The Haunted House Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBDEEFFCBBD G HHIIJKKLLIIIMM G LLNNIINNNIINNN F OFFOFPPFFQQRROOOOSTU UVVNN F WWXOOOXYZOZEEA2B2EB2 C2D2C2D2 F D2B2D2D2B2B2E2E2OOFF F2NND2D2G2D2FFF2G2B2 B2B2B2B2 F H2I2H2OI2J2J2OK2J2K2 D2D2 F L2L2D2D2D2D2F2F2M2M2 B2B2 J2 OORRN2N2OOFFD2D2F2F2 O2O2D2D2P2D2P2FFD2ZZ Q2Q2Q2Q2 J2 R2R2R2D2D2FFD2D2 F P2P2D2D2D2OOJ2J2 J2 OBOBJ2P2B2P2P2P2F2F2 D2D2OOS2S2D2D2F2OSuggested by a drawing of Thomas Moran the American painter | A |
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This must be the very night | B |
The moon knows it and the trees | C |
They stand straight upright | B |
Each a sentinel drawn up | D |
As if they dared not know | E |
Which way the wind might blow | E |
The very pool with dead gray eye | F |
Dully expectant feels it nigh | F |
And begins to curdle and freeze | C |
And the dark night | B |
With its fringe of light | B |
Holds the secret in its cup | D |
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II | G |
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What can it be to make | H |
The poplars cease to shiver and shake | H |
And up in the dismal air | I |
Stand straight and stiff as the human hair | I |
When the human soul is dizzy with dread | J |
All but those two that strain | K |
Aside in a frenzy of speechless pain | K |
Though never a wind sends out a breath | L |
To tunnel the foggy rheum of death | L |
What can it be has power to scare | I |
The full grown moon to the idiot stare | I |
Of a blasted eye in the midnight air | I |
Something has gone wrong | M |
A scream will come tearing out ere long | M |
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III | G |
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Still as death | L |
Although I listen with bated breath | L |
Yet something is coming I know is coming | N |
With an inward soundless humming | N |
Somewhere in me or if in the air | I |
I cannot tell but it is there | I |
Marching on to an unheard drumming | N |
Something is coming coming | N |
Growing and coming | N |
And the moon is aware | I |
Aghast in the air | I |
At the thing that is only coming | N |
With an inward soundless humming | N |
And an unheard spectral drumming | N |
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IV | F |
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Nothing to see and nothing to hear | O |
Only across the inner sky | F |
The wing of a shadowy thought flits by | F |
Vague and featureless faceless drear | O |
Only a thinness to catch the eye | F |
Is it a dim foreboding unborn | P |
Or a buried memory wasted and worn | P |
As the fading frost of a wintry sigh | F |
Anon I shall have it anon it draws nigh | F |
A night when a something it was took place | Q |
That drove the blood from that scared moon face | Q |
Hark was that the cry of a goat | R |
Or the gurgle of water in a throat | R |
Hush there is nothing to see or hear | O |
Only a silent something is near | O |
No knock no footsteps three or four | O |
Only a presence outside the door | O |
See the moon is remembering what | S |
The wail of a mother left lie alone brat | T |
Or a raven sharpening its beak to peck | U |
Or a cold blue knife and a warm white neck | U |
Or only a heart that burst and ceased | V |
For a man that went away released | V |
I know not know not but something is coming | N |
Somehow back with an inward humming | N |
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V | F |
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Ha look there look at that house | W |
Forsaken of all things beetle and mouse | W |
Mark how it looks It must have a soul | X |
It looks it looks though it cannot stir | O |
See the ribs of it how they stare | O |
Its blind eyes yet have a seeing air | O |
It knows it has a soul | X |
Haggard it hangs o'er the slimy pool | Y |
And gapes wide open as corpses gape | Z |
It is the very murderer | O |
The ghost has modelled himself to the shape | Z |
Of this drear house all sodden with woe | E |
Where the deed was done long long ago | E |
And filled with himself his new body full | A2 |
To haunt for ever his ghastly crime | B2 |
And see it come and go | E |
Brooding around it like motionless time | B2 |
With a mouth that gapes and eyes that yawn | C2 |
Blear and blintering and full of the moon | D2 |
Like one aghast at a hellish dawn | C2 |
The deed the deed it is coming soon | D2 |
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VI | F |
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For ever and always when round the tune | D2 |
Grinds on the barrel of organ Time | B2 |
The deed is done And it comes anon | D2 |
True to the roll of the clock faced moon | D2 |
True to the ring of the spheric chime | B2 |
True to the cosmic rhythm and rime | B2 |
Every point as it first fell out | E2 |
Will come and go in the fearsome bout | E2 |
See palsied with horror from garret to core | O |
The house cannot shut its gaping door | O |
Its burst eye stares as if trying to see | F |
And it leans as if settling heavily | F |
Settling heavy with sickness dull | F2 |
It also is hearing the soundless humming | N |
Of the wheel that is turning the thing that is coming | N |
