A Storm In The Mountains Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHIJJKK LLMMNNOOPPBBQQRRSSTU VVBBWWXX YYKKOOZZ A2A2B2B2C2C2A2A2BBNN MMD2D2 E2E2A2A2F2F2G2G2 B2B2H2H2A2A2 A2A2XXA2A2D2D2A2A2YY I2I2 A2A2MMZZOOZZB2B2 OOD2D2BBJ2J2F2F2 ZZK2K2A2A2BBA2A2L2L2 J2J2FFA2A2M2M2BBN2N2 O2O2O2O2BBBBA lonely boy far venturing from home | A |
Out on the half wild herd s faint tracks I roam | A |
Mid rock browned mountains which with stony frown | B |
Glare into haggard chasms deep adown | B |
A rude and craggy world the prospect lies | C |
Bounded in circuit by the bending skies | C |
Now at some clear pool scooped out by the shocks | D |
Of rain floods plunging from the upper rocks | D |
Whose liquid disc in its undimpled rest | E |
Glows like a mighty gem brooching the mountain s breast | E |
I drink and must or mark the wide spread herd | F |
Or list the thinking of the dingle bird | F |
And now towards some wild hanging shade I stray | G |
To shun the bright oppression of the day | G |
For round each crag and o er each bosky swell | H |
The fierce refracted heat flares visible | I |
Lambently restless like the dazzling hem | J |
Of some else viewless veil held trembling over them | J |
Why congregate the swallows in the air | K |
And northward then in rapid flight repair | K |
With sudden swelling din remote yet harsh | L |
Why roar the bull frogs in the tea tree marsh | L |
Why cease the locusts to throng up in flight | M |
And clap their gay wings in the fervent light | M |
Why climb they bodingly demure instead | N |
The tallest spear grass to the bending head | N |
Instinctively along the sultry sky | O |
I turn a listless yet inquiring eye | O |
And mark that now with a slow gradual pace | P |
A solemn trance creams northward o er its face | P |
Yon clouds that late were labouring past the sun | B |
Reached by its sure arrest one after one | B |
Come to a heavy halt the airs that played | Q |
About the rugged mountains all are laid | Q |
While drawing nearer far off heights appear | R |
As in a dream s wild prospect strangely near | R |
Till into wood resolves their robe of blue | S |
And the grey crags rise bluffly on the view | S |
Such are the signs and tokens that presage | T |
A summer hurricane s forthcoming rage | U |
- | |
At length the south sends out her cloudy heaps | V |
And up the glens at noontide dimness creeps | V |
The birds late warbling in the hanging green | B |
Off steep set brakes seek now some safer screen | B |
The herd in doubt no longer wanders wide | W |
But fast ingathering throngs yon mountain s side | W |
Whose echoes surging to its tramp might seem | X |
The muttered troubles of some Titan s dream | X |
- | |
Fast the dim legions of the muttering storm | Y |
Throng denser or protruding columns form | Y |
While splashing forward from their cloudy lair | K |
Convolving flames like scouting dragons glare | K |
Low thunders follow labouring up the sky | O |
And as fore running blasts go blaring by | O |
At once the forest with a mighty stir | Z |
Bows as in homage to the thunderer | Z |
- | |
Hark From the dingoes blood polluted dens | A2 |
In the gloom hidden chasms of the glens | A2 |
Long fitful howls wail up and in the blast | B2 |
Strange hissing whispers seem to huddle past | B2 |
As if the dread stir had aroused from sleep | C2 |
Weird spirits cloistered in yon cavy steep | C2 |
On which in the grim past some Cain s offence | A2 |
Hath haply outraged heaven Who rising thence | A2 |
Wrapped in the boding vapours laughed again | B |
To wanton in the wild willed hurricane | B |
See in the storm s front sailing dark and dread | N |
A wide winged eagle like a black flag spread | N |
The clouds aloft flash doom Short stops his flight | M |
He seems to shrivel in the blasting light | M |
The air is shattered with a crashing sound | D2 |
And he falls stonelike lifeless to the ground | D2 |
- | |
Now like a shadow at great nature s heart | E2 |
The turmoil grows Now wonder with a start | E2 |
Marks where right overhead the storm careers | A2 |
