A Fantasy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDDC EFEFGGEHIHIHJJKKLL MNNMOOAAPPQIIQRRGG SSTTIIUUUBB VWVWVLLJJVXXVYAZAYZZ WWII IA2A2IB2C2B2C2IIDDAA D2D2E2E2| A fantasy that came to me | A |
| As wild and wantonly designed | B |
| As ever any dream might be | A |
| Unraveled from a madman's mind | B |
| A tangle work of tissue wrought | C |
| By cunning of the spider brain | D |
| And woven in an hour of pain | D |
| To trap the giddy flies of thought | C |
| - | |
| I stood beneath a summer moon | E |
| All swollen to uncanny girth | F |
| And hanging like the sun at noon | E |
| Above the center of the earth | F |
| But with a sad and sallow light | G |
| As it had sickened of the night | G |
| And fallen in a pallid swoon | E |
| Around me I could hear the rush | H |
| Of sullen winds and feel the whir | I |
| Of unseen wings apast me brush | H |
| Like phantoms round a sepulcher | I |
| And like a carpeting of plush | H |
| A lawn unrolled beneath my feet | J |
| Bespangled o'er with flowers as sweet | J |
| To look upon as those that nod | K |
| Within the garden fields of God | K |
| But odorless as those that blow | L |
| In ashes in the shades below | L |
| - | |
| And on my hearing fell a storm | M |
| Of gusty music sadder yet | N |
| Than every whimper of regret | N |
| That sobbing utterance could form | M |
| And patched with scraps of sound that seemed | O |
| Torn out of tunes that demons dreamed | O |
| And pitched to such a piercing key | A |
| It stabbed the ear with agony | A |
| And when at last it lulled and died | P |
| I stood aghast and terrified | P |
| I shuddered and I shut my eyes | Q |
| And still could see and feel aware | I |
| Some mystic presence waited there | I |
| And staring with a dazed surprise | Q |
| I saw a creature so divine | R |
| That never subtle thought of mine | R |
| May reproduce to inner sight | G |
| So fair a vision of delight | G |
| - | |
| A syllable of dew that drips | S |
| From out a lily's laughing lips | S |
| Could not be sweeter than the word | T |
| I listened to yet never heard | T |
| For oh the woman hiding there | I |
| Within the shadows of her hair | I |
| Spake to me in an undertone | U |
| So delicate my soul alone | U |
| But understood it as a moan | U |
| Of some weak melody of wind | B |
| A heavenward breeze had left behind | B |
| - | |
| A tracery of trees grotesque | V |
| Against the sky behind her seen | W |
| Like shapeless shapes of arabesque | V |
| Wrought in an Oriental screen | W |
| And tall austere and statuesque | V |
| She loomed before it e'en as though | L |
| The spirit hand of Angelo | L |
| Had chiseled her to life complete | J |
| With chips of moonshine round her feet | J |
| And I grew jealous of the dusk | V |
| To see it softly touch her face | X |
| As lover like with fond embrace | X |
| It folded round her like a husk | V |
| But when the glitter of her hand | Y |
| Like wasted glory beckoned me | A |
| My eyes grew blurred and dull and dim | Z |
| My vision failed I could not see | A |
| I could not stir I could but stand | Y |
| Till quivering in every limb | Z |
| I flung me prone as though to swim | Z |
| The tide of grass whose waves of green | W |
| Went rolling ocean wide between | W |
| My helpless shipwrecked heart and her | I |
| Who claimed me for a worshiper | I |
| - | |
| And writhing thus in my despair | I |
| I heard a weird unearthly sound | A2 |
| That seemed to lift me from the ground | A2 |
| And hold me floating in the air | I |
| I looked and lo I saw her bow | B2 |
| Above a harp within her hands | C2 |
| A crown of blossoms bound her brow | B2 |
| And on her harp were twisted strands | C2 |
| Of silken starlight rippling o'er | I |
| With music never heard before | I |
| By mortal ears and at the strain | D |
| I felt my Spirit snap its chain | D |
| And break away and I could see | A |
| It as it turned and fled from me | A |
| To greet its mistress where she smiled | D2 |
| To see the phantom dancing wild | D2 |
| And wizard like before the spell | E2 |
| Her mystic fingers knew so well | E2 |
James Whitcomb Riley
(1)
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