The Drowned Alive Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDEEFFGGG HHIIJJ KKLLLLMNOOPPQQNNRRSS TTUURRVVPP WXLLGGQYYBB ZZLLA2A2RRRRRRB2B2BB C2C2PPNN LLGGC2PPBB NNUULLLLRR D2D2E2F2G2G2RRE2H2I2 I2| I was one so deeply drowned | A |
| That when the drag my body found | A |
| Twas void of motion void of breath | B |
| And to sensation dead as death | B |
| In a languid summer mood | C |
| I had plunged into a flood | D |
| That to the low sun s slanting beams | E |
| Gleamed with only quiet gleams | E |
| Each with a wide flicker sheeting | F |
| From its still floor fast and fleeting | F |
| E en such a flood as one would say | G |
| Could never or by night or day | G |
| Have drenched a man s warm life away | G |
| - | |
| But what are these down in its bed | H |
| That trail so long and look so red | H |
| Moving as in conscious sport | I |
| Are they weeds of curious sort | I |
| But I ll drive to them and see | J |
| Into all their mystery | J |
| - | |
| Down I dive A plentious crop | K |
| Some shall with me to the top | K |
| For here there is too dim a light | L |
| To show their character aright | L |
| I wind them in my arms intent | L |
| To root them up in my ascent | L |
| But they resist me and again | M |
| I tug them with a stronger strain | N |
| Full well I trow they hold their own | O |
| Gripping fast each bedded stone | O |
| With their tuby roots that go | P |
| Down through the stiff slime below | P |
| Well at last I find that I | Q |
| Must leave them But in vain I try | Q |
| Fierce as lightning on my brain | N |
| Smites the dread truth I try in vain | N |
| Yea more and more in coils and flakes | R |
| Like long blood red watersnakes | R |
| The deadly things around me clasp | S |
| The more I tug the more they grasp | S |
| My pent breath growing hot and thin | T |
| Explodes with a dull booming din | T |
| While through my unclenched teeth the wave | U |
| Comes drenching Is there none to save | U |
| None near to see to guess to trace | R |
| Under the water s gleaming face | R |
| The dread extremity of one | V |
| Thus fastened down Ah Is there none | V |
| Wild as vain my struggles grow | P |
| Horror horror life must go | P |
| - | |
| Hope gives up her ghost despair | W |
| I am dying round me here | X |
| The long weeds erst so deeply red | L |
| Look even where nearest grey as lead | L |
| As mid them settling down I sway | G |
| To and fro and fast away | G |
| Life keeps bubbling bubbling aye | Q |
| Through my cold lips wide agape | Y |
| White and stiffening to that shape | Y |
| They take at last when done with breath | B |
| In the rigid face of death | B |
| - | |
| And now while sullen drummings make | Z |
| My spirit through mine ears to ache | Z |
| Life long memories interwrought | L |
| With all I ever felt or thought | L |
| Sacred fancies hidden long | A2 |
| Lest the world should do them wrong | A2 |
| Pent back feelings that for years | R |
| Just below the source of tears | R |
| Folded close their glowing wings | R |
| With a million other things | R |
| All thick interthronging press | R |
| Through my drowning consciousness | R |
| Then comes the thought of how my doom | B2 |
| Must wrap my mother in its gloom | B2 |
| And give my sire to hold his breath | B |
| For anguish hearing of my death | B |
| And wound one fond heart to the core | C2 |
| In the wide world evermore | C2 |
| All in the same instant so | P |
| Do these quick thoughts come and go | P |
| Life within my failing brain | N |
| Full of pity full of pain | N |
| - | |
| Lastly a drear stupor blent | L |
| With a comfortless content | L |
| Into one mass of clammy clay | G |
| Kneads mind and body Drenched away | G |
| With one faint shudder one last throe | C2 |
| Life stagnates and its shell lies low | P |
| Swaying weed bound to and fro | P |
| Void of feeling and of breath | B |
| How die we if this be not death | B |
| - | |
| Ah What thrilling thrilling pain | N |
| Kindles through my heart and brain | N |
| Ah What horrors o er me wave | U |
| Shadowing forth as from the grave | U |
| Ah Those sudden gleams of light | L |
| They fall like firebrands on my sight | L |
| Ah What vast and heavy world | L |
| Is all at once upon me hurled | L |
| Massing into one immense | R |
| Oppression every tortured sense | R |
| - | |
| - | |
| Yes I now remember well | D2 |
| How my sudden fate befell | D2 |
| And are we then in death s grim thrall | E2 |
| Thus consciousness of our funeral | F2 |
| But where are they who most should mourn | G2 |
| When by bier is graveward borne | G2 |
| With her whose face I yearn to see | R |
| Where are they And where is she | R |
| Where the crape trimm d followers all | E2 |
| Where the coffin and the pall | H2 |
| Or do death and nature strive | I2 |
| Within me Is the drowned alive | I2 |
Charles Harpur
(1)
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