A Vision. By The Author Of "christabel." Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDAAEE FFGHIIJKIILLMMJKEE NNOPQQEERRSSTTEE UUVWLPXXXXYYZZA2A2B2 B2WWC2C2D2D2E2E2EE| Up said the Spirit and ere I could pray | A |
| One hasty orison whirled me away | A |
| To a Limbo lying I wist not where | B |
| Above or below in earth or air | B |
| For it glimmered o'er with a doubtful light | C |
| One couldn't say whether 'twas day or night | C |
| And 'twas crost by many a mazy track | D |
| One didn't know how to get on or back | D |
| And I felt like a needle that's going astray | A |
| With its one eye out thro' a bundle of hay | A |
| When the Spirit he grinned and whispered me | E |
| Thou'rt now in the Court of Chancery | E |
| - | |
| Around me flitted unnumbered swarms | F |
| Of shapeless bodiless tailless forms | F |
| Like bottled up babes that grace the room | G |
| Of that worthy knight Sir Everard Home | H |
| All of them things half killed in rearing | I |
| Some were lame some wanted hearing | I |
| Some had thro' half a century run | J |
| Tho' they hadn't a leg to stand upon | K |
| Others more merry as just beginning | I |
| Around on a point of law were spinning | I |
| Or balanced aloft 'twixt Bill and Answer | L |
| Lead at each end like a tight rope dancer | L |
| Some were so cross that nothing could please 'em | M |
| Some gulpt down affidavits to ease 'em | M |
| All were in motion yet never a one | J |
| Let it move as it might could ever move on | K |
| These said the Spirit you plainly see | E |
| Are what they call suits in Chancery | E |
| - | |
| I heard a loud screaming of old and young | N |
| Like a chorus by fifty Vellutis sung | N |
| Or an Irish Dump the words by Moore | O |
| At an amateur concert screamed in score | P |
| So harsh on my ear that wailing fell | Q |
| Of the wretches who in this Limbo dwell | Q |
| It seemed like the dismal symphony | E |
| Of the shapes' Aeneas in hell did see | E |
| Or those frogs whose legs a barbarous cook | R |
| Cut off and left the frogs in the brook | R |
| To cry all night till life's last dregs | S |
| Give us our legs give us our legs | S |
| Touched with the sad and sorrowful scene | T |
| I askt what all this yell might mean | T |
| When the Spirit replied with a grin of glee | E |
| 'Tis the cry of the Suitors in Chancery | E |
| - | |
| I lookt and I saw a wizard rise | U |
| With a wig like a cloud before men's eyes | U |
| In his aged hand he held a wand | V |
| Wherewith he beckoned his embryo band | W |
| And they moved and moved as he waved it o'er | L |
| But they never get on one inch the more | P |
| And still they kept limping to and fro | X |
| Like Ariels round old Prospero | X |
| Saying Dear Master let us go | X |
| But still old Prospero answered No | X |
| And I heard the while that wizard elf | Y |
| Muttering muttering spells to himself | Y |
| While o'er as many old papers he turned | Z |
| As Hume e'er moved for or Omar burned | Z |
| He talkt of his virtue tho' some less nice | A2 |
| He owned with a sigh preferred his Vice | A2 |
| And he said I think I doubt I hope | B2 |
| Called God to witness and damned the Pope | B2 |
| With many more sleights of tongue and hand | W |
| I couldn't for the soul of me understand | W |
| Amazed and posed I was just about | C2 |
| To ask his name when the screams without | C2 |
| The merciless clack of the imps within | D2 |
| And that conjuror's mutterings made such a din | D2 |
| That startled I woke leapt up in my bed | E2 |
| Found the Spirit the imps and the conjuror fled | E2 |
| And blest my stars right pleased to see | E |
| That I wasn't as yet in Chancery | E |
Thomas Moore
(1)
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