On the naked rafters of its brain | D2 |
Gaunt and wintred see the train | D2 |
Of gossiping scandal mongering crows | G2 |
That watch all silent with necks a strain | D2 |
Wickedly knowing with heads awry | F |
And the sharpened gleam of a cunning eye | F |
Watch through the cracks of the ruined skull | F2 |
How the evil business goes | G2 |
Beyond the eyes of the cherubim | B2 |
Beyond the ears of the seraphim | B2 |
Outside forsaken in the dim | B2 |
Phantom haunted chaos grim | B2 |
He stands with the deed going on in him | B2 |
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VII | F |
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O winds winds that lurk and peep | H2 |
Under the edge of the moony fringe | I2 |
O winds winds up and sweep | H2 |
Up and blow and billow the air | O |
Billow the air with blow and swinge | I2 |
Rend me this ghastly house of groans | J2 |
Rend and scatter the skeleton's bones | J2 |
Over the deserts and mountains bare | O |
Blast and hurl and shiver aside | K2 |
Nailed sticks and mortared stones | J2 |
Clear the phantom with torrent and tide | K2 |
Out of the moon and out of my brain | D2 |
That the light may fall shadowless in again | D2 |
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VIII | F |
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But alas then the ghost | L2 |
O'er mountain and coast | L2 |
Would go roaming roaming and never was swine | D2 |
That grubbing and talking with snork and whine | D2 |
On Gadarene mountains had taken him in | D2 |
But would rush to the lake to unhouse the sin | D2 |
For any charnel | F2 |
This ghost is too carnal | F2 |
There is no volcano burnt out and cold | M2 |
Whose very ashes are gray and old | M2 |
But would cast him forth in reviving flame | B2 |
To blister the sky with a smudge of shame | B2 |
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IX | J2 |
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Is there no help none anywhere | O |
Under the earth or above the air | O |
Come sad woman whose tender throat | R |
Has a red lipped mouth that can sing no note | R |
Child whose midwife the third grim Fate | N2 |
Shears in hand thy coming did wait | N2 |
Father with blood bedabbled hair | O |
Mother all withered with love's despair | O |
Come broken heart whatever thou be | F |
Hasten to help this misery | F |
Thou wast only murdered or left forlorn | D2 |
He is a horror a hate a scorn | D2 |
Come if out of the holiest blue | F2 |
That the sapphire throne shines through | F2 |
For pity come though thy fair feet stand | O2 |
Next to the elder band | O2 |
Fling thy harp on the hyaline | D2 |
Hurry thee down the spheres divine | D2 |
Come and drive those ravens away | P2 |
Cover his eyes from the pitiless moon | D2 |
Shadow his brain from her stinging spray | P2 |
Droop around him a tent of love | F |
An odour of grace a fanning dove | F |
Walk through the house with the healing tune | D2 |
Of gentle footsteps banish the shape | Z |
Remorse calls up thyself to ape | Z |
Comfort him dear with pardon sweet | Q2 |
Cool his heart from its burning heat | Q2 |
With the water of life that laves the feet | Q2 |
Of the throne of God and the holy street | Q2 |
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X | J2 |
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O God he is but a living blot | R2 |
Yet he lives by thee for if thou wast not | R2 |
They would vanish together self forgot | R2 |
He and his crime one breathing blown | D2 |
From thy spirit on his would all atone | D2 |
Scatter the horror and bring relief | F |
In an amber dawn of holy grief | F |
God give him sorrow arise from within | D2 |
His primal being deeper than sin | D2 |
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XI | F |
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Why do I tremble a creature at bay | P2 |
'Tis but a dream I drive it away | P2 |
Back comes my breath and my heart again | D2 |
Pumps the red blood to my fainting brain | D2 |
Released from the nightmare's nine fold train | D2 |
God is in heaven yes everywhere | O |
And Love the all shining will kill Despair | O |
To the wall's blank eyeless space | J2 |
I turn the picture's face | J2 |
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XII | J2 |
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But why is the moon so bare up there | O |
And why is she so white | B |
And why does the moon so stare up there | O |
Strangely stare out of the night | B |
Why stand up the poplars | J2 |
That still way | P2 |
And why do those two of them | B2 |
Start astray | P2 |
And out of the black why hangs the gray | P2 |
Why does it hang down so I say | P2 |
Over that house like a fringed pall | F2 |
Where the dead goes by in a funeral | F2 |
Soul of mine | D2 |
Thou the reason canst divine | D2 |
Into thee the moon doth stare | O |
With pallid terror smitten air | O |
Thou and the Horror lonely stark | S2 |
Outcast of eternal dark | S2 |
Are in nature same and one | D2 |
And thy story is not done | D2 |
So let the picture face thee from the wall | F2 |
And let its white moon stare | O |
George Macdonald
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