Despair Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABB ACCDDEEFFGGH AAAIIJJ KLLGGMM KNNOOPP KQQRR KSSTT KKKOOUU VW XXYYKKZZC A2A2 VKKVV VVVVV VB2B2EE VC2C2D2D2 KE2E2KK KYYVVB2B2 KVVF2F2G2H2BB KCCII KSSVV VJJI2I2 VKKVVJ2J2 VI2I2VV

IA
Is it you that preach'd in the chapel there looking over the sandB
Follow'd us too that night and dogg'd us and drew me to landB
-
IIA
What did I feel that night You are curious How should I tellC
Does it matter so much what I felt You rescued me yet was it wellC
That you came unwish'd for uncall'd between me and the deep and my doomD
Three days since three more dark days of the Godless gloomD
Of a life without sun without health with out hope without any delightE
In anything here upon earth but ah God that night that nightE
When the rolling eyes of the lighthouse there on the fatal neckF
Of land running out into rock they had saved many hundreds from wreckF
Glared on our way toward death I remember I thought as we pastG
Does it matter how many they saved we are all of us wreck'd at lastG
'Do you fear ' and there came thro' the roar of the breaker a whisper a breathH
'Fear am I not with you I am frighted at life not death '-
-
IIIA
And the suns of the limitless Universe sparkled and shone in the skyA
Flashing with fires as of God but we knew that their light was a lieA
Bright as with deathless hope but however they sparkled and shoneI
The dark little worlds running round them were worlds of woe like our ownI
No soul in the heaven above no soul on the earth belowJ
A fiery scroll written over with lamentation and woeJ
-
IVK
See we were nursed in the drear night fold of your fatalist creedL
And we turn'd to the growing dawn we had hoped for a dawn indeedL
When the light of a Sun that was coming would scatter the ghosts of the PastG
And the cramping creeds that had madden'd the peoples would vanish at lastG
And we broke away from the Christ our human brother and friendM
For He spoke or it seem'd that He spoke of a Hell without help without endM
-
VK
Hoped for a dawn and it came but the promise had faded awayN
We had past from a cheerless night to the glare of a drearier dayN
He is only a cloud and a smoke who was once a pillar of fireO
The guess of a worm in the dust and the shadow of its desireO
Of a worm as it writhes in a world of the weak trodden down by the strongP
Of a dying worm in a world all massacre murder and wrongP
-
VIK
O we poor orphans of nothing alone on that lonely shoreQ
Born of the brainless Nature who knew not that which she boreQ
Trusting no longer that earthly flower would be heavenly fruitR
Come from the brute poor souls no souls and to die with the bruteR
-
VIIK
Nay but I am not claiming your pity I know you of oldS
Small pity for those that have ranged from the narrow warmth of your foldS
Where you bawl'd the dark side of your faith and a God of eternal rageT
Till you flung us back on ourselves and the human heart and the AgeT
-
VIIIK
But pity the Pagan held it a vice was in her and in meK
Helpless taking the place of the pitying God that should beK
Pity for all that aches in the grasp of an idiot powerO
And pity for our own selves on an earth that bore not a flowerO
Pity for all that suffers on land or in air or the deepU
And pity for our own selves till we long'd for eternal sleepU
-
IXV
'Lightly step over the sands the waters you hear them callW
Life with its anguish and horrors and errors away with it all '-
And she laid her hand in my own she was always loyal and sweetX
Till the points of the foam in the dusk came playing about our feetX
There was a strong sea current would sweep us out to the mainY
'Ah God' tho' I felt as I spoke I was taking the name in vainY
'Ah God' and we turn'd to each other we kiss'd we embraced she and IK
Knowing the Love we were used to believe everlasting would dieK
We had read their know nothing books and we lean'd to the darker sideZ
Ah God should we find Him perhaps perhaps if we died if we diedZ
We never had found Him on earth this earth is a fatherless HellC
'Dear Love for ever and ever for ever and ever farewell '-
Never a cry so desolate not since the world beganA2
Never a kiss so sad no not since the coming of manA2
-
XV
But the blind wave cast me ashore and you saved me a valueless lifeK
Not a grain of gratitude mine You have parted the man from the wifeK
I am left alone on the land she is all alone in the seaV
If a curse meant ought I would curse you for not having let me beV
-
XIV
Visions of youth for my brain was drunk with the water it seemsV
I had past into perfect quiet at length out of pleasant dreamsV
And the transient trouble of drowning what was it when match'd with the painsV
Of the hellish heat of a wretched life rushing back thro' the veinsV
-
XIIV
Why should I live one son had forged on his father and fledB2
And if I believed in a God I would thank him the other is deadB2
And there was a baby girl that had never look'd on the lightE
Happiest she of us all for she past from the night to the nightE
-
XIIIV
But the crime if a crime of her eldest born her glory her boastC2
Struck hard at the tender heart of the mother and broke it almostC2
Tho' glory and shame dying out for ever in endless timeD2
Does it matter so much whether crown'd for a virtue or hang'd for a crimeD2
-
XIVK
And ruin'd by him by him I stood there naked amazedE2
In a world of arrogant opulence fear'd myself turning crazedE2
And I would not be mock'd in a madhouse and she the delicate wifeK
With a grief that could only be cured if cured by the surgeon's knifeK
-
XVK
Why should we bear with an hour of torture a moment of painY
If every man die for ever if all his griefs are in vainY
And the homeless planet at length will be wheel'd thro' the silence of spaceV
Motherless evermore of an ever vanishing raceV
When the worm shall have writhed its last and its last brother worm will have fledB2
From the dead fossil skull that is left in the rocks of an earth that is deadB2
-
XVIK
Have I crazed myself over their horrible infidel writings O yesV
For these are the new dark ages you see of the popular pressV
When the bat comes out of his cave and the owls are whooping at noonF2
And Doubt is the lord of this dunghill and crows to the sun and the moonF2
Till the Sun and the Moon of our science are both of them turn'd into bloodG2
And Hope will have broken her heart running after a shadow of goodH2
For their knowing and know nothing books are scatter'd from hand to handB
We have knelt in your know all chapel too looking over the sandB
-
XVIIK
What I should call on that Infinite Love that has served us so wellC
Infinite cruelty rather that made everlasting HellC
Made us foreknew us foredoom'd us and does what he will with his ownI
Better our dead brute mother who never has heard us groanI
-
XVIIIK
Hell if the souls of men were immortal as men have been toldS
The lecher would cleave to his lusts and the miser would yearn for his goldS
And so there were Hell for ever but were there a God as you sayV
His Love would have power over Hell till it utterly vanish'd awayV
-
XIXV
All yet I have had some glimmer at times in my gloomiest woeJ
Of a God behind all after all the great God for aught that I knowJ
But the God of Love and of Hell together they cannot be thoughtI2
If there be such a God may the Great God curse him and bring him to noughtI2
-
XXV
Blasphemy whose is the fault is it mine for why would you saveK
A madman to vex you with wretched words who is best in his graveK
Blasphemy ay why not being damn'd beyond hope of graceV
O would I were yonder with her and away from your faith and your faceV
Blasphemy true I have scared you pale with my scandalous talkJ2
But the blasphemy to my mind lies all in the way that you walkJ2
-
XXIV
Hence she is gone can I stay can I breathe divorced from the PastI2
You needs must have good lynx eyes if I do not escape you at lastI2
Our orthodox coroner doubtless will find it a felo de seV
And the stake and the cross road fool if you will does it matter to meV

Alfred Lord Tennyson



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