The Human Sacrifice Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBBCDEDEFGFGHIHIJJ KLMMANGNBBOOPPQQMRMR RSSTUMEMEVWXVAYNYNEZ ZEA2WB2C2D2E2F2G2MH2 MMI2I2J2J2MK2K2HL2M2 M2A2WMMN2N2F2VKVKO2O 2P2Q2R2R2R2S2R2S2NNR 2F2F2R2F2R2T2T2U2U2T 2T2R2T2R2R2R2T2T2V2V 2W2W2X2X2T2T2J2J2T2T 2Y2Y2T2T2F2F2F2R2R2R 2F2F2K2K2Z2Z2A3B3NT2 T2GF2R2F2R2IT2IT2H2R 2G2R2F2JC3D3JC3OT2VT 2G2MH2ME3E3XIIMR2R2M| I | A |
| FAR from his close and noisome cell | B |
| By grassy lane and sunny stream | C |
| Blown clover field and strawberry dell | B |
| And green and meadow freshness fell | B |
| The footsteps of his dream | C |
| Again from careless feet the dew | D |
| Of summer's misty morn he shook | E |
| Again with merry heart he threw | D |
| His light line in the rippling brook | E |
| Back crowded all his school day joys | F |
| He urged the ball and quoit again | G |
| And heard the shout of laughing boys | F |
| Come ringing down the walnut glen | G |
| Again he felt the western breeze | H |
| With scent of flowers and crisping hay | I |
| And down again through wind stirred trees | H |
| He saw the quivering sunlight play | I |
| An angel in home's vine hung door | J |
| He saw his sister smile once more | J |
| Once more the truant's brown locked head | K |
| Upon his mother's knees was laid | L |
| And sweetly lulled to slumber there | M |
| With evening's holy hymn and prayer | M |
| II | A |
| He woke At once on heart and brain | N |
| The present Terror rushed again | G |
| Clanked on his limbs the felon's chain | N |
| He woke to hear the church tower tell | B |
| Time's footfall on the conscious bell | B |
| And shuddering feel that clanging din | O |
| His life's last hour had ushered in | O |
| To see within his prison yard | P |
| Through the small window iron barred | P |
| The gallows shadow rising dim | Q |
| Between the sunrise heaven and him | Q |
| A horror in God's blessed air | M |
| A blackness in his morning light | R |
| Like some foul devil altar there | M |
| Built up by demon hands at night | R |
| And maddened by that evil sight | R |
| Dark horrible confused and strange | S |
| A chaos of wild weltering change | S |
| All power of check and guidance gone | T |
| Dizzy and blind his mind swept on | U |
| In vain he strove to breathe a prayer | M |
| In vain he turned the Holy Book | E |
| He only heard the gallows stair | M |
| Creak as the wind its timbers shook | E |
| No dream for him of sin forgiven | V |
| While still that baleful spectre stood | W |
| With its hoarse murmur 'Blood for Blood ' | X |
| Between him and the pitying Heaven | V |
| III | A |
| Low on his dungeon floor he knelt | Y |
| And smote his breast and on his chain | N |
| Whose iron clasp he always felt | Y |
| His hot tears fell like rain | N |
| And near him with the cold calm look | E |
| And tone of one whose formal part | Z |
| Unwarmed unsoftened of the heart | Z |
| Is measured out by rule and book | E |
| With placid lip and tranquil blood | A2 |
| The hangman's ghostly ally stood | W |
| Blessing with solemn text and word | B2 |
| The gallows drop and strangling cord | C2 |
| Lending the sacred Gospel's awe | D2 |
| And sanction to the crime of Law | E2 |
| IV | F2 |
| He saw the victim's tortured brow | G2 |
| The sweat of anguish starting there | M |
| The record of a nameless woe | H2 |
| In the dim eye's imploring stare | M |
| Seen hideous through the long damp hair | M |
| Fingers of ghastly skin and bone | I2 |
| Working and writhing on the stone | I2 |
| And heard by mortal terror wrung | J2 |
| From heaving breast and stiffened tongue | J2 |
| The choking sob and low hoarse prayer | M |
| As o'er his half crazed fancy came | K2 |
| A vision of the eternal flame | K2 |
| Its smoking cloud of agonies | H |
| Its demon worm that never dies | L2 |
| The everlasting rise and fall | M2 |
| Of fire waves round the infernal wall | M2 |
| While high above that dark red flood | A2 |
| Black giant like the gallows stood | W |
| Two busy fiends attending there | M |
| One with cold mocking rite and prayer | M |
| The other with impatient grasp | N2 |
| Tightening the death rope's strangling clasp | N2 |
| V | F2 |
| The unfelt rite at length was done | V |
| The prayer unheard at length was said | K |
| An hour had passed the noonday sun | V |
| Smote on the features of the dead | K |
| And he who stood the doomed beside | O2 |
