNIOIPII QIRSTU VSJWSU XIDYK ZSSIA2IB2ISS IB2SIC2S SOXPFSIPVP SD2PSIE2SSK PSF2IZ E2SIIPIISPPG2PISH2 SI2ZJ2PISISSI JSPIIPSSIJSJ K2L2M2SN2PE2PZO2JIE2 E2P2Z SA2SZSE2L2P E2SSHPIIIP ISSPQ2 R2ISE2L2IPZIISPA2S2P SPZSII IST2ISPSSSPDedicated to the mountains of the San Juan district | A |
Colorado as seen from the summit of Mt Wilson | B |
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I stood at sunrise on the topmost part | C |
Of lofty mountain massively sublime | D |
A pinnacle of trachyte seamed and scarred | E |
By countless generations' ceaseless war | F |
And struggle with the restless elements | G |
A rugged point which shot into the air | H |
As by ambition or desire impelled | I |
To pierce the eternal precincts of the sky | J |
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Below outspread | I |
A scene of such terrific grandeur lay | K |
That reeled the brain at what the eyes beheld | I |
The hands would clench involuntarily | L |
And clutch from intuition for support | I |
The eyes by instinct closed nor dared to gaze | M |
On such an awful and inspiring sight | I |
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The sun arose with bright transcendent ray | K |
Up from behind a bleak and barren reef | N |
His face resplendent with beatitude | I |
Solar effulgence and combustive gleam | O |
Bathing the scene in such a wealth of light | I |
That none could marvel that primeval man | P |
Rude and untaught whene'er the sun appeared | I |
Fell down and worshiped | I |
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A wilderness of weird fantastic shapes | Q |
Of precipice and stern declivity | I |
Of dizzy heights and towering minarets | R |
Colossal columns and basaltic spires | S |
Which pointing heavenward appeared to wave | T |
In benediction o'er the depths beneath | U |
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Uneven crags and cliffs of various form | V |
Abysmal depths and dire profundities | S |
Chasms so deep and awful that the eye | J |
Of soaring eagle dare not gaze below | W |
Lest dizzied he should lose his aerial poise | S |
And headlong falling reach the gulf beneath | U |
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Majestic turrets and the stately dome | X |
Which ovaled by the slow but tireless hand | I |
Of eons of disintegrating time | D |
Still with impressive aspect rears its brow | Y |
Defiant of mutation and decay | K |
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The crevice deep and inaccessible | Z |
Fissure and rent where the intrusive dike's | S |
Creative and destructive agency | S |
Leaves many an enduring monument | I |
Of metamorphic and eruptive power | A2 |
Of molten deluge and volcanic flood | I |
Fracture and break the silent stories tell | B2 |
Of dire convulsion in the ages past | I |
Of subterranean catastrophe | S |
And cataclysm of internal force | S |
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The trachyte wall beseamed and battle scarred | I |
The porphyritic tower and citadel | B2 |
The granite ramparts and embattlements | S |
Of nature's fort impregnable and wild | I |
Stand as a symbol of eternal strength | C2 |
And hurl a challenge to the elements | S |
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Canons of startling and appalling depths | S |
With caverns vast and gloomy which would seem | O |
Meet for the haunt of centaur or of gnome | X |
The gorgon and the labyrinthodon | P |
The clumsy mammoth and the dinosaur | F |
Or all gigantic and unwieldy shapes | S |
Which earth has seen in the mysterious past | I |
Would seem in more accord and harmony | P |
With such surroundings than the puny form | V |
Of insignificant conceited man | P |
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And interspersed amid these solemn peaks | S |
Lie many a pleasant vale and grassy slope | D2 |
Besprinkled with the drooping columbine | P |
And fragrant growths of all harmonious tints | S |
Whose variegated colors punctuate | I |
Grandeur with beauty and fearless bloom | E2 |
In the forbidding shadow of the cliffs | S |
And to the margin of the snowy combs | S |
Which still resist the sun's persuasive ray | K |
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A lakelet cool pellucid and serene | P |
Fed by the drippings from eternal snows | S |
Lies like a mirror 'neath a frowning cliff | F2 |
Or as a gem majestically ensconced | I |
In diadem of crag and pinnacle | Z |
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Down towards the distant valley's sultry clime | E2 |
Both solitary and in straggling groups | S |
In solid phalanx rigid and compact | I |
In labyrinth of branches interspread | I |
Impervious to the rain and midday sun | P |
In form spontaneous without regard | I |
To law of uniformity there stand | I |
In silent awe or whispering to the breeze | S |
