Mentana: Third Anniversary Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCCBBCCBDDEFEF GHHGGHHGICCICI| A | |
| - | |
| - | |
| Such prayers last year were put up for thy sake | B |
| What shall this year do that hath lived to see | C |
| The piteous and unpitied end of thee | C |
| What moan what cry what clamour shall it make | B |
| Seeing as a reed breaks all thine empire break | B |
| And all thy great strength as a rotten tree | C |
| Whose branches made broad night from sea to sea | C |
| And the world shuddered when a leaf would shake | B |
| From the unknown deep wherein those prayers were heard | D |
| From the dark height of time there sounds a word | D |
| Crying Comfort though death ride on this red hour | E |
| Hope waits with eyes that make the morning dim | F |
| Till liberty reclothed with love and power | E |
| Shall pass and know not if she tread on him | F |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| The hour for which men hungered and had thirst | G |
| And dying were loth to die before it came | H |
| Is it indeed upon thee and the lame | H |
| Late foot of vengeance on thy trace accurst | G |
| For years insepulchred and crimes inhearsed | G |
| For days marked red or black with blood or shame | H |
| Hath it outrun thee to tread out thy name | H |
| This scourge this hour is this indeed the worst | G |
| O clothed and crowned with curses canst thou tell | I |
| Have thy dead whispered to thee what they see | C |
| Whose eyes are open in the dark on thee | C |
| Ere spotted soul and body take farewell | I |
| Or what of life beyond the worm's may be | C |
| Satiate the immitigable hours in hell | I |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1)
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