The Fire Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEEFFGGHHIIJKLLMM NNOOPPQRSSSSQTUUSS| Near the house flowed or paused the black Canal | A |
| Edged by the timber piles so black and tall | B |
| From the rotten fence I watched the horses pull | C |
| Along the footpath slow and beautiful | D |
| Moving with strength and ease in their great size | E |
| And untired movement wonderful to my eyes | E |
| Their dull brass clanking as each shaggy foot | F |
| Stamped the soft cinder track as fine as soot | F |
| The driver lurched old and forbidding by | G |
| Not seeing the child that feared to meet his eye | G |
| I watched the rope dip tighten and the water flash | H |
| In falling and then heard the hiss and splash | H |
| I watched the barge drag slowly on and on | I |
| Not dreaming how lovely a ship could ride the water upon | I |
| Not dreaming how lovely flowing water was | J |
| Sung to by trees and fingered by long grass | K |
| Or running from the bosom of a hill | L |
| Down where it flows so deep that it seems still | L |
| But it was by that rotten fence one night | M |
| I saw the timber piles break into light | M |
| Suddenly leaping into a heavenly flame | N |
| That played with the wind and one with the wind became | N |
| Pile to pile gave its fire till they were like | O |
| Bright angels with flashing swords before they strike | O |
| Terrible and lovely But men those angels fought | P |
| Small and humble and patient all night wrought | P |
| And all day wrought and night and day again | Q |
| And night and day pouring their hissing rain | R |
| Until the angels tired and one by one died | S |
| Then their black spectres haunted the waterside | S |
| Charred ruins broken limbed no more erect | S |
| Or heaped black dust with cold white ashes flecked | S |
| But I had seen the angel quelling men | Q |
| With blackened and bruised face the horses thin | T |
| The glittering harness the leaky bubbling mains | U |
| The broad smoke and the steam from the leaping rains | U |
| O I had seen what I should not forget | S |
| Men that defeated ruinous angels and shall still defeat | S |
John Freeman
(1)
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