The Nightmare Tarn Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFGHHIIJJKK E ELLCCJJJJAAMMNNOOPP| I sat beside the moonless tarn alone | A |
| In darkness where a mumbling air was blown | A |
| A moulded air insufferably fraught | B |
| With dust of plundered charnels there was naught | B |
| In this my dream but darkness and the wind | C |
| The blowing dust the stagnant waters blind | C |
| And sombre boughs of pine or cypress old | D |
| Wherefrom a rain of ashes dark and cold | D |
| At 'whiles fell on me or was driven by | E |
| To feed the tongueless tarn within the sky | E |
| The stars were like a failing phosphor wan | F |
| In gutted tombs from which the worms have gone | G |
| But though the dust and ashes in one cloud | H |
| Blinded and stifled me as might a shroud | H |
| And though the foul putrescent waters gave | I |
| Upon my face the fetors of the grave | I |
| Though all was black corruption and despair | J |
| I could not stir like mandrake rooted there | J |
| And with mine every breath I seemed to raise | K |
| The burden of some charnel of old days | K |
| Where tier on tier the leaden coffins lie | E |
| - | |
| While sluggish black eternities went by | E |
| I waited on the darkness of my dream | L |
| There fell nor lantern flame nor lightning gleam | L |
| Nor gleam of moon or meteor the wind | C |
| Withdrawn as in some sighing tomb declined | C |
| And all the dust was fallen the waters drear | J |
| Lay still as blood of corpses Loud and near | J |
| The cry of one who drowned in her despair | J |
| Came to me from the filthy tarn the air | J |
| Shuddered thereat and all my heart was grown | A |
| A place of fears the nether hell might own | A |
| And prey to monstrous wings and beaks malign | M |
| For lo the voice O dearest love was thine | M |
| And I I could not stir the dreadful weight | N |
| Of tomb on ancient tomb accumulate | N |
| Lay on my limbs and stifled all my breath | O |
| And when I strove to cry the dust of death | O |
| Had filled my mouth nor any whisper came | P |
| To answer thee who called upon my name | P |
Clark Ashton Smith
(1)
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About The Nightmare Tarn
The Nightmare Tarn is a poem by Clark Ashton Smith. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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