A Vision Of The Sea Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGAAHHII JKIILLMMIINNOOPPJJQQ OORRIIIIGGIIMMEEIISS IITUTVVLLJJWWXXYYLLZ ZLLA2A2B2B2SSC2C2IIX LD2D2IIIIE2E2F2MMG2G 2IITTG2G2VVIIG2G2SSH 2H2H2H2G2G2I2I2G2G2J 2J2VSVK2K2H2H2H2H2L2 L2H2H2IIVVG2G2IIIIIH 2K2VVG2G2G2G2VVG2'Tis the terror of tempest The rags of the sail | A |
Are flickering in ribbons within the fierce gale | A |
From the stark night of vapours the dim rain is driven | B |
And when lightning is loosed like a deluge from Heaven | B |
She sees the black trunks of the waterspouts spin | C |
And bend as if Heaven was ruining in | C |
Which they seemed to sustain with their terrible mass | D |
As if ocean had sunk from beneath them they pass | D |
To their graves in the deep with an earthquake of sound | E |
And the waves and the thunders made silent around | E |
Leave the wind to its echo The vessel now tossed | F |
Through the low trailing rack of the tempest is lost | F |
In the skirts of the thunder cloud now down the sweep | G |
Of the wind cloven wave to the chasm of the deep | G |
It sinks and the walls of the watery vale | A |
Whose depths of dread calm are unmoved by the gale | A |
Dim mirrors of ruin hang gleaming about | H |
While the surf like a chaos of stars like a rout | H |
Of death flames like whirlpools of fire flowing iron | I |
With splendour and terror the black ship environ | I |
Or like sulphur flakes hurled from a mine of pale fire | J |
In fountains spout o'er it In many a spire | K |
The pyramid billows with white points of brine | I |
In the cope of the lightning inconstantly shine | I |
As piercing the sky from the floor of the sea | L |
The great ship seems splitting it cracks as a tree | L |
While an earthquake is splintering its root ere the blast | M |
Of the whirlwind that stripped it of branches has passed | M |
The intense thunder balls which are raining from Heaven | I |
Have shattered its mast and it stands black and riven | I |
The chinks suck destruction The heavy dead hulk | N |
On the living sea rolls an inanimate bulk | N |
Like a corpse on the clay which is hungering to fold | O |
Its corruption around it Meanwhile from the hold | O |
One deck is burst up by the waters below | P |
And it splits like the ice when the thaw breezes blow | P |
O'er the lakes of the desert Who sit on the other | J |
Is that all the crew that lie burying each other | J |
Like the dead in a breach round the foremast Are those | Q |
Twin tigers who burst when the waters arose | Q |
In the agony of terror their chains in the hold | O |
What now makes them tame is what then made them bold | O |
Who crouch side by side and have driven like a crank | R |
The deep grip of their claws through the vibrating plank | R |
Are these all Nine weeks the tall vessel had lain | I |
On the windless expanse of the watery plain | I |
Where the death darting sun cast no shadow at noon | I |
And there seemed to be fire in the beams of the moon | I |
Till a lead coloured fog gathered up from the deep | G |
Whose breath was quick pestilence then the cold sleep | G |
Crept like blight through the ears of a thick field of corn | I |
O'er the populous vessel And even and morn | I |
With their hammocks for coffins the seamen aghast | M |
Like dead men the dead limbs of their comrades cast | M |
Down the deep which closed on them above and around | E |
And the sharks and the dogfish their grave clothes unbound | E |
And were glutted like Jews with this manna rained down | I |
From God on their wilderness One after one | I |
The mariners died on the eve of this day | S |
When the tempest was gathering in cloudy array | S |
But seven remained Six the thunder has smitten | I |
And they lie black as mummies on which Time has written | I |
His scorn of the embalmer the seventh from the deck | T |
An oak splinter pierced through his breast and his back | U |
And hung out to the tempest a wreck on the wreck | T |
No more At the helm sits a woman more fair | V |
Than Heaven when unbinding its star braided hair | V |
It sinks with the sun on the earth and the sea | L |
She clasps a bright child on her upgathered knee | L |
It laughs at the lightning it mocks the mixed thunder | J |
Of the air and the sea with desire and with wonder | J |
It is beckoning the tigers to rise and come near | W |
It would play with those eyes where the radiance of fear | W |
Is outshining the meteors its bosom beats high | X |
The heart fire of pleasure has kindled its eye | X |
While its mother's is lustreless 'Smile not my child | Y |
But sleep deeply and sweetly and so be beguiled | Y |
Of the pang that awaits us whatever that be | L |
So dreadful since thou must divide it with me | L |
Dream sleep This pale bosom thy cradle and bed | Z |
Will it rock thee not infant 'Tis beating with dread | Z |
Alas what is life what is death what are we | L |
