The Swamp Angel Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDDEDD DFGHIJKJ LMLMININ LILIOPOLHIQ ODADADODDDLD

There is a coal black AngelA
With a thick Afric lipB
And he dwells like the hunted and harriedC
In a swamp where the green frogs dipB
But his face is against a CityD
Which is over a bay of the seaD
And he breathes with a breath that isE
blastmentD
And dooms by a far decreeD
-
By night there is fear in the CityD
Through the darkness a star soareth onF
There's a scream that screams up to the zenithG
Then the poise of a meteor loneH
Lighting far the pale fright of the facesI
And downward the coming is seenJ
Then the rush and the burst and the havocK
And wails and shrieks betweenJ
-
It comes like the thief in the gloamingL
It comes and none may foretellM
The place of the coming the glaringL
They live in a sleepless spellM
That wizens and withers and whitensI
It ages the young and the bloomN
Of the maiden is ashes of rosesI
The Swamp Angel broods in his gloomN
-
Swift is his messengers' goingL
But slowly he saps their hallsI
As if by delay deludingL
They move from their crumbling wallsI
Farther and farther awayO
But the Angel sends after and afterP
By night with the flame of his rayO
By night with the voice of his screamingL
Sends after them stone by stoneH
And farther walls fall farther portalsI
And weed follows weed through the TownQ
-
Is this the proud City the scornerO
Which never would yield the groundD
Which mocked at the coal black AngelA
The cup of despair goes roundD
Vainly he calls upon MichaelA
The white man's seraph was heD
For Michael has fled from his towerO
To the Angel over the seaD
Who weeps for the woeful CityD
Let him weep for our guilty kindD
Who joys at her wild despairingL
Christ the Forgiver convert his mindD

Herman Melville



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