War Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDEFFGHIIJJKKLM IIHHNNOJDDPPHMQQIIRR IILLIISSTTPPUUIIVVPP IIWKPPXXLLYZA2A2XXQQ IIKKIIQQB2C2| Ambition power and avarice now have hurled | A |
| Death fate and ruin on a bleeding world | A |
| See on yon heath what countless victims lie | B |
| Hark what loud shrieks ascend through yonder sky | B |
| Tell then the cause 'tis sure the avenger's rage | C |
| Has swept these myriads from life's crowded stage | C |
| Hark to that groan an anguished hero dies | D |
| He shudders in death s latest agonies | E |
| Yet does a fleeting hectic flush his cheek | F |
| Yet does his parting breath essay to speak | F |
| 'Oh God my wife my children Monarch thou | G |
| For whose support this fainting frame lies low | H |
| For whose support in distant lands I bleed | I |
| Let his friends' welfare be the warrior's meed | I |
| He hears me not ah no kings cannot hear | J |
| For passion's voice has dulled their listless ear | J |
| To thee then mighty God I lift my moan | K |
| Thou wilt not scorn a suppliant's anguished groan | K |
| Oh now I die but still is death's fierce pain | L |
| God hears my prayer we meet we meet again ' | M |
| He spake reclined him on death's bloody bed | I |
| And with a parting groan his spirit fled | I |
| Oppressors of mankind to YOU we owe | H |
| The baleful streams from whence these miseries flow | H |
| For you how many a mother weeps her son | N |
| Snatched from life's course ere half his race was run | N |
| For you how many a widow drops a tear | O |
| In silent anguish on her husband's bier | J |
| 'Is it then Thine Almighty Power ' she cries | D |
| 'Whence tears of endless sorrow dim these eyes | D |
| Is this the system which Thy powerful sway | P |
| Which else in shapeless chaos sleeping lay | P |
| Formed and approved it cannot be but oh | H |
| Forgive me Heaven my brain is warped by woe ' | M |
| 'Tis not He never bade the war note swell | Q |
| He never triumphed in the work of hell | Q |
| Monarchs of earth thine is the baleful deed | I |
| Thine are the crimes for which thy subjects bleed | I |
| Ah when will come the sacred fated time | R |
| When man unsullied by his leaders' crime | R |
| Despising wealth ambition pomp and pride | I |
| Will stretch him fearless by his foe men's side | I |
| Ah when will come the time when o'er the plain | L |
| No more shall death and desolation reign | L |
| When will the sun smile on the bloodless field | I |
| And the stern warrior's arm the sickle wield | I |
| Not whilst some King in cold ambition's dreams | S |
| Plans for the field of death his plodding schemes | S |
| Not whilst for private pique the public fall | T |
| And one frail mortal's mandate governs all | T |
| Swelled with command and mad with dizzying sway | P |
| Who sees unmoved his myriads fade away | P |
| Careless who lives or dies so that he gains | U |
| Some trivial point for which he took the pains | U |
| What then are Kings I see the trembling crowd | I |
| I hear their fulsome clamours echoed loud | I |
| Their stern oppressor pleased appears awhile | V |
| But April's sunshine is a Monarch s smile | V |
| Kings are but dust the last eventful day | P |
| Will level all and make them lose their sway | P |
| Will dash the sceptre from the Monarch s hand | I |
| And from the warrior s grasp wrest the ensanguined brand | I |
| Oh Peace soft Peace art thou for ever gone | W |
| Is thy fair form indeed for ever flown | K |
| And love and concord hast thou swept away | P |
| As if incongruous with thy parted sway | P |
| Alas I fear thou hast for none appear | X |
| Now o'er the palsied earth stalks giant Fear | X |
| With War and Woe and Terror in his train | L |
| List'ning he pauses on the embattled plain | L |
| Then speeding swiftly o'er the ensanguined heath | Y |
| Has left the frightful work to Hell and Death | Z |
| See gory Ruin yokes his blood stained car | A2 |
| He scents the battle's carnage from afar | A2 |
| Hell and Destruction mark his mad career | X |
| He tracks the rapid step of hurrying Fear | X |
| Whilst ruined towns and smoking cities tell | Q |
| That thy work Monarch is the work of Hell | Q |
| 'It is thy work ' I hear a voice repeat | I |
| Shakes the broad basis of thy bloodstained seat | I |
| And at the orphan s sigh the widow's moan | K |
| Totters the fabric of thy guilt stained throne | K |
| 'It is thy work O Monarch ' now the sound | I |
| Fainter and fainter yet is borne around | I |
| Yet to enthusiast ears the murmurs tell | Q |
| That Heaven indignant at the work of Hell | Q |
| Will soon the cause the hated cause remove | B2 |
| Which tears from earth peace innocence and love | C2 |
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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