The Anarchist Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBACDDCEFFEGHHGBIIB JKKJ LMMLNOPNQRRQSTTSUVVU WJXW YQZYA2B2B2C2D2ZZD2ZZ ZZJZZJE2F2F2G2 H2ZZH2WZZWJBBJZJXZI2 ZZI2ZDDZ| THE dawn hangs heavy on the distant hill | A |
| The darkness shudders slowly into light | B |
| And from the weary bosom of the night | B |
| The pent winds sigh then sink with horror still | A |
| Naked and grey the guillotine stands square | C |
| Upon the hill while from its base the crowd | D |
| Surges out far and waits to silence cowed | D |
| Impatient for the thing to happen there | C |
| Listen The bells within the tower toll | E |
| Five naked notes and down within his cell | F |
| The prisoner hears and mutters It is well | F |
| Though like that other knife each cuts his soul | E |
| His sick nerves from the probing echoes shrink | G |
| This is the end he says let me be strong | H |
| Let me be brave till then t is not for long | H |
| I must not think of it I must not think | G |
| See through the courtyard guarded comes the slight | B |
| Thin figure of the anarchist Amazed | I |
| He sees the thousand faces swiftly raised | I |
| The billows of the crowd break into white | B |
| One narrow alien glance below and then | J |
| The scene fades dimly from his film glazed eyes | K |
| And shuddering he sees his past arise | K |
| The cycle of his life begins again | J |
| - | |
| And as misshapen memories crowd fast | L |
| Upon him jostling in a sudden strife | M |
| Athwart the dull drab level of his life | M |
| Stand sharply out the blood stains of his past | L |
| His youth before he knew he had it lost | N |
| His father's body by an accident | O |
| 'Neath the rich man's remorseless mill wheels pent | P |
| A corpse and sister mother brother tossed | N |
| Out to the mercy of the merciless | Q |
| His mother stricken next her humble niche | R |
| Was needed by the reckless and the rich | R |
| And death was easier than life's loneliness | Q |
| His sister she had fortune in her face | S |
| And won it too till Vice's fingers tore | T |
| The freshness from her figure and no more | T |
| In idleness she flaunted her disgrace | S |
| He lost her stifled in the world's wide smother | U |
| For years till one night on the street they met | V |
| She seized him he can feel that hot thrill yet | V |
| She spoke him knowing not he was her brother | U |
| Wrong reeking of the rich incessantly | W |
| Oppression and oppression o'er again | J |
| Till from the smouldering hate within his brain | X |
| Mad fever fired the fuse of Anarchy | W |
| - | |
| Then plot and cunning weak futile and mean | Y |
| The maddened one against the many thus | Q |
| He strove to strangle Order's octopus | Z |
| And gained the goal at last the guillotine | Y |
| It waits him grim and grey he sees it not | A2 |
| Nor hears the rising murmur ripple out | B2 |
| To the crowd's edge and turning die in doubt | B2 |
| The vague uncertain future threatens what | C2 |
| So shall he speak fling out his last reply | D2 |
| Why waste the time in trivialities | Z |
| One throbbing thought now holds him and there is | Z |
| No room for sign or speech he has to die | D2 |
| Only a murmur wavers up and shakes | Z |
| The sullen air then hesitates and dies | Z |
| And the grim hush of horror stifled lies | Z |
| Suspended like a billow ere it breaks | Z |
| One bitter prayer half curse he mutters when | J |
| The knife hangs high above and the world waits | Z |
| But ere it swoops an age it hesitates | Z |
| The word is given breaths are drawn and then | J |
| With eyes and soul close shut be swift relief | E2 |
| The prisoner waits the end that does not come | F2 |
| For hark that heavy low tumultuous hum | F2 |
| That surges surges till it shouts Reprieve | G2 |
| - | |
| Reprieved and pardoned All his senses swim | H2 |
| In a rose mist As Sleep's soft hand that soothes | Z |
| The terse strained limbs of fevered Day and smoothes | Z |
| Life's knotted nerves so comes relief to him | H2 |
| And when he woke again his soul set free | W |
| Had wandered far within a moment's space | Z |
| And seen the sadness of God's silent face | Z |
| The mighty calm of immortality | W |
| How like a triumph his home coming Then | J |
| The glorious news that met him how that Right | B |
| Had routed Wrong for ever faction's fight | B |
| Was finished and the world was one again | J |
| Then swiftly through his swimming mist dimmed eyes | Z |
| He sees the good and great upright again | J |
| And Reason rings the knell of grief and pain | X |
| The gladdened new world lapped in sunlight lies | Z |
| Long life was his with honour On Fame's breath | I2 |
| His name was borne until in perfect peace | Z |
| Glad like a mellow fruit to fall and cease | Z |
| His long life ripened richly into death | I2 |
| Yet none knew this but he The crowd still waits | Z |
| Shoots swift the lightning of the knife and loud | D |
| Roars the hoarse thunder from the sated crowd | D |
| And justice has been done God compensates | Z |
Arthur Henry Adams
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