The Bush Fire Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDAEAA FGHAAAIJKL MNOPA QAARSTNDUVWA AXANYZA2B2C2D2 AE2F2AALAG2H2A TAAI2J2K2AL2AAAI2M2 AB2AAAYN2ADO2L2AADC2 P2Q2R2AA AS2AT2IU2M2V2DVAI2XW 2X2A2Y2AZ2 NA3Z2ZL2AZ2C2Z2ABB3Z 2AAX2B2AAC3I2 AC3D3AAZ2NZ2E3AZ2F3Z 2NVM

TIS nine o clock to bed cried EgremontA
Who with his youthful household for tis nowB
Long since inhabited a lonely homeC
In the Australian wilderness that thenD
As with an unshorn fleece of gloomy woodA
Robed the vast bulk of all the mighty IsleE
But ere retiring finally he wentA
Forth as his wont was to survey the nightA
-
Twas clear and silent and the stirless woodsF
Seemed dreaming in the witch light of the moonG
As like a boat of stained pearl she hungH
Amid the ridges of a wavy cloudA
The only cloud in heaven While EgremontA
Looked thus abroad observingly he markedA
All around him listing the horizon s vergeI
A broad unusual upward glaring gleamJ
Such a drear radiance as the setting sunK
Effuses when the atmosphere is stormyL
-
What this might be he wondered but not longM
Divining soon the cause a vast Bush FireN
But deeming it too distant yet for harmO
During the night betiding to reposeP
With his bed faring household he retiredA
-
Sound was their sleep for honesty of lifeQ
Is somewhat lumpish when tis once a bedA
And now the darkness of the night was pastA
When with the dreams of Egremont a strangeR
And momently approaching roar beganS
To mingle and insinuate through them moreT
And more of its own import till a FireN
Huge as the world was their sole theme and thenD
He started from his sleep to find the typeU
A warning for what else however terribleV
Might breathe with a vitality so fierceW
As that which reigned withoutA
-
Scarce did he waitA
To clothe himself ere forth he rushed and loX
Within the circling forest he beheldA
A vast and billowy belt of writhing fireN
That shed a wild and lurid splendour upY
Against the whitening dawn come raging onZ
Raging and roaring as with ten thousand tonguesA2
That prophesied destruction On it cameB2
A dreadful apparition such as FearC2
Conceives when dreaming of the front of hellD2
-
No time was there to lose Up up he criedA
To all the house Instantly all withinE2
Was haste and wonder and in briefest spaceF2
The whole roused family were staring outA
In speechless admiration such as keptA
Even Terror dormant till more urgentlyL
The voice of Egremont again was heardA
Lose not a moment Follow me at onceG2
Each with whatever he can grasp of useH2
And carry unincumberedA
-
Right beforeT
A narrow strip of clearing like a gladeA
Stretched out tow rds a bald summit ThitherwardA
The perilled people now were hurrying allI2
While in their front beneath the ridge a denseJ2
Extent of brushwood into which the Fire sK2
Bright teeth were eating hungrily still broughtA
The danger nearer Shall they reach that hillL2
Unscathed their only refuge Will they speedA
Past the red rushing peril Onward yetA
And onward till at length the summit s gainedA
And halting they look back in safety allI2
Though breathlessM2
-
But no sooner had they pastA
That fearful brush than a vast swathe of flameB2
Lifted and hurried forward by the windA
Over their very passage track was pitchedA
With a loud thud like thunder into itA
With such a thud as the sea swell gives upY
From under the ledges of some hanging cliffN2
And in an instant all its depth of shadeA
Was as a lake of hell And hark as thenD
Even like a ghastly pyramid its massO2
Of flames went surging up up with them stillL2
A cry of mortal agony was heardA
Ascending all so terrible indeedA
That they who heard it never until thenD
Might deem a voice so earnest in its fearC2
So strenuous in its anguish could have beingP2
In the live bosom of the suffering EarthQ2
But soon did they divine even to their lossR2
Its import there a giant steed their bestA
Had taken refuge there to dieA
-
All groupedA
In safety now upon that hill s bare topS2
Egremont and his household looked abroadA
Astonished at the terrors of the timeT2
Soon sunk their rooftree in the fiery surgeI
Which entering next a high grassed bottom thickU2
With bark ringed trees all standing bleak and leaflessM2
Tenfold more terrible in its ravage grewV2
Upclimbing to their very tops As whenD
Upon some day of national festivalV
From the tall spars of the ship crowded portA
Innumerous flags in one direction allI2
Tongue outward writhing in the wind even soX
From those dry boles where still the dead bark clingsW2
And from their multifarious mass aboveX2
Of leafless boughs myriads of flaming tonguesA2
Lick upward or aloft in narrowing flakesY2
Stream out and thence upon the tortured blastA
Bicker and flap in one inconstant blazeZ2
-
Scared forward by the roaring of the FireN
A flight of parrots o er the upper ridgeA3
Comes whizzing and then sweeping down alightsZ2
Amid the oaks that fringe the base of yonZ
Precipitous terrace being deterred from stillL2
Proceeding by the smoke uprolled in frontA
Like a dim moving range of spectral mountainsZ2
There they abide and listen in their fearC2
To the tremendous riot of the flamesZ2
Beyond the ridge line that keep nearing fastA
Though yet unseen from thence unseen till nowB
Furiously seizing on the withered groveB3
That tops the terrace all whose spiry shaftsZ2
Rush upward and then culminating bendA
Sheer o er the oaks wherein the birds are lodgedA
All are in flight at once but from aboveX2
As suddenly a mightier burst of flameB2
Outsheeteth o er them Down they dip but itA
Keeps swooping with them even to the groundA
Where in a moment after all are seenC3
To writhe convulsed blasted and plumeless allI2
-
Thus through the day the conflagration ragedA
And when the wings of night o erspread the sceneC3
Not even their starry blazonry wore suchD3
An aggregated glory to the eyeA
As did the blazing dead wood of the forestA
On all hands blazing Mighty sapless gumsZ2
Amid their living kindred stood all fireN
Boles branches all like flaming ghosts of treesZ2
Come from the past within the whiteman s paleE3
To typify a doom Such was the prospectA
Illuminated cities were but jestsZ2
Compared to it for splendor But enoughF3
Where are the words to paint the million shapesZ2
And unimaginable freaks of FireN
When holding thus its monster carnivalV
In the primeval forest all night longM

Charles Harpur



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