The Comet Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFE GHGHIJKJ LMNMOPQP RJSJQTUT VWXWYZA2Z B2C2D2C2E2B2F2B2 G2H2LH2I2VJ2V K2SL2SM2N2VN2 PO2P2O2Q2R2IR2| The Comet He is on his way | A |
| And singing as he flies | B |
| The whizzing planets shrink before | C |
| The spectre of the skies | B |
| Ah well may regal orbs burn blue | D |
| And satellites turn pale | E |
| Ten million cubic miles of head | F |
| Ten billion leagues of tail | E |
| - | |
| On on by whistling spheres of light | G |
| He flashes and he flames | H |
| He turns not to the left nor right | G |
| He asks them not their names | H |
| One spurn from his demoniac heel | I |
| Away away they fly | J |
| Where darkness might be bottled up | K |
| And sold for Tyrian dye | J |
| - | |
| And what would happen to the land | L |
| And how would look the sea | M |
| If in the bearded devil s path | N |
| Our earth should chance to be | M |
| Full hot and high the sea would boil | O |
| Full red the forests gleam | P |
| Methought I saw and heard it all | Q |
| In a dyspeptic dream | P |
| - | |
| I saw a tutor take his tube | R |
| The Comet s course to spy | J |
| I heard a scream the gathered rays | S |
| Had stewed the tutor s eye | J |
| I saw a fort the soldiers all | Q |
| Were armed with goggles green | T |
| Pop cracked the guns whiz flew the balls | U |
| Bang went the magazine | T |
| - | |
| I saw a poet dip a scroll | V |
| Each moment in a tub | W |
| I read upon the warping back | X |
| The Dream of Beelzebub | W |
| He could not see his verses burn | Y |
| Although his brain was fried | Z |
| And ever and anon he bent | A2 |
| To wet them as they dried | Z |
| - | |
| I saw the scalding pitch roll down | B2 |
| The crackling sweating pines | C2 |
| And streams of smoke like water spouts | D2 |
| Burst through the rumbling mines | C2 |
| I asked the firemen why they made | E2 |
| Such noise about the town | B2 |
| They answered not but all the while | F2 |
| The brakes went up and down | B2 |
| - | |
| I saw a roasting pullet sit | G2 |
| Upon a baking egg | H2 |
| I saw a cripple scorch his hand | L |
| Extinguishing his leg | H2 |
| I saw nine geese upon the wing | I2 |
| Towards the frozen pole | V |
| And every mother s gosling fell | J2 |
| Crisped to a crackling coal | V |
| - | |
| I saw the ox that browsed the grass | K2 |
| Writhe in the blistering rays | S |
| The herbage in his shrinking jaws | L2 |
| Was all a fiery blaze | S |
| I saw huge fishes boiled to rags | M2 |
| Bob through the bubbling brine | N2 |
| And thoughts of supper crossed my soul | V |
| I had been rash at mine | N2 |
| - | |
| Strange sights strange sounds Oh fearful dream | P |
| Its memory haunts me still | O2 |
| The steaming sea the crimson glare | P2 |
| That wreathed each wooded hill | O2 |
| Stranger if through thy reeling brain | Q2 |
| Such midnight visions sweep | R2 |
| Spare spare oh spare thine evening meal | I |
| And sweet shall be thy sleep | R2 |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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