The sombre fir and melancholy pine | P |
And many a denuded avenue | P |
Of varying and considerable width | G2 |
Cut through the growth of balsam spruce and pine | P |
Which stands erect and proud on either hand | I |
Attests the swift and desolating force | S |
Of fearful devastating avalanche | H2 |
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The mountain rill its pleasant music makes | S |
As the descendant waters roll along | I2 |
In rhythmic flow and dulcet cantabile | Z |
In various concord and harmonious pitch | J2 |
Pursuant of its journey to the sea | P |
The murmuring treble of the rivulet | I |
Uniting with the deep and ponderous bass | S |
Of torrent wild and foaming cataract | I |
The thunderous reverberating tones | S |
And seething ebullition of the falls | S |
Are blended in one grand euphonious chord | I |
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Far in the hazy distance as the eye | J |
With vague perceptive vision penetrates | S |
Lie the vast mesas of ethereal hue | P |
Stretched in a calm and sleepy quietude | I |
Dreamy repose and blue tranquillity | I |
The eye which rests upon the drowsy scene | P |
Beholds a dim horizon which presents | S |
No line of demarcation or of bounds | S |
A merging union blurred and indistinct | I |
Fuliginous confusion that the eye | J |
In viewing gazes but no more discerns | S |
Which is the earth and which the azure sky | J |
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But mark the change | K2 |
A cloud which floated in the atmosphere | L2 |
An inconsiderable and feathery speck | M2 |
Of no proportions now augmented wears | S |
A threatening aspect ominously dark | N2 |
Enveloping the heaven's canopy | P |
In lowering shadow and portentous gloom | E2 |
In pall of ambient obscurity | P |
The fork ed lightnings ramify and play | Z |
Upon a background of sepulchral black | O2 |
The growling thunders rumble a reply | J |
Of detonation awful and profound | I |
To every corruscation's vivid gleam | E2 |
In deep crescendo and fortissimo | E2 |
In quavering tremolo and stately fugue | P2 |
Echoes reverberates and dies away | Z |
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But soon the sun with smiling radiance | S |
Through orifice through rift and aperture | A2 |
Invades the storm and dissipates the clouds | S |
Which scatter cowering and ephemeral | Z |
Hugging the cliffs and o'er the dire abyss | S |
Hover in fleecy ever changing form | E2 |
And in a transient season disappear | L2 |
Vanish as man must vanish and are gone | P |
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The moist precipitation of the storm | E2 |
Revives refreshes and invigorates | S |
The various vegetation and bedews | S |
Each blade of grass and floweret with a tear | H |
As nature weeping o'er the faults of man | P |
The day recedes and twilight's neutral shade | I |
Succeeds in turn and ushers in the night | I |
Whose wings outstretched and shadowy descend | I |
And in nocturnal mantle robes the scene | P |
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A hush prevails Oppressive and profound | I |
A silence broken only by the breeze | S |
A dormant quiet essence and repose | S |
Pervading calm and sweet oblivion | P |
As nature wrapt in soft refreshing sleep | Q2 |
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Far in the east a solitary star | R2 |
Peeps through the sombre curtain of the night | I |
In hesitating dubitation burns | S |
In lonely splendor flashes for a time | E2 |
Till scattering celestial lights appear | L2 |
The vanguard of an astral multitude | I |
Of constellations jewelled and serene | P |
Which fill the lofty dome of space until | Z |
The heavens sparkle with the myriad | I |
Of spectra nebulae and satellite | I |
With stellar scintillation and the orbs | S |
Of less refulgence which reflective shine | P |
With falling star and trailing meteor | A2 |
In one grand culmination glittering | S2 |
To their Creator's glory | P |
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A burst of mellow lunar radiance | S |
Inundates and illuminates the scene | P |
The waxing moon in her meridian full | Z |
Her beam vicarious disseminates | S |
And shining hides with her superior light | I |
The twinkling beauty of the firmament | I |
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At the stupendous and inspiring sight | I |
Of cosmic grandeur of the universe | S |
A sense of vague and overwhelming awe | T2 |
Of inconceivable immensity | I |
The being's inmost recess permeates | S |
And man the atom in comparison | P |
In spellbound admiration mutely stands | S |
With speculative meditation dwells | S |
On that most solemn of impressive thoughts | S |
The goodness of the Deity to man | P |
Alfred Castner King
(1)
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