The Vampire Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AAABCCCB DDDEFFFE GGGHIIH JJJKLLK MMMNOOON PPPPQQQP RRRSRR RRPPPPP PBPPBPB PPPTP UVUPWWP PPXPPPX RRRYZZZY BBBPA2A2A2P

She rose among us where we layA
She wept we put our work awayA
She chilled our laughter stilled our playA
And spread a silence thereB
And darkness shot across the skyC
And once and twice we heard her cryC
And saw her lift white hands on highC
And toss her troubled hairB
-
What shape was this who came to usD
With basilisk eyes so ominousD
With mouth so sweet so poisonousD
And tortured hands so paleE
We saw her wavering to and froF
Through dark and wind we saw her goF
Yet what her name was did not knowF
And felt our spirits failE
-
We tried to turn away but stillG
Above we heard her sorrow thrillG
And those that slept they dreamed of illG
And dreadful thingsH
Of skies grown red with rending flamesI
And shuddering hills that cracked their framesI
Of twilights foul with wingsH
-
And skeletons dancing to a tuneJ
And cries of children stifled soonJ
And over all a blood red moonJ
A dull and nightmare sizeK
They woke and sought to go their waysL
Yet everywhere they met her gazeL
Her fixed and burning eyesK
-
Who are you now we cried to herM
Spirit so strange so sinisterM
We felt dead winds above us stirM
And in the darkness heardN
A voice fall singing cloying sweetO
Heavily dropping though that heatO
Heavy as honeyed pulses beatO
Slow word by anguished wordN
-
And through the night strange music wentP
With voice and cry so darkly blentP
We could not fathom what they meantP
Save only that they seemedP
To thin the blood along our veinsQ
Foretelling vile delirious painsQ
And clouds divulging blood red rainsQ
Upon a hill undreamedP
-
And this we heard 'Who dies for meR
He shall possess me secretlyR
My terrible beauty he shall seeR
And slake my body's flameS
But who denies me cursed shall beR
And slain and buried loathsomelyR
And slimed upon with shame '-
-
And darkness fell And like a seaR
Of stumbling deaths we followed weR
Who dared not stay behindP
There all night long beneath a cloudP
We rose and fell we struck and bowedP
We were the ploughman and the ploughedP
Our eyes were red and blindP
-
And some they said had touched her sideP
Before she fled us thereB
And some had taken her to brideP
And some lain down for her and diedP
Who had not touched her hairB
Ran to and fro and cursed and criedP
And sought her everywhereB
-
'Her eyes have feasted on the deadP
And small and shapely is her headP
And dark and small her mouth ' they saidP
'And beautiful to kissT
Her mouth is sinister and redP
As blood in moonlight is '-
-
Then poets forgot their jeweled wordsU
And cut the sky with glittering swordsV
And innocent souls turned carrion birdsU
To perch upon the deadP
Sweet daisy fields were drenched with deathW
The air became a charnel breathW
Pale stones were splashed with redP
-
Green leaves were dappled bright with bloodP
And fruit trees murdered in the budP
And when at length the dawnX
Came green as twilight from the eastP
And all that heaving horror ceasedP
Silent was every bird and beastP
And that dark voice was goneX
-
No word was there no song no bellR
No furious tongue that dream to tellR
Only the dead who rose and fellR
Above the wounded menY
And whisperings and wails of painZ
Blown slowly from the wounded grainZ
Blown slowly from the smoking plainZ
And silence fallen againY
-
Until at dusk from God knows whereB
Beneath dark birds that filled the airB
Like one who did not hear or careB
Under a blood red cloudP
An aged ploughman came aloneA2
And drove his share through flesh and boneA2
And turned them under to mould and stoneA2
All night long he ploughedP

Conrad Potter Aiken



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