A Musing On A Victory Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBABA CDCCDCD EFFEEF GHHHIBJBIKHIIL MNNHHHOOHOOPOOP HQHHHHQRSTTHHRSUU VUWXYYZHA2B2B2HAAHB2 HW HC2NHHD2HNE2HF2G2G2F 2AAHHHHHVVFFH2AAH2Down by the Sutlej shore | A |
Where sound the trumpet and the wild tum tum | B |
At winter's eve did come | B |
A gaunt old northern lion at whose roar | A |
The myriad howlers of thy wilds are dumb | B |
Blood stained Ferozepore | A |
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In the rich Indian night | C |
And dreaming of his mate beyond the sea | D |
Toil worn but grand to sight | C |
He made his lair in might | C |
Beneath thy dark palm tree | D |
And thou didst rouse him to the unequal fight | C |
And woe for thee | D |
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For some of that wild land | E |
Had heard him in the desert where he lay | F |
And soon he snuffs upon their hurtling way | F |
The hunters bandby band | E |
And up he gat him from the eastern sand | E |
And leaped upon his prey | F |
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Alas for man Alas for all thy dreams | G |
Thou great somnambulist wherein outlawed | H |
From right and thought thou workest out unawed | H |
Thy grand fantastic fancies Thro' the flood | H |
The pestilence the whirlwind the dread plain | I |
Of thunders thro' the earthquake and the storm | B |
The deluge and the snows the whirling ice | J |
Of the wild glacier every ghastly form | B |
Of earth's most vexed vicissitudes of pain | I |
Thro' worlds of fire and seas of mingled bloods | K |
Thou rushest dreadful as a maniac god | H |
And only finding that thou wert not sane | I |
When some great sorrow thunders at thy brain | I |
And wakes thee trembling by a precipice | L |
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Alas for thee thou grey haired man that still | M |
Art sleeping and canst hold thy grandchild high | N |
That he may see the gorgeous wrong go by | N |
Which slew his father And for thee thou bright | H |
Inheritress of summer time and light | H |
Alas for thee that thy young cheek is flush'd | H |
With dreaming of the lion and the foe | O |
Tho' it had been yet paler than the snow | O |
Upon the battle hill if once had gush'd | H |
But once before thee even the feeblest flow | O |
Of that life's blood that swept in floods below | O |
Alas that even thy beauty cannot break | P |
The vampyre spell of such a war dream's woe | O |
Alas tho' waking might have been to know | O |
Things which had made it sweeter not to wake | P |
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Alas for man poor hunchback all so proud | H |
And yet so conscious man that stalks divine | Q |
Because he feels so mortal speaking loud | H |
To drown the trembling whisper in his heart | H |
And wildly hurrying on from crowd to crowd | H |
In hope to shun the faithful shapes that start | H |
Wherever lake doth sleep or streamlet shine | Q |
In silent solitudes When once in youth | R |
Fresh from the spheres and too severely wise | S |
Truth drew the face he longed yet feared to view | T |
Stung with the instinct that confessed it true | T |
He dashed the tablets from her sacred hand | H |
She drops her singing robes and leaves his land | H |
And Fiction decent in the garb of Truth | R |
While lurking mischief lights her lambent eyes | S |
Seizes the fallen pencil and with grave | U |
Historic features paints the lies we crave | U |
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So war became a welcome woe The grass | V |
Grows tear bedewed upon a lonely grave | U |
And we plant sad flow'rs and sweet epitaphs | W |
And every grief of monumental stone | X |
Above a single woe but let men sleep | Y |
In thousands and we choose their hideous heap | Y |
For Joy to hold his godless orgies on | Z |
Is it that some strange law's unknown behest | H |
Makes gladness of the greatest woes we have | A2 |
And leaves us but to sorrow for the less | B2 |
Even as in outward nature light's excess | B2 |
Is blindness and intensest motion rest | H |
Or is it not oh conscious heart declare | A |
That the vast pride of our o'erwrought despair | A |
Seeing the infinite grief and knowing yet | H |
We have no tears to pay such deep distress | B2 |
Grown wild repudiates the direful debt | H |
And in its very bankrupt madness laughs | W |
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Yet when this Victory's fame shall pass as grand | H |
And griefless as a rich man's funeral | C2 |
Thro' nations that look on with spell bound eye | N |
While echoing plaudits ring from land to land | H |
Alas will there be none among the good | H |
And great and brave and free to speak of all | D2 |
The pale piled pestilence of flesh and blood | H |
The common cold corruption that doth lie | N |
Festering beneath the pall | E2 |
Alas when time has deified the thought | H |
Of this day's desperate devilry and men | F2 |
Who scorn to inherit virtue but will ape | G2 |
Their sires and bless them when they sin shall shape | G2 |
A graven image of the thought and then | F2 |
Fall down to worship it will no one dare | A |
While nations kneel before the idol there | A |
To stand and tell them it is Juggernaut | H |
Alas for man if this new crime shall yield | H |
To truth no harvest for the sighs it cost | H |
If this crowned corpse this pale ensceptred ghost | H |
That stalks Ferozepore from thy red field | H |
Robed as a king shall all unchallenged pass | V |
Down the proud scene of Time Alas alas | V |
If there are some to weep and some to pray | F |
And none to bow their humbled heads and say | F |
Low sighing There hath been a mortal strife | H2 |
And thirteen thousand murdered men lie there | A |
And day and night upon the tainted air | A |
Blaspheme the Lord of Life | H2 |
Sydney Thompson Dobell
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