Saturn Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNKKNOKK N KKNPNNQRNBKS AENTKKNUQKKVKNK NKWXKLKKTTNYQKKN UKNZA2NKQNNNKB2C2NT NKLKNNB2KND2E2F2NB2N KKN NTTKKGRKG2H2RNNI2KTK K NKKKB2NKH2KN KQTKQJ2QW GNNKKK2KKL2NNKKPTKH2 QNKQNNKNTM2QNNKKKKEJ 2KNK N2J2NI2NNNNNNO2J2 KNJ2NKKP2PKPTNNQ2NNC 2I2QEKTNNTNR2N N2NI2NNNS2T2Q KJ2KNKNNVNTNNU2I2V2Q NB2V KR2KJ2NNQW2NK

Now were the Titans gathered round their kingA
In a waste region slipping toward the vergeB
Of drear extremities that clasp the worldC
A land half moulded by the hasty godsD
Grotesque misfeatured blackly gnarled with stoneE
And left beneath the bright scorn of the starsF
Or worn and marred from conflict with the deepG
Conterminate of Chaos Here they stoodH
Old Saturn midmost like a central peakI
Among the lesser mounts that guard its baseJ
Defeat that gloamed within each countenanceK
Like the first tinge of death upon a sunL
Gathering like some dusk vapor found them coldM
Heavy of limb and halting as with weightN
Of threatened worlds and trembling firmamentsK
A wind cried round them like a trumpet voiceK
Of phantom hosts hurried importunateN
And intermittent with a tightening fearO
Far off the sunset sprang and the hard cloudsK
Molten among the peaks seemd furnacesK
In which to make the fetters of the worldN
-
Seared by the lightning of the younger godsK
They saw beyond the grim and crouching hillsK
Those levins thrust like spears into the heartN
Of swollen clouds or cleaving the dark skyP
Like swords colossal Then as the Titans watchedN
The night rose like a black enormous mistN
Around them wherein naught was visibleQ
Save the sharp levin leaping in the northR
And no sound came except of seas remoteN
That seemed like Chaos ravening past the vergeB
Of all the world fed with the crumbling coastsK
Of MatterS
-
Till the moon discoveringA
that harsh swart wilderness of sand and stoneE
Tissued and twisted in chaotic weldN
Lit with illusory fire each Titan's formT
They sate in silence mute as stranded orbsK
The wrack of Time upcast on ruinous coastsK
And in the slow withdrawal of the tideN
Unvexed awhile Small solace could they takeU
From that wan radiance glistering frostilyQ
Upon the desert seized in iron silenceK
Like a false triumph over contestless FatesK
Or a mirage of life in wastes of deathV
Yet were they moved to speak and Saturn's voiceK
Seeming the soul of that tremendous landN
Set free in sound startled the haughty starsK
-
'O Titans gods sustainers of the worldN
Is this the end Must Earth go down to ChaosK
Lacking our strength beneath the unpractised swayW
Of godlings vain precipitate with youthX
Who think unrecking of disastrous chanceK
To bind their will as reins upon the sunL
Or stand as columns to the ponderous heavensK
Must we behold with eyes of impotenceK
That universal wrack even though it whelmT
These our usurpers in impartial doomT
Beneath the shards and fragments of the worldN
Were it not preferable to returnY
And meeting them in fight unswervableQ
Drag down the earth ourselves and these our foesK
One sacrifice unto the gods of ChaosK
Why should we stay and live the tragedyN
Of power that survives its use '-
-
Now spakeU
Enceladus when that the echoingsK
Of Saturn's voice had fled remote and seemedN
Dead thunders caught and flung from star to starZ
'Wouldst hurl thy kingdom down the nightward gulfA2
Like to a stone a curious child might castN
To test the fall of some dark precipiceK
Patience and caution should we take as mailQ
Not rashness for a weapon too keen swordN
That cuts the strain d knot of destinyN
Never to be tied again Were it not bestN
To watch the slow procedure of the daysK
That we may grasp a time more opportuneB2
When desperation is not all our strengthC2
Nor the foe newly filled with victoryN
Then may we hope to conquer back thy realmT
For thee not for the gods of nothingness '-
-
He ceased and after him no lesser godN
Gave voice upon the shaken silencesK
None venturing to risk comparisonL
Inevitable then of eloquenceK
With his but like the ambiguityN
Of signal stars and lesser overcastN
And merged in one confusion by the moonB2
Silence possessed that throng till Saturn roseK
Around his form the light intensifiedN
And strengthened with addition wild and strangeD2
Investing him as with a ghostly robeE2
And gathering like a crown about his browF2
His sword whereon the shadows lay like rustN
He took and dipping it within the moonB2
Made clean its length of blade and from it castN
Swift flickerings at the stars And then his voiceK
Came like a torrent and from out his eyesK
Streamed wilder power that mingled with the soundN
-
And his resurgent power in glance and wordN
Poured through the Titans' souls and was becomeT
The fountains of their own and at his flameT
Their fires relumined twice rebellious roseK
Leaping against the stronghold of the starsK
And now they came where sleepG
Where red upon the forefront of the northR
Arcturus was a beacon to the windsK
And with the flickering winds that lightly struckG2
The desert dust then sprang again in airH2
They passed athwart the foreland of the northR
Against their march they saw the shrunken wasteN
A rivelled region like a world grown oldN
Whose sterile breast knew not the lips of lifeI2
In all its epoch or a world that wasK
The nurse of infant Death ere he becameT
Too large too strong for its restraining armsK
And towered athwart the sunsK
-
And there they crossedN
Metallic slopes that rang like monstrous shieldsK
Under their tread and dully clanging plainsK
Like body mail of greater vaster godsK
Where hills made gibbous shadows in the moonB2
They heard the eldritch laughters of the windN
