The Cry Of A Lost Soul Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABA CDC EEE FF GGG EEE HI JJJ KKK LMN OOO PPP EEE QQQ FF| In that black forest where when day is done | A |
| With a snake's stillness glides the Amazon | B |
| Darkly from sunset to the rising sun | A |
| - | |
| A cry as of the pained heart of the wood | C |
| The long despairing moan of solitude | D |
| And darkness and the absence of all good | C |
| - | |
| Startles the traveller with a sound so drear | E |
| So full of hopeless agony and fear | E |
| His heart stands still and listens like his ear | E |
| - | |
| The guide as if he heard a dead bell toll | F |
| Starts drops his oar against the gunwale's thole | F |
| Crosses himself and whispers 'A lost soul ' | - |
| - | |
| 'No Senor not a bird I know it well | G |
| It is the pained soul of some infidel | G |
| Or cursed heretic that cries from hell | G |
| - | |
| 'Poor fool with hope still mocking his despair | E |
| He wanders shrieking on the midnight air | E |
| For human pity and for Christian prayer | E |
| - | |
| 'Saints strike him dumb Our Holy Mother hath | H |
| No prayer for him who sinning unto death | I |
| Burns always in the furnace of God's wrath ' | - |
| - | |
| Thus to the baptized pagan's cruel lie | J |
| Lending new horror to that mournful cry | J |
| The voyager listens making no reply | J |
| - | |
| Dim burns the boat lamp shadows deepen round | K |
| From giant trees with snake like creepers wound | K |
| And the black water glides without a sound | K |
| - | |
| But in the traveller's heart a secret sense | L |
| Of nature plastic to benign intents | M |
| And an eternal good in Providence | N |
| - | |
| Lifts to the starry calm of heaven his eyes | O |
| And to rebuking all earth's ominous cries | O |
| The Cross of pardon lights the tropic skies | O |
| - | |
| 'Father of all ' he urges his strong plea | P |
| 'Thou lovest all Thy erring child may be | P |
| Lost to himself but never lost to Thee | P |
| - | |
| 'All souls are Thine the wings of morning bear | E |
| None from that Presence which is everywhere | E |
| Nor hell itself can hide for Thou art there | E |
| - | |
| 'Through sins of sense perversities of will | Q |
| Through doubt and pain through guilt and shame and ill | Q |
| Thy pitying eye is on Thy creature still | Q |
| - | |
| 'Wilt thou not make Eternal Source and Goal | F |
| In Thy long years life's broken circle whole | F |
| And change to praise the cry of a lost soul ' | - |
John Greenleaf Whittier
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