My Dream Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CBAADDADAA ADAEAFFEFFGHHGIIGJIA KIIJALLAAMAMANAN AAAHear now a curious dream I dreamed last night | A |
Each word whereof is weighed and sifted truth | B |
- | |
I stood beside Euphrates while it swelled | C |
Like overflowing Jordan in its youth | B |
It waxed and colored sensibly to sight | A |
Till out of myriad pregnant waves there welled | A |
Young crocodiles a gaunt blunt featured crew | D |
Fresh hatched perhaps and daubed with birthday dew | D |
The rest if I should tell I fear my friend | A |
My closest friend would deem the facts untrue | D |
And therefore it were wisely left untold | A |
Yet if you will why hear it to the end | A |
- | |
Each crocodile was girt with massive gold | A |
And polished stones that with their wearers grew | D |
But one there was who waxed beyond the rest | A |
Wore kinglier girdle and a kingly crown | E |
Whilst crowns and orbs and sceptres starred his breast | A |
All gleamed compact and green with scale on scale | F |
But special burnishment adorned his mail | F |
And special terror weighed upon his frown | E |
His punier brethren quaked before his tail | F |
Broad as a rafter potent as a flail | F |
So he grew lord and master of his kin | G |
But who shall tell the tale of all their woes | H |
An execrable appetite arose | H |
He battened on them crunched and sucked them in | G |
He knew no law he feared no binding law | I |
But ground them with inexorable jaw | I |
The luscious fat distilled upon his chin | G |
Exuded from his nostrils and his eyes | J |
While still like hungry death he fed his maw | I |
Till every minor crocodile being dead | A |
And buried too himself gorged to the full | K |
He slept with breath oppressed and unstrung claw | I |
O marvel passing strange which next I saw | I |
In sleep he dwindled to the common size | J |
And all the empire faded from his coat | A |
Then from far off a winged vessel came | L |
Swift as a swallow subtle as a flame | L |
I know not what it bore of freight or host | A |
But white it was as an avenging ghost | A |
It levelled strong Euphrates in its course | M |
Supreme yet weightless as an idle mote | A |
It seemed to tame the waters without force | M |
Till not a murmur swelled or billow beat | A |
Lo as the purple shadow swept the sands | N |
The prudent crocodile rose on his feet | A |
And shed appropriate tears and wrung his hands | N |
- | |
What can it mean you ask I answer not | A |
For meaning but myself must echo What | A |
And tell it as I saw it on the spot | A |
Christina Rossetti
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about My Dream poem by Christina Rossetti
Best Poems of Christina Rossetti