A Ballade Of The Unborn Dead Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCC DEDEFF GHGHAA IJIJKK LMLMN OPO QA LRLSTT| They walked the valley of the dead | A |
| Lit by a weird half light | B |
| No sound they made no word they said | A |
| And they were pale with fright | B |
| Then suddenly from unseen places came | C |
| Loud laughter that was like a whip of flame | C |
| - | |
| They looked and saw beyond above | D |
| A land where wronged souls wait | E |
| Those spirits called to earth by love | D |
| And driven back by hate | E |
| And each one stood in anguish dumb and wild | F |
| As she beheld the phantom of her child | F |
| - | |
| Yea saw the soul her wish had hurled | G |
| Out into night and death | H |
| Before it reached the Mother world | G |
| Or drew its natal breath | H |
| And terrified each hid her face and fled | A |
| Beyond the presence of her unborn dead | A |
| - | |
| And God's Great Angel who provides | I |
| Souls for our mortal land | J |
| Laughed with the laughter that derides | I |
| At that fast fleeing band | J |
| Of self made barren women of the earth | K |
| Hell has no curse that withers like such mirth | K |
| - | |
| 'O Angel tell us who were they | L |
| That down below us fared | M |
| Those shapes with faces strained and grey | L |
| And eyes that stared and stared | M |
| Something there was about them gave us fear | N |
| Yet are we lonely now they are not here ' | - |
| - | |
| Thus spake the spectral children thus | O |
| The Angel made reply | P |
| 'They have no part or share with us | O |
| They were but passers by ' | - |
| 'But may we pray for them ' the phantoms plead | Q |
| 'Yea for they need your prayers ' the Angel said | A |
| - | |
| They went upon their lonely way | L |
| Far far from Paradise | R |
| Their path was lit with one wan ray | L |
| From ghostly children's eyes | S |
| The little children who were never born | T |
| And as they passed the Angel laughed in scorn | T |
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about A Ballade Of The Unborn Dead poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Best Poems of Ella Wheeler Wilcox