Shadow.'a Parable Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB B BCBDEFGH IAJAKLMGAACBNB CBBODPABBQBRBSTUBBVW XBUDAYOJZCA2CBB2ABJA C2YBYD2BME2BGAF2BCBB GBBBQOG2BBBABACBBOGD XYOYea though I walk through the valley of the | A |
Shadow | B |
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'Psalm of David' | B |
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Ye who read are still among the living but I who write | B |
shall have long since gone my way into the region of | C |
shadows For indeed strange things shall happen and secret | B |
things be known and many centuries shall pass away ere | D |
these memorials be seen of men And when seen there will | E |
be some to disbelieve and some to doubt and yet a few who | F |
will find much to ponder upon in the characters here graven | G |
with a stylus of iron | H |
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The year had been a year of terror and of feeling more | I |
intense than terror for which there is no name upon the | A |
earth For many prodigies and signs had taken place and far | J |
and wide over sea and land the black wings of the | A |
Pestilence were spread abroad To those nevertheless | K |
cunning in the stars it was not unknown that the heavens | L |
wore an aspect of ill and to me the Greek Oinos among | M |
others it was evident that now had arrived the alternation | G |
of that seven hundred and ninety fourth year when at the | A |
entrance of Aries the planet Jupiter is enjoined with the | A |
red ring of the terrible Saturnus The peculiar spirit of | C |
the skies if I mistake not greatly made itself manifest | B |
not only in the physical orb of the earth but in the souls | N |
imaginations and meditations of mankind | B |
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Over some flasks of the red Chian wine within the walls of | C |
a noble hall in a dim city called Ptolemais we sat at | B |
night a company of seven And to our chamber there was no | B |
entrance save by a lofty door of brass and the door was | O |
fashioned by the artisan Corinnos and being of rare | D |
workmanship was fastened from within Black draperies | P |
likewise in the gloomy room shut out from our view the | A |
moon the lurid stars and the peopleless streets but | B |
the boding and the memory of Evil they would not be so | B |
excluded There were things around us and about of which I | Q |
can render no distinct account things material and | B |
spiritual heaviness in the atmosphere a sense | R |
of suffocation anxiety and above all that | B |
terrible state of existence which the nervous experience | S |
when the senses are keenly living and awake and meanwhile | T |
the powers of thought lie dormant A dead weight hung upon | U |
us It hung upon our limbs upon the household | B |
furniture upon the goblets from which we drank and | B |
all things were depressed and borne down thereby all | V |
things save only the flames of the seven iron lamps which | W |
illumined our revel Uprearing themselves in tall slender | X |
lines of light they thus remained burning all pallid and | B |
motionless and in the mirror which their lustre formed upon | U |
the round table of ebony at which we sat each of us there | D |
assembled beheld the pallor of his own countenance and the | A |
unquiet glare in the downcast eyes of his companions Yet we | Y |
laughed and were merry in our proper way which was | O |
hysterical and sang the songs of Anacreon which are | J |
madness and drank deeply although the purple wine | Z |
reminded us of blood For there was yet another tenant of | C |
our chamber in the person of young Zoilus Dead and at full | A2 |
length he lay enshrouded the genius and the demon of | C |
the scene Alas he bore no portion in our mirth save that | B |
his countenance distorted with the plague and his eyes in | B2 |
which Death had but half extinguished the fire of the | A |
pestilence seemed to take such an interest in our merriment | B |
as the dead may haply take in the merriment of those who are | J |
to die But although I Oinos felt that the eyes of the | A |
departed were upon me still I forced myself not to perceive | C2 |
the bitterness of their expression and gazing down steadily | Y |
into the depths of the ebony mirror sang with a loud and | B |
sonorous voice the songs of the son of Teos But gradually | Y |
my songs they ceased and their echoes rolling afar off | D2 |
among the sable draperies of the chamber became weak and | B |
undistinguishable and so faded away And lo from among | M |
those sable draperies where the sounds of the song | E2 |
departed there came forth a dark and undefiled | B |
shadow a shadow such as the moon when low in heaven | G |
might fashion from the figure of a man but it was the | A |
shadow neither of man nor of God nor of any familiar thing | F2 |
And quivering awhile among the draperies of the room it at | B |
length rested in full view upon the surface of the door of | C |
brass But the shadow was vague and formless and | B |
indefinite and was the shadow neither of man nor God | B |
neither God of Greece nor God of Chaldaea nor any Egyptian | G |
God And the shadow rested upon the brazen doorway and | B |
under the arch of the entablature of the door and moved not | B |
nor spoke any word but there became stationary and | B |
remained And the door whereupon the shadow rested was if I | Q |
remember aright over against the feet of the young Zoilus | O |
enshrouded But we the seven there assembled having seen | G2 |
the shadow as it came out from among the draperies dared | B |
not steadily behold it but cast down our eyes and gazed | B |
continually into the depths of the mirror of ebony And at | B |
length I Oinos speaking some low words demanded of the | A |
shadow its dwelling and its appellation And the shadow | B |
answered I am SHADOW and my dwelling is near to the | A |
Catacombs of Ptolemais and hard by those dim plains of | C |
Helusion which border upon the foul Charonian canal And | B |
then did we the seven start from our seats in horror and | B |
stand trembling and shuddering and aghast for the tones | O |
in the voice of the shadow were not the tones of any one | G |
being but of a multitude of beings and varying in their | D |
cadences from syllable to syllable fell duskily upon our | X |
ears in the well remembered and familiar accents of many | Y |
thousand departed friends | O |
Edgar Allan Poe
(1)
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