Finis Aeternitatis Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABA CCD EEFE GH IIJI KKLK MMNM OOPO QQRQ KKSK TTU EE VVE WW W| Strolling at sunset in my native land | A |
| With fruits and flowers thick on either hand | A |
| I crossed a Shadow flung athwart my way | B |
| Emerging on a waste of rock and sand | A |
| - | |
| 'The apples all are gone from here ' I said | C |
| 'The roses perished and their spirits fled | C |
| I will go back ' A voice cried out 'The man | D |
| Is risen who eternally was dead ' | - |
| - | |
| I turned and saw an angel standing there | E |
| Newly descended from the heights of air | E |
| Sweet eyed compassion filled his face his hands | F |
| A naked sword and golden trumpet bare | E |
| - | |
| 'Nay 'twas not death the shadow that I crossed ' | - |
| I said 'Its chill was but a touch of frost | G |
| It made me gasp but quickly I came through | H |
| With breath recovered ere it scarce was lost ' | - |
| - | |
| 'Twas the same land Remembered mountains thrust | I |
| Grayed heads asky and every dragging gust | I |
| In ashen valleys where my sons had reaped | J |
| Stirred in familiar river beds the dust | I |
| - | |
| Some heights where once the traveler was shown | K |
| The youngest and the proudest city known | K |
| Lifted smooth ridges in the steely light | L |
| Bleak desolate acclivities of stone | K |
| - | |
| Where I had worshiped at my father's tomb | M |
| Within a massive temple's awful gloom | M |
| A jackal slunk along the naked rock | N |
| Affrighted by some prescience of doom | M |
| - | |
| Man's vestiges were nowhere to be found | O |
| Save one brass mausoleum on a mound | O |
| I knew it well spared by the artist Time | P |
| To emphasize the desolation round | O |
| - | |
| Into the stagnant sea the sullen sun | Q |
| Sank behind bars of crimson one by one | Q |
| 'Eternity's at hand ' I cried aloud | R |
| 'Eternity ' the angel said 'is done | Q |
| - | |
| For man is ages dead in every zone | K |
| The angels all are dead but I alone | K |
| The devils too are cold enough at last | S |
| And God lies dead before the great white throne | K |
| - | |
| 'Tis foreordained that I bestride the shore | T |
| When all are gone as Gabriel did before | T |
| When I had throttled the last man alive | U |
| And swear Eternity shall be no more ' | - |
| - | |
| 'O Azrael O Prince of Death declare | E |
| Why conquered I the grave ' I cried 'What rare | E |
| Conspicuous virtues won this boon for me ' | - |
| 'You've been revived ' he said 'to hear me swear ' | - |
| - | |
| 'Then let me creep again beneath the grass | V |
| And knock thou at yon pompous tomb of brass | V |
| If ears are what you want Charles Crocker's there | E |
| Betwixt the greatest ears the greatest ass ' | - |
| - | |
| He rapped and while the hollow echoes rang | W |
| Out at the door a curst hyena sprang | W |
| And fled Said Azrael 'His soul's escaped ' | - |
| And closed the brazen portal with a bang | W |
Ambrose Bierce
(1)
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