The Struggle Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFDGHIJKLMNOIPQ RSTBGUVWXDYD ZDA2B2C2D2ATE2DD F2WAG2TH2I2H2J2I2K2L 2ADAVAVAKVDM2D DN2O2P2DDQ2DDH2TR2S2 M2M2YL2 DDDEDA EAT2DEU2DDV2H2DDW2Q2 QFQ2X2DY2P2Z2A3D DB3C3 DD3E3F3G3H3DTVKB2DOI have been down in a dark valley | A |
I have been groping through a deep gorge | B |
Far above the lips of it were rimmed with moon | C |
light | D |
And here and there the light lay on the dripping | E |
rocks | F |
So that it seemed they dripped with moonlight | D |
not with water | G |
So deep it was that narrow gash among the hills | H |
That those great pines which fringed its edge | I |
Seemed to me no larger than upthrust fingers | J |
Silhouetted against the sky | K |
And at its top the vale was strait | L |
And the rays were slant | M |
And reached but part way down the sides | N |
I could not see the moon itself | O |
I walked through darkness and the valley's edge | I |
Seemed almost level with the stars | P |
The stars that were like fireflies in the little trees | Q |
- | |
It was the midnight of defeat | R |
I felt that I had failed | S |
I was mocked of the gods | T |
There was no way out of that gorge | B |
The paths led no whither | G |
And I could not remember their beginnings | U |
I was doomed to wander evermore | V |
Thirsty with the sound of mocking waters in | W |
mine ears | X |
Groping with gleams of useless light | D |
Splashed in ironic beauty on the rocks above | Y |
And so I whined | D |
- | |
And then despair flashed into rage | Z |
I leapt erect and cried | D |
Could I but grasp my life as sculptors grasp the clay | A2 |
And knead and thrust it into shape again | B2 |
If all the scorn of Heaven were but thrown | C2 |
Into the focus of some creature I could clutch | D2 |
If something tangible were but vouchsafed me | A |
By the cold far gods | T |
If they but sent a Reason for the failure of my life | E2 |
I'd answer it | D |
If they but sent a Fiend I'd conquer it | D |
- | |
But I reach out and grasp the air | F2 |
I rage and the brute rock echoes my words in | W |
mockery | A |
How can one fight the sliding moonlight on the cliffs | G2 |
You gods coward gods | T |
Come down I challenge you | H2 |
You who set snares with roses and with passion | I2 |
You who make flesh beautiful and damn men through | H2 |
the flesh | J2 |
You who plump the purple grape and then put poison | I2 |
in the cup | K2 |
You who put serpents in your Edens | L2 |
You who gave me delight of my senses and broke me | A |
for it | D |
You who have mingled death with beauty | A |
You who have put into my blood the impulses for | V |
which you cursed me | A |
You who permitted my brain the doubts wherefore | V |
you damn me | A |
Behold I doubt you gods no longer but defy | K |
I perish here | V |
Then I will be slain of a god | D |
You who have wrapped me in the scorn of your silence | M2 |
The divinity in this same dust you flout | D |
- | |
i Flames through the dust | D |
And dares | N2 |
And flings you back your scorn | O2 |
Come face to face and slay me if you will | P2 |
But not until you've felt the weight | D |
Of all betricked humanity's contempt | D |
In one bold blow | Q2 |
Speak forth a Reason and I will answer it | D |
Yes to your faces I will answer it | D |
Come garmented in flesh and I will fight with you | H2 |
Yes in your faces will I smite you gods | T |
Coward gods and tricksters that set traps | R2 |
In paradise | S2 |
Far gods that hedge yourselves about with silence | M2 |
And with distance | M2 |
That mock men from the unscalable escarpments of | Y |
your Heavens | L2 |
- | |
Thus I raved being mad | D |
I had no sooner finished speaking than I felt | D |
The darkness fluttered by approaching feet | D |
And the silence was burned through by trembling | E |
flames of sound | D |
And I was 'ware that Something stood by me | A |
- | |
And with a shout I leapt and grasped that Being | E |
And the Thing grasped me | A |
We came to wrestling grips | T2 |
And back and forth we swayed | D |
Hand seeking throat and crook'd knee seeking | E |
To encrook unwary leg | U2 |
And spread toes grasping the uneven ground | D |
The strained breast muscles cracked and creaked | D |
The sweat ran in my eyes | V2 |
The plagued breath sobbed and whistled through | H2 |
my throat | D |
I tasted blood and strangled but still struggled | D |
on | W2 |
The stars above me danced in swarms like yellow | Q2 |
bees | Q |
The shaken moonlight writhed upon the rocks | F |
But at the last I felt his breathing weaker grow | Q2 |
The tense limbs grow less tense | X2 |
And with a bursting cry I bent his head right | D |
back | Y2 |
Back back until | P2 |
I heard his neck bones snap | Z2 |
His spine crunched in my grip | A3 |
I flung him to the earth and knelt upon his breast | D |
- | |
And listened till the fluttering pulse was stilled | D |
Man god or devil I had wrenched the life from | B3 |
him | C3 |
- | |
And lo even as he died | D |
The moonlight failed above the vale | D3 |
And somehow sure I know now how | E3 |
Between the rifted rocks the great Sun struck | F3 |
A finger down the cliff and that red beam | G3 |
Lay sharp across the face of him that I had slain | H3 |
And in that light I read the answer of the silent | D |
gods | T |
Unto my cursed out prayer | V |
For he that lay upon the ground was I | K |
I understood the lesson then | B2 |
It was myself that lay there dead | D |
Yes I had slain my Self | O |
Don Marquis
(1)
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