The Dance Of The Consumptives Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBDEDF GHIHBCDJJDHH KLMMLBCNOON LP QLQLFFRRQQSSQ TUV LLLLUUFFFFWWFFUUNNF M FFUUNNF U FFFFQQF M LLXXYYZZFFLLA2A2LLA2 B2C2 T D2E2FF2D2G2H2LI2LLFD LNFJ2LLD2LK2L2M2FN2D O2LP2MQ2NP2DLLLR2DDS 2ODT2U2DT2D FT2DT2BT2MADV2J2W2DX 2J2T2LY2LLZ2DLFragment of an eccentric drama written at a very early age | A |
- | |
- | |
Ding dong ding dong | B |
Merry merry go the bells | C |
Ding dong ding dong | B |
Over the heath over the moor and over the dale | D |
Swinging slow with sullen roar | E |
Dance dance away the jocund roundelay | D |
Ding dong ding dong calls us away | F |
- | |
Round the oak and round the elm | G |
Merrily foot it o'er the ground | H |
The sentry ghost it stands aloof | I |
So merrily merrily foot it round | H |
Ding dong ding dong | B |
Merry merry go the bells | C |
Swelling in the nightly gale | D |
The sentry ghost | J |
It keeps its post | J |
And soon and soon our sports must fail | D |
But let us trip the nightly ground | H |
While the merry merry bells ring round | H |
- | |
Hark Hark the deathwatch ticks | K |
See see the winding sheet | L |
Our dance is done | M |
Our race is run | M |
And we must lie at the alder's feet | L |
Ding dong ding dong | B |
Merry merry go the bells | C |
Swinging o'er the weltering wave | N |
And we must seek | O |
Our deathbeds bleak | O |
Where the green sod grows upon the grave | N |
- | |
They vanish The Goddess of Consumption descends habited | L |
in a sky blue robe attended by mournful music | P |
- | |
Come Melancholy sister mine | Q |
Cold the dews and chill the night | L |
Come from thy dreary shrine | Q |
The wan moon climbs the heavenly height | L |
And underneath her sickly ray | F |
Troops of squalid spectres play | F |
And the dying mortals' groan | R |
Startles the night on her dusky throne | R |
Come come sister mine | Q |
Gliding on the pale moonshine | Q |
We'll ride at ease | S |
On the tainted breeze | S |
And oh our sport will be divine | Q |
- | |
The Goddess of Melancholy advances out of a deep glen in the | T |
rear habited in black and covered with a thick veil She | U |
speaks | V |
- | |
Sister from my dark abode | L |
Where nests the raven sits the toad | L |
Hither I come at thy command | L |
Sister sister join thy hand | L |
I will smooth the way for thee | U |
Thou shalt furnish food for me | U |
Come let us speed our way | F |
Where the troops of spectres play | F |
To charnel houses churchyards drear | F |
Where Death sits with a horrible leer | F |
A lasting grin on a throne of bones | W |
And skim along the blue tombstones | W |
Come let us speed away | F |
Lay our snares and spread our tether | F |
I will smooth the way for thee | U |
Thou shalt furnish food for me | U |
And the grass shall wave | N |
O'er many a grave | N |
Where youth and beauty sleep together | F |
- | |
- | |
CONSUMPTION | M |
- | |
Come let us speed our way | F |
Join our hands and spread our tether | F |
I will furnish food for thee | U |
Thou shalt smooth the way for me | U |
And the grass shall wave | N |
O'er many a grave | N |
Where youth and beauty sleep together | F |
- | |
MELANCHOLY | U |
- | |
Hist sister hist who comes here | F |
Oh I know her by that tear | F |
By that blue eye's languid glare | F |
By her skin and by her hair | F |
She is mine | Q |
And she is thine | Q |
Now the deadliest draught prepare | F |
- | |
CONSUMPTION | M |
- | |
In the dismal night air dress'd | L |
I will creep into her breast | L |
Flush her cheek and bleach her skin | X |
And feed on the vital fire within | X |
Lover do not trust her eyes | Y |
When they sparkle most she dies | Y |
Mother do not trust her breath | Z |
Comfort she will breathe in death | Z |
Father do not strive to save her | F |
She is mine and I must have her | F |
The coffin must be her bridal bed | L |
