Medusa Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST UVWXYZA2XB2C2D2E2F2 UG2H2C2I2D2J2| As drear and barren as the glooms of Death | A |
| It lies a windless land of livid dawns | B |
| Nude to a desolate firmament with hills | C |
| That seem the gibbous bones of the mummied Earth | D |
| And plains whose hollow Face is rivelled deep | E |
| With gullies twisting like a serpent's track | F |
| The leprous touch of Death is on its stones | G |
| Where for his token visible the Head | H |
| Is throned upon a heap of monstrous rocks | I |
| Rough mounded like some shattered pyramid | J |
| In a thwartly cloven hill ravine that seems | K |
| The unhealing scar of huge Tellurian wars | L |
| Her lethal beauty crowned with twining snakes | M |
| That mingle with her hair the Gorgon reigns | N |
| Her eyes are clouds wherein black lightnings lurk | O |
| Yet even as men that seek the glance of Life | P |
| The gazers come where coiled and serpent swift | Q |
| Those levins wait As round an altar base | R |
| Her victims lie distorted blackened forms | S |
| Of postured horror smitten into stone | T |
| Time caught in meshes of Eternity | U |
| Drawn back from dust and ruin of the years | V |
| And given to all the future of the world | W |
| The land is claimed of Death the daylight comes | X |
| Half strangled in the changing webs of cloud | Y |
| That unseen spiders of bewildered winds | Z |
| Weave and unweave across the lurid sun | A2 |
| In upper air Below no zephyr comes | X |
| To break with life the circling spell of doom | B2 |
| Long vapor serpents twist about the moon | C2 |
| And in the windy murkness of the sky | D2 |
| The guttering stars are wild as candle flames | E2 |
| That near the socket | F2 |
| - | |
| Thus the land shall be | U |
| And Death shall wait throned in Medusa's eyes | G2 |
| Till in the irremeable webs of night | H2 |
| The sun is snared and the corroded moon | C2 |
| A dust upon the gulfs and all the stars | I2 |
| Rotted and fallen like rivets from the sky | D2 |
| Letting the darkness down upon all things | J2 |
Clark Ashton Smith
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Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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Sage Avery: Are there any videos of someone reading this poem, I think it would be nice to get a chance to listen to it to get a better understanding of the feeling of the poem.
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