Darkness Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIHHJKHHLMNOH PIHQRSGTLUVWXHYZZA2B 2C2D2E2F2UG2H2I2J2FG ZK2L2M2N2O2M2HHTHE2P 2TM2M2FQ2M2R2HFS2HHM 2T2U2A2EM2H LI had a dream which was not all a dream | A |
The bright sun was extinguish'd and the stars | B |
Did wander darkling in the eternal space | C |
Rayless and pathless and the icy earth | D |
Swung blind and blackening in the moon less air | E |
Morn came and went and came and brought no day | F |
And men forgot their passions in the dread | G |
Of this their desolation and all hearts | H |
Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light | I |
And they did live by watchfires and the thrones | H |
The palaces of crowned kings the huts | H |
The habitations of all things which dwell | J |
Were burnt for beacons cities were consumed | K |
And men were gather'd round their blazing homes | H |
To look once more into each other's face | H |
Happy were those who dwelt within the eye | L |
Of the volcanos and their mountain torch | M |
A fearful hope was all the world contain'd | N |
Forests were set on fire but hour by hour | O |
They fell and faded and the crackling trunks | H |
Extinguish'd with a crash and all was black | P |
The brows of men by the despairing light | I |
Wore an unearthly aspect as by fits | H |
The flashes fell upon them some lay down | Q |
And hid their eyes and wept and some did rest | R |
Their chins upon their clenched hands and smiled | S |
And others hurried to and fro and fed | G |
Their funeral piles with fuel and look'd up | T |
With mad disquietude on the dull sky | L |
The pall of a past world and then again | U |
With curses cast them down upon the dust | V |
And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd the wild birds shriek'd | W |
And terrified did flutter on the ground | X |
And flap their useless wings the wildest brutes | H |
Came tame and tremulous and vipers crawl'd | Y |
And twined themselves among the multitude | Z |
Hissing but stingless were slain for food | Z |
And War which for a moment was no more | A2 |
Did glut himself again a meal was bought | B2 |
With blood and each sate sullenly apart | C2 |
Gorging himself in gloom no love was left | D2 |
All earth was but one thought and that was death | E2 |
Immediate and inglorious and the pang | F2 |
Of famine fed upon all entrails men | U |
Died and their bones were tombless as their flesh | G2 |
The meagre by the meagre were devour'd | H2 |
Even dogs assail'd their masters all save one | I2 |
And he was faithful to a Gorse and kept | J2 |
The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay | F |
Till hunger clung them or the dropping dead | G |
Lured their lank jaws himself sought out no food | Z |
But with a piteous and perpetual moan | K2 |
And a quick desolate cry licking the hand | L2 |
Which answer'd not with a caress he died | M2 |
The crowd was famish'd by degrees but two | N2 |
Of an enormous city did survive | O2 |
And they were enemies they met beside | M2 |
The dying embers of an altar place | H |
Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things | H |
For an unholy usage they raked up | T |
And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands | H |
The feeble ashes and their feeble breath | E2 |
Blew for a little life and made a flame | P2 |
Which was a mockery then they lifted up | T |
Their eyes as it grew lighter and beheld | M2 |
Each other's aspects saw and shriek'd and died | M2 |
Even of their mutual hideousness they | F |
Unknowing who he was upon whose brow | Q2 |
Famine had written Fiend The world was void | M2 |
The populous and the powerful was a lump | R2 |
Seasonless herbless treeless manless lifeless | H |
A lump of death a chaos of hard clay | F |
The rivers lakes and ocean all stood still | S2 |
And nothing stirr'd within their silent depths | H |
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea | H |
And their masts fell down piecemeal as they dropp'd | M2 |
They slept on the abyss without a surge | T2 |
The waves were dead the tides were in their grave | U2 |
The moon their mistress had expired before | A2 |
The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air | E |
And the clouds perish'd Darkness had no need | M2 |
Of aid from them She was the Universe | H |
- | |
Diodati July | L |
George Gordon Byron
(1)
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