Seeming the mirth of doom and 'neath their gazeK
Gaunt valleys deepened like an old despairH2
Yet strode they on through the moon's fantasiesK
Bold with resolve across a land like doubtN
-
And now they passed among huge mountain bulksK
Themselves like ambulant mountains moving slowQ
'Mid fettered brethren adding weight and gloomT
To that mute conclave great against the starsK
Emerging thence the Titans marched where stillQ
Their own portentous shadows went beforeJ2
Like night that fled but shrunk not dusking allQ
That desert wayW
-
And now they came where steepG
The sleep of weary victory had seizedN
The younger gods as captives borne beyondN
All flight of mounting battle ecstasiesK
In that deep triumph of forgetfulnessK
Upon that sleep the striding Titans brokeK2
Vague and immense at first like forming dreamsK
To those disturb d gods in mist of drowseK
Purblind and doubtful yet though soon they knewL2
Their erst defeated foes and rising stoodN
In silent ranks expectant that appearedN
To move with shaking of astonished firesK
That bristled forth deployed like awful plumesK
Between the brightening desert and the skyP
Then sudden as the waking from a dreamT
The battle sprang where striving deitiesK
Moved brightly through the whirled and stricken airH2
Sweeping it to a froth of fire and allQ
That ancient deep established desert rockedN
Shaken as by an onset of the gulfsK
Of gathered and impatient Chaos whileQ
Above the place where central battle burnedN
The moon and stars drew back in dazzlementN
Paling to more secluded distancesK
Lo where the moon's uncertain light had wroughtN
Disordered shadows and chimeras dimT
Hiding the hideous desert with mirageM2
Or deepening it with gulfs and glooms of hellQ
Mightier confusion chaos absoluteN
Was grown the one thing sure in sky or worldN
Typhonian maelstrorns caught in fiery stormsK
Torn by the sweep of Olympian weaponriesK
Crescented blades that met with rounds of shieldsK
Grappling of shapes seen through the riven blazeK
An instant then once more obscure and knownE
Only by giant heavings of that warJ2
Of furious gods and rous d elementsK
Theses round one swollen center hung enspheredN
Upon the blasted sand and molten rocksK
-
So huge that chaos complicate withinN2
With movements of gigantic legionryJ2
Where Jove and Saturn thunder crested ledN
In onset never stayed so strong the strifeI2
Of differing impulse that decision foundN
No foothold till that first confusion shouldN
In ordered conflict re arrange and standN
With its true forces known This seemed remoteN
With that wide struggle pending terriblyN
As if the spectrumed wings of Time had madeN
A truce with white Eternity and bothO2
Stood watching from afarJ2
-
Through drifts of hazeK
The broadening moon made ominous with redN
Glared from the westering night And now that warJ2
Built for itself far up a cope of cloudN
And drew it down far off upon all sidesK
Impervious to the moon and sworded starsK
And by their own wild light the gods fought onP2
'Neath that stupendous concave like a skyP
Filled and illumined with glare of shattered sunsK
And cast by their own light upon that skyP
The gods' own shadows moved like shapen gloomT
Phantasmagoric changed and amplifiedN
A shifting frieze that flickered dreadfullyN
In spectral battle indecisive ThenQ2
Swift as it had begun the contest turnedN
And on the heaving Titans' massive frontN
It seemed that all the motion and the strengthC2
Self thwarting and confounded of that strifeI2
Was flung in centered impact terribleQ
with rush of all that fire tempestuous blownE
As if before some wind of further spaceK
Striking the earth Lo all the Titans' flameT
Bent back upon themselves and they were hurledN
In vaster disarray with vanguard piledN
On rear and center Saturn could not stemT
The loosened torrents of long pent defeatN
He with his hosts was but as drift thereonR2
Borne wildly down the whelmed and reeling worldN
-
Hurling like slanted rain the violet levinN2
Fell over that flight of Titans and behindN
In striding menace all victorious JoveI2
Loomed like some craggy cloud with thunders crownedN
And footed with the winds In that defeatN
With Jove's pursuit deepened and manifoldN
Few found escape unscathed and some went downS2
Like senile suns that grapple with the darkT2
And reel in flame tremendous and are stillQ
-
Ebbing the battle left those elder godsK
Thrown back on iron shores of their despairJ2
A darker and a vaster TartarusK
The victor gods their storms and thunders spentN
Went dwindling northward like embattled cloudsK
And where the lingering haze of light dissolvedN
The pallor of the dawn began to spreadN
On darkness purple like the pain of deathV
Ringed with that desolation Saturn stoodN
Mute and the Titans answered unto himT
With brother silence Motionless they appearedN
Some peristyle of topless columns greatN
Alone enduring of a fallen faneU2
In wastes of an immenser world whence LifeI2
And Faith have vanished whose enshadowed orbV2
Verges oblivionward And Twilight slowQ
Crept round those lofty shapes august and seemedN
Such as might be the ghostly muffed noonB2
Of mightier suns that totter down to deathV
-
Then turned they passing from that dismal placeK
Blasted anew with battle ere the dawnR2
Striding in flame athwart stupendous chasmsK
And wasteful plains should overtake them thereJ2
Bowed with too heavy a burden of defeatN
Slowly they turned and passed upon the westN
Where like a weariness immovableQ
In menace huge the plain its monstrous bulkW2
The peaks its hydra heads the whole world crouchedN
Against their march with the diminished starsK

Clark Ashton Smith



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