Girt with black horrors and wide flaming fears | A2 |
Arriving thunders mustering on his path | F2 |
Swell more and more the roarings of his wrath | F2 |
As out in widening circles they extend | G2 |
And then at once in utter silence end | G2 |
- | |
Portentous silence Time keeps breathing past | B2 |
Yet it continues May this marvel last | B2 |
This wild weird silence in the midst of gloom | H2 |
So manifestly big with coming doom | H2 |
Tingles the boding ear and up the glens | A2 |
Instinctive dread comes howling from the wild dogs dens | A2 |
- | |
Terrific vision Heaven s great ceiling splits | A2 |
And a vast globe of writhing fire emits | A2 |
Which pouring down in one continuous stream | X |
Spans the black concave like a burning beam | X |
A moment then from end to end it shakes | A2 |
With a quick motion and in thunder breaks | A2 |
Peal rolled on peal While heralding the sound | D2 |
As each concussion thrills the solid ground | D2 |
Fierce glares coil snake like round the rocky wens | A2 |
Of the red hills or hiss into the glens | A2 |
Or thick through heaven like flaming falchions swarm | Y |
Cleaving the teeming cisterns of the storm | Y |
From which rain torrents searching every gash | I2 |
Split by the blast come sheeting with a dash | I2 |
- | |
On yon grey peak from rock encrusted roots | A2 |
The mighty patriarch of the wood upshoots | A2 |
In whose proud spreading top s imperial height | M |
The mountain eagle loveth most to light | M |
Now dimly seen through the tempestuous air | Z |
His form seems harrowed by a mad despair | Z |
As with his ponderous arms uplifted high | O |
He wrestles with the storm and threshes at the sky | O |
A swift bolt hurtles through the lurid air | Z |
Another thundering crash The peak is bare | Z |
Huge hurrying fragments all around are cast | B2 |
The wild winged mad limbed monsters of the blast | B2 |
- | |
The darkness thickens With despairing cry | O |
From shattering boughs the rain drenched parrtos fly | O |
Loose rocks roll rumbling from the mountains round | D2 |
And half the forest strews the smoking ground | D2 |
To the bared crags the blasts now wilder moan | B |
And the caves labour with a ghostlier groan | B |
Wide raging torrents down the gorges flow | J2 |
Swift bearing with them to the vale below | J2 |
Those sylvan wrecks that littered late the path | F2 |
Of the loud hurricane s all trampling wrath | F2 |
- | |
The storm is past Yet booming on afar | Z |
Is heard the rattling of the thunder car | Z |
And that low muffled moaning as of grief | K2 |
Which follows with a wood sigh wide and brief | K2 |
The clouds break up the sun s forth bursting rays | A2 |
Clothe the wet landscape with a dazzling blaze | A2 |
The birds begin to sing a lively strain | B |
And merry echoes ring it o er again | B |
The clustered herd is spreading out to graze | A2 |
Though lessening torrents still a hundred ways | A2 |
Flash downward and from many a rock ledge | L2 |
A mantling gush comes quick and shining o er the edge | L2 |
- | |
Tis evening and the torrent s furious flow | J2 |
Runs gentlier now into the lake below | J2 |
O er all the freshened scene no sound is heard | F |
Save the short twitter of some busied bird | F |
Or a faint rustle made amongst the trees | A2 |
By wasting fragments of a broken breeze | A2 |
Along the wild and wreck strewed paths I wind | M2 |
Watching earth s happiness with quiet mind | M2 |
And see a beauty all unmarked till now | B |
Flushing each flowery nook and sunny brow | B |
Wished peace returning like a bird of calm | N2 |
Brings to the wounded world its blessed healing balm | N2 |
- | |
On nerveless tuneless lines how sadly | O2 |
Ringing rhymes may wasted be | O2 |
While blank verse oft is mere prose madly | O2 |
Striving to be poetry | O2 |
While prose that s craggy as a mountain | B |
May Apollo s sun robe don | B |
Or hold the well spring of a fountain | B |
Bright as that in Helicon | B |
Charles Harpur
(1)
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