That when the ship sinks we no longer may be | L |
What to see thee no more and to feel thee no more | A2 |
To be after life what we have been before | A2 |
Not to touch those sweet hands Not to look on those eyes | B2 |
Those lips and that hair all the smiling disguise | B2 |
Thou yet wearest sweet Spirit which I day by day | S |
Have so long called my child but which now fades away | S |
Like a rainbow and I the fallen shower ' Lo the ship | C2 |
Is settling it topples the leeward ports dip | C2 |
The tigers leap up when they feel the slow brine | I |
Crawling inch by inch on them hair ears limbs and eyne | I |
Stand rigid with horror a loud long hoarse cry | X |
Bursts at once from their vitals tremendously | L |
And 'tis borne down the mountainous vale of the wave | D2 |
Rebounding like thunder from crag to cave | D2 |
Mixed with the clash of the lashing rain | I |
Hurried on by the might of the hurricane | I |
The hurricane came from the west and passed on | I |
By the path of the gate of the eastern sun | I |
Transversely dividing the stream of the storm | E2 |
As an arrowy serpent pursuing the form | E2 |
Of an elephant bursts through the brakes of the waste | F2 |
Black as a cormorant the screaming blast | M |
Between Ocean and Heaven like an ocean passed | M |
Till it came to the clouds on the verge of the world | G2 |
Which based on the sea and to Heaven upcurled | G2 |
Like columns and walls did surround and sustain | I |
The dome of the tempest it rent them in twain | I |
As a flood rends its barriers of mountainous crag | T |
And the dense clouds in many a ruin and rag | T |
Like the stones of a temple ere earthquake has passed | G2 |
Like the dust of its fall on the whirlwind are cast | G2 |
They are scattered like foam on the torrent and where | V |
The wind has burst out through the chasm from the air | V |
Of clear morning the beams of the sunrise flow in | I |
Unimpeded keen golden and crystalline | I |
Banded armies of light and of air at one gate | G2 |
They encounter but interpenetrate | G2 |
And that breach in the tempest is widening away | S |
And the caverns of cloud are torn up by the day | S |
And the fierce winds are sinking with weary wings | H2 |
Lulled by the motion and murmurings | H2 |
And the long glassy heave of the rocking sea | H2 |
And overhead glorious but dreadful to see | H2 |
The wrecks of the tempest like vapours of gold | G2 |
Are consuming in sunrise The heaped waves behold | G2 |
The deep calm of blue Heaven dilating above | I2 |
And like passions made still by the presence of Love | I2 |
Beneath the clear surface reflecting it slide | G2 |
Tremulous with soft influence extending its tide | G2 |
From the Andes to Atlas round mountain and isle | J2 |
Round sea birds and wrecks paved with Heaven's azure smile | J2 |
The wide world of waters is vibrating Where | V |
Is the ship On the verge of the wave where it lay | S |
One tiger is mingled in ghastly affray | V |
With a sea snake The foam and the smoke of the battle | K2 |
Stain the clear air with sunbows the jar and the rattle | K2 |
Of solid bones crushed by the infinite stress | H2 |
Of the snake's adamantine voluminousness | H2 |
And the hum of the hot blood that spouts and rains | H2 |
Where the gripe of the tiger has wounded the veins | H2 |
Swollen with rage strength and effort the whirl and the splash | L2 |
As of some hideous engine whose brazen teeth smash | L2 |
The thin winds and soft waves into thunder the screams | H2 |
And hissings crawl fast o'er the smooth ocean streams | H2 |
Each sound like a centipede Near this commotion | I |
A blue shark is hanging within the blue ocean | I |
The fin winged tomb of the victor The other | V |
Is winning his way from the fate of his brother | V |
To his own with the speed of despair Lo a boat | G2 |
Advances twelve rowers with the impulse of thought | G2 |
Urge on the keen keel the brine foams At the stern | I |
Three marksmen stand levelling Hot bullets burn | I |
In the breast of the tiger which yet bears him on | I |
To his refuge and ruin One fragment alone | I |
'Tis dwindling and sinking 'tis now almost gone | I |
Of the wreck of the vessel peers out of the sea | H2 |
With her left hand she grasps it impetuously | K2 |
With her right she sustains her fair infant Death Fear | V |
Love Beauty are mixed in the atmosphere | V |
Which trembles and burns with the fervour of dread | G2 |
Around her wild eyes her bright hand and her head | G2 |
Like a meteor of light o'er the waters her child | G2 |
Is yet smiling and playing and murmuring so smiled | G2 |
The false deep ere the storm Like a sister and brother | V |
The child and the ocean still smile on each other | V |
Whilst | G2 |
Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1)
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