A Vision Of Doom Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPLQRS TUVWXTYZA2B2C2D2E2F2 G2H2ZI2J2K2L2G2LM2M2 N2O2P2Q2R2ATIIS2T2U2 V2W2TX2Y2Z2A3B3JC3CD 3E3F3G2GZ2 ABCDEFGHIJG3H3I3I stood upon a hill The setting sun | A |
Was crimson with a curse and a portent | B |
And scarce his angry ray lit up the land | C |
That lay below whose lurid gloom appeared | D |
Freaked with a moving mist which reeking up | E |
From dim tarns hateful with some horrid ban | F |
Took shapes forbidden and without a name | G |
Gigantic night birds rising from the reeds | H |
With cries discordant startled all the air | I |
And bodiless voices babbled in the gloom | J |
The ghosts of blasphemies long ages stilled | K |
And shrieks of women and men's curses All | L |
These visible shapes and sounds no mortal ear | M |
Had ever heard some spiritual sense | N |
Interpreted though brokenly for I | O |
Was haunted by a consciousness of crime | P |
Some giant guilt but whose I knew not All | L |
These things malign by sight and sound revealed | Q |
Were sin begotten that I knew no more | R |
And that but dimly as in dreadful dreams | S |
The sleepy senses babble to the brain | T |
Imperfect witness As I stood a voice | U |
But whence it came I knew not cried aloud | V |
Some words to me in a forgotten tongue | W |
Yet straight I knew me for a ghost forlorn | X |
Returned from the illimited inane | T |
Again but in a language that I knew | Y |
As in reply to something which in me | Z |
Had shaped itself a thought but found no words | A2 |
It spake from the dread mystery about | B2 |
'Immortal shadow of a mortal soul | C2 |
That perished with eternity attend | D2 |
What thou beholdest is as void as thou | E2 |
The shadow of a poet's dream himself | F2 |
As thou his soul as thine long dead | G2 |
But not like thine outlasted by its shade | H2 |
His dreams alone survive eternity | Z |
As pictures in the unsubstantial void | I2 |
Excepting thee and me and we because | J2 |
The poet wove us in his thought remains | K2 |
Of nature and the universe no part | L2 |
Or vestige but the poet's dreams This dread | G2 |
Unspeakable land about thy feet with all | L |
Its desolation and its terrors lo | M2 |
'T is but a phantom world So long ago | M2 |
That God and all the angels since have died | N2 |
That poet lived yourself long dead his mind | O2 |
Filled with the light of a prophetic fire | P2 |
And standing by the Western sea above | Q2 |
The youngest fairest city in the world | R2 |
Named in another tongue than his for one | A |
Ensainted saw its populous domain | T |
Plague smitten with a nameless shame For there | I |
Red handed murder rioted and there | I |
The people gathered gold nor cared to loose | S2 |
The assassin's fingers from the victim's throat | T2 |
But said each in his vile pursuit engrossed | U2 |
'Am I my brother's keeper Let the Law | V2 |
Look to the matter ' But the Law did not | W2 |
And there O pitiful the babe was slain | T |
Within its mother's breast and the same grave | X2 |
Held babe and mother and the people smiled | Y2 |
Still gathering gold and said 'The Law the Law ' | Z2 |
Then the great poet touched upon the lips | A3 |
With a live coal from Truth's high altar raised | B3 |
His arms to heaven and sang a song of doom | J |
Sang of the time to be when God should lean | C3 |
Indignant from the Throne and lift his hand | C |
And that foul city be no more a tale | D3 |
A dream a desolation and a curse | E3 |
No vestige of its glory should survive | F3 |
In fact or memory its people dead | G2 |
Its site forgotten and its very name | G |
Disputed ' | Z2 |
- | |
'Was the prophecy fulfilled ' | - |
The sullen disc of the declining sun | A |
Was crimson with a curse and a portent | B |
And scarce his angry ray lit up the land | C |
That lay below whose lurid gloom appeared | D |
Freaked with a moving mist which reeking up | E |
From dim tarns hateful with a horrid ban | F |
Took shapes forbidden and without a name | G |
Gigantic night birds rising from the reeds | H |
With cries discordant startled all the air | I |
And bodiless voices babbled in the gloom | J |
But not to me came any voice again | G3 |
And covering my face with thin dead hands | H3 |
I wept and woke and cried aloud to God | I3 |
Ambrose Bierce
(1)
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