Moonset Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEDDE FFDE GHIHDHDDHJJH GKLLMN DODOFFFPQP RSLSLTTTUTLS LS TVRVLTUTLTWVTV RRTRXV LVLVRRTRBut see the body does not sink | A |
It rides upon the tide | B |
A starbeam on the dagger's haft | C |
With staring eyes and wide | B |
And now up from the darkling sea | D |
Down from the failing moon | E |
Are come strange shapes to mock at me | D |
All pallid from the star pale sea | D |
White from the paling moon | E |
- | |
Or whirling fast or wheeling slow | F |
Around around the corpse they go | F |
All bloodless o'er the sickened sea | D |
Beneath the ailing moon | E |
- | |
And are they only wisps of fog | G |
That dance along the waves | H |
Only shapes of mist the wind | I |
Drives along the waves | H |
Or are they spirits that the sea | D |
Has cheated of their graves | H |
The ghosts of them that died at sea | D |
Of murdered men flung in the sea | D |
Whose bodies had no graves | H |
Lost souls that haunt for evermore | J |
The sobbing reef and hollowed shore | J |
And always murmuring caves | H |
- | |
Ah surely something more than fog | G |
More than starlit mist | K |
For starlight never makes a sound | L |
And fogs are ever whist | L |
But hearken hearken hearken now | M |
For these sing as they dance | N |
- | |
As airily as eerily | D |
They wheel about and whirl | O |
They jeer at me they fleer at me | D |
They flout me as they swirl | O |
As whirling fast or swaying slow | F |
Reeling wheeling to and fro | F |
Around around the corpse they go | F |
They chill me with their chants | P |
These be neither men nor mists | Q |
Hearken to their chants | P |
- | |
Ever ever ever | R |
Drifting like a blossom | S |
Seaward with the starlight | L |
Wan upon her bosom | S |
Ever when the quickened | L |
Heart of night is throbbing | T |
Ever when the trembling | T |
Tide sets seaward sobbing | T |
Shall you see this burden | U |
Borne upon its ebbing | T |
See her drifting seaward | L |
Like a broken blossom | S |
- | |
Ever see the starlight | L |
Kiss her bruised bosom | S |
- | |
Flight availeth nothing | T |
Still the subtle beaches | V |
Draw you back where Horror | R |
Walks their shingled reaches | V |
Ever shall your spirit | L |
Hear the surf resounding | T |
Evermore the ocean | U |
Thwarting you and bounding | T |
Vainly struggle inland | L |
Lashing you and hounding | T |
Still the vision hales you | W |
From the upland reaches | V |
Goading you and gripping | T |
Binds you to the beaches | V |
- | |
Ever ever ever | R |
Ever shall her laughter | R |
Hunting you and haunting | T |
Mock and follow after | R |
Rising where the buoy bell | X |
Clangs across the shallows | V |
- | |
Leaping where the spindrift | L |
Hurtles o'er the hollows | V |
Ringing where the moonlight | L |
Gleams along the billows | V |
Ever ever ever | R |
Ever shall her laughter | R |
Hounding you and haunting | T |
Whip and follow after | R |
Don Marquis
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