The Dance Of Death Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCDEFFGGHHIIFJKF AGGGKLMMKFFFNOOONPPP POQRPO ASSTTUUPPVVNWWWNXYNZ ZNA2A2B2C2C2B2OPB2 T D2 WWE2TTE2 F2F2ATTANNPG2G2PWWE2 TTE2 TWWH2I2I2H2PPOJ2J2O AWWE2TTE2 PPK2AAK2HHL2HHL2 TWWE2TTE2 M2M2NN2N2N2N2N TQO2PP2P2PQ2R2OHHOI | A |
Night and morning were at meeting | B |
Over Waterloo | C |
Cocks had sung their earliest greeting | B |
Faint and low they crew | C |
For no paly beam yet shone | D |
On the heights of Mount Saint John | E |
Tempest clouds prolonged the sway | F |
Of timeless darkness over day | F |
Whirlwind thunder clap and shower | G |
Marked it a predestined hour | G |
Broad and frequent through the night | H |
Flashed the sheets of levin light | H |
Muskets glancing lightnings back | I |
Showed the dreary bivouac | I |
Where the soldier lay | F |
Chill and stiff and drenched with rain | J |
Wishing dawn of morn again | K |
Though death should come with day | F |
- | |
II | A |
'Tis at such a tide and hour | G |
Wizard witch and fiend have power | G |
And ghastly forms through mist and shower | G |
Gleam on the gifted ken | K |
And then the affrighted prophet's ear | L |
Drinks whispers strange of fate and fear | M |
Presaging death and ruin near | M |
Among the sons of men | K |
Apart from Albyn's war array | F |
'Twas then grey Allan sleepless lay | F |
Grey Allan who for many a day | F |
Had followed stout and stern | N |
Where through battle's rout and reel | O |
Storm of shot and edge of steel | O |
Led the grandson of Lochiel | O |
Valiant Fassiefern | N |
Through steel and shot he leads no more | P |
Low laid 'mid friends' and foemen's gore | P |
But long his native lake's wild shore | P |
And Sunart rough and high Ardgower | P |
And Morven long shall tell | O |
And proud Bennevis hear with awe | Q |
How upon bloody Quatre Bras | R |
Brave Cameron heard the wild hurra | P |
Of conquest as he fell | O |
- | |
III | A |
Lone on the outskirts of the host | S |
The weary sentinel held post | S |
And heard through darkness far aloof | T |
The frequent clang of courser's hoof | T |
Where held the cloaked patrol their course | U |
And spurred 'gainst storm the swerving horse | U |
But there are sounds in Allan's ear | P |
Patrol nor sentinel may hear | P |
And sights before his eye aghast | V |
Invisible to them have passed | V |
When down the destined plain | N |
'Twixt Britain and the bands of France | W |
Wild as marsh borne meteor's glance | W |
Strange phantoms wheeled a revel dance | W |
And doomed the future slain | N |
Such forms were seen such sounds were heard | X |
When Scotland's James his march prepared | Y |
For Flodden's fatal plain | N |
Such when he drew his ruthless sword | Z |
As Choosers of the Slain adored | Z |
The yet unchristened Dane | N |
An indistinct and phantom band | A2 |
They wheeled their ring dance hand in hand | A2 |
With gestures wild and dread | B2 |
The Seer who watched them ride the storm | C2 |
Saw through their faint and shadowy form | C2 |
The lightning's flash more red | B2 |
And still their ghastly roundelay | O |
Was of the coming battle fray | P |
And of the destined dead | B2 |
- | |
IV | T |
- | |
Song | D2 |
- | |
Wheel the wild dance | W |
While lightnings glance | W |
And thunders rattle loud | E2 |
And call the brave | T |
To bloody grave | T |
To sleep without a shroud | E2 |
- | |
Our airy feet | F2 |
So light and fleet | F2 |
They do not bend the rye | A |
That sinks its head when whirlwinds rave | T |
And swells again in eddying wave | T |
As each wild gust blows by | A |
But still the corn | N |
At dawn of morn | N |
Our fatal steps that bore | P |
At eve lies waste | G2 |
A trampled paste | G2 |
Of blackening mud and gore | P |
Wheel the wild dance | W |
While lightnings glance | W |
And thunders rattle loud | E2 |
And call the brave | T |
To bloody grave | T |
To sleep without a shroud | E2 |
- | |
V | T |
Wheel the wild dance | W |
Brave sons of France | W |
For you our ring makes room | H2 |
Make space full wide | I2 |
For martial pride | I2 |
For banner spear and plume | H2 |
Approach draw near | P |
Proud cuirassier | P |
Room for the men of steel | O |
Through crest and plate | J2 |
The broadsword's weight | J2 |
Both head and heart shall feel | O |
- | |
VI | A |
Wheel the wild dance | W |
While lightnings glance | W |
And thunders rattle loud | E2 |
And call the brave | T |
To bloody grave | T |
To sleep without a shroud | E2 |
- | |
Sons of the spear | P |
You feel us near | P |
In many a ghastly dream | K2 |
With fancy's eye | A |
Our forms you spy | A |
And hear our fatal scream | K2 |
With clearer sight | H |
Ere falls the night | H |
Just when to weal or woe | L2 |
Your disembodied souls take flight | H |
On trembling wing each startled sprite | H |
Our choir of death shall know | L2 |
- | |
VII | T |
Wheel the wild dance | W |
While lightnings glance | W |
And thunders rattle loud | E2 |
And call the brave | T |
To bloody grave | T |
To sleep without a shroud | E2 |
- | |
Burst ye clouds in tempest showers | M2 |
Redder rain shall soon be ours | M2 |
See the east grows wan | N |
Yield we place to sterner game | N2 |
Ere deadlier bolts and direr flame | N2 |
Shall the welkin's thunders shame | N2 |
Elemental rage is tame | N2 |
To the wrath of man | N |
- | |
VIII | T |
At morn grey Allan's mates with awe | Q |
Heard of the visioned sights he saw | O2 |
The legend heard him say | P |
But the Seer's gifted eye was dim | P2 |
Deafened his ear and stark his limb | P2 |
Ere closed that bloody day | P |
He sleeps far from his Highland heath | Q2 |
But often of the Dance of Death | R2 |
His comrades tell the tale | O |
On picquet post when ebbs the night | H |
And waning watch fires glow less bright | H |
And dawn is glimmering pale | O |
Sir Walter Scott
(1)
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