The winding sheet must wrap her head | L |
The whispering winds must o'er her sigh | A2 |
For soon in the grave the maid must lie | A2 |
The worm it will riot | L |
On heavenly diet | L |
When death has deflower'd her eye | A2 |
- | |
They vanish | B2 |
While Consumption speaks Angelina enters | C2 |
- | |
ANGELINA | T |
- | |
With what a silent and dejected pace | D2 |
Dost thou wan Moon upon thy way advance | E2 |
In the blue welkin's vault Pale wanderer | F |
Hast thou too felt the pangs of hopeless love | F2 |
That thus with such a melancholy grace | D2 |
Thou dost pursue thy solitary course | G2 |
Has thy Endymion smooth faced boy forsook | H2 |
Thy widow'd breast on which the spoiler oft | L |
Has nestled fondly while the silver clouds | I2 |
Fantastic pillow'd thee and the dim night | L |
Obsequious to thy will encurtain'd round | L |
With its thick fringe thy couch Wan traveller | F |
How like thy fate to mine Yet I have still | D |
One heavenly hope remaining which thou lack'st | L |
My woes will soon be buried in the grave | N |
Of kind forgetfulness my journey here | F |
Though it be darksome joyless and forlorn | J2 |
Is yet but short and soon my weary feet | L |
Will greet the peaceful inn of lasting rest | L |
But thou unhappy Queen art doom'd to trace | D2 |
Thy lonely walk in the drear realms of night | L |
While many a lagging age shall sweep beneath | K2 |
The leaden pinions of unshaken time | L2 |
Though not a hope shall spread its glittering hue | M2 |
To cheat thy steps along the weary way | F |
O that the sum of human happiness | N2 |
Should be so trifling and so frail withal | D |
That when possess'd it is but lessened grief | O2 |
And even then there's scarce a sudden gust | L |
That blows across the dismal waste of life | P2 |
But bears it from the view Oh who would shun | M |
The hour that cuts from earth and fear to press | Q2 |
The calm and peaceful pillows of the grave | N |
And yet endure the various ills of life | P2 |
And dark vicissitudes Soon I hope I feel | D |
And am assured that I shall lay my dead | L |
My weary aching head on its last rest | L |
And on my lowly bed the grass green sod | L |
Will flourish sweetly And then they will weep | R2 |
That one so young and what they're pleased to call | D |
So beautiful should die so soon And tell | D |
How painful Disappointment's canker'd fang | S2 |
Wither'd the rose upon my maiden cheek | O |
Oh foolish ones why I shall sleep so sweetly | D |
Laid in my darksome grave that they themselves | T2 |
Might envy me my rest And as for them | U2 |
Who on the score of former intimacy | D |
May thus remembrance me they must themselves | T2 |
Successive fall | D |
- | |
Around the winter fire | F |
When out a doors the biting frost congeals | T2 |
And shrill the skater's irons on the pool | D |
Ring loud as by the moonlight he performs | T2 |
His graceful evolutions they not long | B |
Shall sit and chat of older times and feats | T2 |
Of early youth but silent one by one | M |
Shall drop into their shrouds Some in their age | A |
Ripe for the sickle others young like me | D |
And falling green beneath the untimely stroke | V2 |
Thus in short time in the churchyard forlorn | J2 |
Where I shall lie my friends will lay them down | W2 |
And dwell with me a happy family | D |
And oh thou cruel yet beloved youth | X2 |
Who now hast left me hopeless here to mourn | J2 |
Do thou but shed one tear upon my corse | T2 |
And say that I was gentle and deserved | L |
A better lover and I shall forgive | Y2 |
All all thy wrongs and then do thou forget | L |
The hapless Margaret and be as bless'd | L |
As wish can make thee Laugh and play and sing | Z2 |
With thy dear choice and never think of me | D |
Yet hist I hear a step In this dark wood | L |
Henry Kirk White
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation