The Descent Into Hell Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCCBBCCBDEEDFF GHHGGHHGIJJIIJ| A | |
| - | |
| O Night and death to whom we grudged him then | B |
| When in man's sight he stood not yet undone | C |
| Your king your priest your saviour and your son | C |
| We grudge not now who know that not again | B |
| Shall this curse come upon the sins of men | B |
| Nor this face look upon the living sun | C |
| That shall behold not so abhorred an one | C |
| In all the days whereof his eye takes ken | B |
| The bond is cancelled and the prayer is heard | D |
| That seemed so long but weak and wasted breath | E |
| Take him for he is yours O night and death | E |
| Hell yawns on him whose life was as a word | D |
| Uttered by death in hate of heaven and light | F |
| A curse now dumb upon the lips of night | F |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| What shapes are these and shadows without end | G |
| That fill the night full as a storm of rain | H |
| With myriads of dead men and women slain | H |
| Old with young child with mother friend with friend | G |
| That on the deep mid wintering air impend | G |
| Pale yet with mortal wrath and human pain | H |
| Who died that this man dead now too might reign | H |
| Toward whom their hands point and their faces bend | G |
| The ruining flood would redden earth and air | I |
| If for each soul whose guiltless blood was shed | J |
| There fell but one drop on this one man's head | J |
| Whose soul to night stands bodiless and bare | I |
| For whom our hearts give thanks who put up prayer | I |
| That we have lived to say The dog is dead | J |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1)
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