| Calm gauger of the swelling tide | O2 |
| Of mortal agony and fear | P2 |
| Heeding with curious eye and ear | Q2 |
| Whate'er revealed the keen excess | R2 |
| Of man's extremest wretchedness | R2 |
| And who in that dark anguish saw | R2 |
| An earnest of the victim's fate | S2 |
| The vengeful terrors of God's law | R2 |
| The kindlings of Eternal hate | S2 |
| The first drops of that fiery rain | N |
| Which beats the dark red realm of pain | N |
| Did he uplift his earnest cries | R2 |
| Against the crime of Law which gave | F2 |
| His brother to that fearful grave | F2 |
| Whereon Hope's moonlight never lies | R2 |
| And Faith's white blossoms never wave | F2 |
| To the soft breath of Memory's sighs | R2 |
| Which sent a spirit marred and stained | T2 |
| By fiends of sin possessed profaned | T2 |
| In madness and in blindness stark | U2 |
| Into the silent unknown dark | U2 |
| No from the wild and shrinking dread | T2 |
| With which he saw the victim led | T2 |
| Beneath the dark veil which divides | R2 |
| Ever the living from the dead | T2 |
| And Nature's solemn secret hides | R2 |
| The man of prayer can only draw | R2 |
| New reasons for his bloody law | R2 |
| New faith in staying Murder's hand | T2 |
| By murder at that Law's command | T2 |
| New reverence for the gallows rope | V2 |
| As human nature's latest hope | V2 |
| Last relic of the good old time | W2 |
| When Power found license for its crime | W2 |
| And held a writhing world in check | X2 |
| By that fell cord about its neck | X2 |
| Stifled Sedition's rising shout | T2 |
| Choked the young breath of Freedom out | T2 |
| And timely checked the words which sprung | J2 |
| From Heresy's forbidden tongue | J2 |
| While in its noose of terror bound | T2 |
| The Church its cherished union found | T2 |
| Conforming on the Moslem plan | Y2 |
| The motley colored mind of man | Y2 |
| Not by the Koran and the Sword | T2 |
| But by the Bible and the Cord | T2 |
| VI | F2 |
| O Thou at whose rebuke the grave | F2 |
| Back to warm life its sleeper gave | F2 |
| Beneath whose sad and tearful glance | R2 |
| The cold and chang d countenance | R2 |
| Broke the still horror of its trance | R2 |
| And waking saw with joy above | F2 |
| A brother's face of tenderest love | F2 |
| Thou unto whom the blind and lame | K2 |
| The sorrowing and the sin sick came | K2 |
| And from Thy very garment's hem | Z2 |
| Drew life and healing unto them | Z2 |
| The burden of Thy holy faith | A3 |
| Was love and life not hate and death | B3 |
| Man's demon ministers of pain | N |
| The fiends of his revenge were sent | T2 |
| From thy pure Gospel's element | T2 |
| To their dark home again | G |
| Thy name is Love What then is he | F2 |
| Who in that name the gallows rears | R2 |
| An awful altar built to Thee | F2 |
| With sacrifice of blood and tears | R2 |
| Oh once again Thy healing lay | I |
| On the blind eyes which knew Thee not | T2 |
| And let the light of Thy pure day | I |
| Melt in upon his darkened thought | T2 |
| Soften his hard cold heart and show | H2 |
| The power which in forbearance lies | R2 |
| And let him feel that mercy now | G2 |
| Is better than old sacrifice | R2 |
| VII | F2 |
| As on the White Sea's charm d shore | J |
| The Parsee sees his holy hill | C3 |
| With dunnest smoke clouds curtained o'er | D3 |
| Yet knows beneath them evermore | J |
| The low pale fire is quivering still | C3 |
| So underneath its clouds of sin | O |
| The heart of man retaineth yet | T2 |
| Gleams of its holy origin | V |
| And half quenched stars that never set | T2 |
| Dim colors of its faded bow | G2 |
| And early beauty linger there | M |
| And o'er its wasted desert blow | H2 |
| Faint breathings of its morning air | M |
| Oh never yet upon the scroll | E3 |
| Of the sin stained but priceless soul | E3 |
| Hath Heaven inscribed 'Despair ' | X |
| Cast not the clouded gem away | I |
| Quench not the dim but living ray | I |
| My brother man Beware | M |
| With that deep voice which from the skies | R2 |
| Forbade the Patriarch's sacrifice | R2 |
| God's angel cries Forbear | M |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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About The Human Sacrifice
The Human Sacrifice is a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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