The Retreat From Moscow Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEEEFFEEGGHH IIJJKLMMMGGNNEEOOPPQ QPP PPPPRREPPSTUUVVOOPPE EWWXXPP PE EYY| It snowed A defeat was our conquest red | A |
| For once the eagle was hanging its head | A |
| Sad days the Emperor turned slowly his back | B |
| On smoking Moscow blent orange and black | B |
| The water burst avalanche like to reign | C |
| Over the endless blanched sheet of the plain | C |
| Nor chief nor banner in order could keep | D |
| The wolves of warfare were 'wildered like sheep | D |
| The wings from centre could hardly be known | E |
| Through snow o'er horses and carts o'erthrown | E |
| Where froze the wounded In the bivouacs forlorn | E |
| Strange sights and gruesome met the breaking morn | E |
| Mute were the bugles while the men bestrode | F |
| Steeds turned to marble unheeding the goad | F |
| The shells and bullets came down with the snow | E |
| As though the heavens hated these poor troops below | E |
| Surprised at trembling though it was with cold | G |
| Who ne'er had trembled out of fear the veterans bold | G |
| Marched stern to grizzled moustache hoar frost clung | H |
| 'Neath banners that in leaden masses hung | H |
| - | |
| It snowed went snowing still And chill the breeze | I |
| Whistled upon the glassy endless seas | I |
| Where naked feet on on forever went | J |
| With naught to eat and not a sheltering tent | J |
| They were not living troops as seen in war | K |
| But merely phantoms of a dream afar | L |
| In darkness wandering amid the vapour dim | M |
| A mystery of shadows a procession grim | M |
| Nearing a blackening sky unto its rim | M |
| Frightful since boundless solitude behold | G |
| Where only Nemesis wove mute and cold | G |
| A net all snowy with its soft meshes dense | N |
| A shroud of magnitued for host immense | N |
| Till every one felt as if left alone | E |
| In a wide wilderness where no light shone | E |
| To die with pity none and none to see | O |
| That from this mournful realm none should get free | O |
| Their foes the frozen North and Czar that worst | P |
| Cannon were broken up in haste accurst | P |
| To burn the frames and make the pale fire high | Q |
| Where those lay down who never woke or woke to die | Q |
| Sad and commingled groups that blindly fled | P |
| Were swallowed smoothly by the desert dread | P |
| - | |
| 'Neath folds of blankness monuments were raised | P |
| O'er regiments and History amazed | P |
| Could not record the ruin of this retreat | P |
| Unlike a downfall known before or the defeat | P |
| Of Hannibal reversed and wrapped in gloom | R |
| Of Atilla when nations met their doom | R |
| Perished an army fled French glory then | E |
| Though there the Emperor He stood and gazed | P |
| At the wild havoc like a monarch dazed | P |
| In woodland hoar who felt the shrieking saw | S |
| He living oak beheld his branches fall with awe | T |
| Chiefs soldiers comrades died But still warm love | U |
| Kept those that rose all dastard fear above | U |
| As on his tent they saw his shadow pass | V |
| Backwards and forwards for they credited alas | V |
| His fortune's star It could not could not be | O |
| That he had not his work to do a destiny | O |
| To hurl him headlong from his high estate | P |
| Would be high treason in his bondman Fate | P |
| But all the while he felt himself alone | E |
| Stunned with disasters few have ever known | E |
| Sudden a fear came o'er his troubled soul | W |
| What more was written on the Future's scroll | W |
| Was this an expiation It must be yea | X |
| He turned to God for one enlightening ray | X |
| 'Is this the vengeance Lord of Hosts ' he sighed | P |
| But the first murmur on his parched lips died | P |
| 'Is this the vengeance Must my glory set ' | - |
| A pause his name was called of flame a jet | P |
| Sprang in the darkness a Voice answered 'No | E |
| Not yet ' | - |
| Outside still fell the smothering snow | E |
| Was it a voice indeed or but a dream | Y |
| It was the vulture's but how like the sea bird's scream | Y |
Victor Marie Hugo
(1)
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About The Retreat From Moscow
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