The Legend Of Immortal Truth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAACDDEFFC GGHHIIHJJKLLKMM NNOOPPQQRRAAQQQS TTLLUUVWWVXXYYXXXXXX XXXXXZZXXA2A2 B2XB2XXXNXXXC2C2A bear having spread him a notable feast | A |
Invited a famishing fox to the place | B |
'I've killed me ' quoth he 'an edible beast | A |
As ever distended the girdle of priest | A |
With 'spread of religion ' or 'inward grace ' | C |
To my den I conveyed her | D |
I bled her and flayed her | D |
I hung up her skin to dry | E |
Then laid her naked to keep her cool | F |
On a slab of ice from the frozen pool | F |
And there we will eat her you and I ' | C |
- | |
The fox accepts and away they walk | G |
Beguiling the time with courteous talk | G |
You'd ne'er have suspected to see them smile | H |
The bear was thinking the blessed while | H |
How when his guest should be off his guard | I |
With feasting hard | I |
He'd give him a 'wipe' that would spoil his style | H |
You'd never have thought to see them bow | J |
The fox was reflecting deeply how | J |
He would best proceed to circumvent | K |
His host and prig | L |
The entire pig | L |
Or other bird to the same intent | K |
When Strength and Cunning in love combine | M |
Be sure 't is to more than merely dine | M |
- | |
The while these biters ply the lip | N |
A mile ahead the muse shall skip | N |
The poet's purpose she best may serve | O |
Inside the den if she have the nerve | O |
Behold laid out in dark recess | P |
A ghastly goat in stark undress | P |
Pallid and still on her gelid bed | Q |
And indisputably very dead | Q |
Her skin depends from a couple of pins | R |
And here the most singular statement begins | R |
For all at once the butchered beast | A |
With easy grace for one deceased | A |
Upreared her head | Q |
Looked round and said | Q |
Very distinctly for one so dead | Q |
'The nights are sharp and the sheets are thin | S |
I find it uncommonly cold herein ' | - |
- | |
- | |
I answer not how this was wrought | T |
All miracles surpass my thought | T |
They're vexing say you and dementing | L |
Peace peace they're none of my inventing | L |
But lest too much of mystery | U |
Embarrass this true history | U |
I'll not relate how that this goat | V |
Stood up and stamped her feet to inform'em | W |
With what's the word I mean to warm'em | W |
Nor how she plucked her rough capote | V |
From off the pegs where Bruin threw it | X |
And o'er her quaking body drew it | X |
Nor how each act could so befall | Y |
I'll only swear she did them all | Y |
Then lingered pensive in the grot | X |
As if she something had forgot | X |
Till a humble voice and a voice of pride | X |
Were heard in murmurs of love outside | X |
Then like a rocket set aflight | X |
She sprang and streaked it for the light | X |
- | |
Ten million million years and a day | X |
Have rolled since these events away | X |
But still the peasant at fall of night | X |
Belated therenear is oft affright | X |
By sounds of a phantom bear in flight | X |
A breaking of branches under the hill | Z |
The noise of a going when all is still | Z |
And hens asleep on the perch they say | X |
Cackle sometimes in a startled way | X |
As if they were dreaming a dream that mocks | A2 |
The lope and whiz of a fleeting fox | A2 |
- | |
Half we're taught and teach to youth | B2 |
And praise by rote | X |
Is not but merely stands for truth | B2 |
So of my goat | X |
She's merely designed to represent | X |
The truth 'immortal' to this extent | X |
Dead she may be and skinned frappe | N |
Hid in a dreadful den away | X |
Prey to the Churches any will do | X |
Except the Church of me and you | X |
The simplest miracle even then | C2 |
Will get her up and about again | C2 |
Ambrose Bierce
(1)
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