The Breaking Point Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDEEDFFGGHI JKJKLMLMNNIOOPPI QGGMM| It was not when temptation came | A |
| Swiftly and blastingly as flame | A |
| And seared me white with burning scars | B |
| When I stood up for age long wars | C |
| And held the very Fiend at grips | D |
| When all my mutinous body rose | E |
| To range itself beside my foes | E |
| And like a greyhound in the slips | D |
| The Beast that dwells within me roared | F |
| Lunging and straining at his cord | F |
| For all the blusterings of Hell | G |
| It was not then I slipped and fell | G |
| For all the storm for all the hate | H |
| I kept my soul inviolate | I |
| - | |
| But when the fight was fought and won | J |
| And there was Peace as still as Death | K |
| On everything beneath the sun | J |
| Just as I started to draw breath | K |
| And yawn and stretch and pat myself | L |
| The grass began to whisper things | M |
| And every tree became an elf | L |
| That grinned and chuckled counsellings | M |
| Birds beasts one thing alone they said | N |
| Beating and dinning at my head | N |
| I could not fly I could not shun it | I |
| Slimily twisting slow and blind | O |
| It crept and crept into my mind | O |
| Whispered and shouted sneered and laughed | P |
| Screamed out until my brain was daft | P |
| One snaky word What if you'd done it | I |
| - | |
| And I began to think | Q |
| Ah well | G |
| What matter how I slipped and fell | G |
| Or you you gutter searcher say | M |
| Tell where you found me yesterday | M |
Stephen Vincent Benet
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Breaking Point poem by Stephen Vincent Benet
Best Poems of Stephen Vincent Benet