Catterskill Falls Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBBCC DBDBEE FGFGHH IJKJLL EBEBMM NONOPP QRQROO BBBBSS LBTBOO UOUOOO HJHHMM VWVWBB HXHXYY BOBOEE ZOZOBB OOOOHH BBBBA2A2 BOBOUU B2C2B2C2D2D2Midst greens and shades the Catterskill leaps | A |
From cliffs where the wood flower clings | B |
All summer he moistens his verdant steeps | B |
With the sweet light spray of the mountain springs | B |
And he shakes the woods on the mountain side | C |
When they drip with the rains of autumn tide | C |
- | |
But when in the forest bare and old | D |
The blast of December calls | B |
He builds in the starlight clear and cold | D |
A palace of ice where his torrent falls | B |
With turret and arch and fretwork fair | E |
And pillars blue as the summer air | E |
- | |
For whom are those glorious chambers wrought | F |
In the cold and cloudless night | G |
Is there neither spirit nor motion of thought | F |
In forms so lovely and hues so bright | G |
Hear what the gray haired woodmen tell | H |
Of this wild stream and its rocky dell | H |
- | |
'Twas hither a youth of dreamy mood | I |
A hundred winters ago | J |
Had wandered over the mighty wood | K |
When the panther's track was fresh on the snow | J |
And keen were the winds that came to stir | L |
The long dark boughs of the hemlock fir | L |
- | |
Too gentle of mien he seemed and fair | E |
For a child of those rugged steeps | B |
His home lay low in the valley where | E |
The kingly Hudson rolls to the deeps | B |
But he wore the hunter's frock that day | M |
And a slender gun on his shoulder lay | M |
- | |
And here he paused and against the trunk | N |
Of a tall gray linden leant | O |
When the broad clear orb of the sun had sunk | N |
From his path in the frosty firmament | O |
And over the round dark edge of the hill | P |
A cold green light was quivering still | P |
- | |
And the crescent moon high over the green | Q |
From a sky of crimson shone | R |
On that icy palace whose towers were seen | Q |
To sparkle as if with stars of their own | R |
While the water fell with a hollow sound | O |
'Twixt the glistening pillars ranged around | O |
- | |
Is that a being of life that moves | B |
Where the crystal battlements rise | B |
A maiden watching the moon she loves | B |
At the twilight hour with pensive eyes | B |
Was that a garment which seemed to gleam | S |
Betwixt the eye and the falling stream | S |
- | |
'Tis only the torrent tumbling o'er | L |
In the midst of those glassy walls | B |
Gushing and plunging and beating the floor | T |
Of the rocky basin in which it falls | B |
'Tis only the torrent but why that start | O |
Why gazes the youth with a throbbing heart | O |
- | |
He thinks no more of his home afar | U |
Where his sire and sister wait | O |
He heeds no longer how star after star | U |
Looks forth on the night as the hour grows late | O |
He heeds not the snow wreaths lifted and cast | O |
From a thousand boughs by the rising blast | O |
- | |
His thoughts are alone of those who dwell | H |
In the halls of frost and snow | J |
Who pass where the crystal domes upswell | H |
From the alabaster floors below | H |
Where the frost trees shoot with leaf and spray | M |
And frost gems scatter a silvery day | M |
- | |
And oh that those glorious haunts were mine | V |
He speaks and throughout the glen | W |
Thin shadows swim in the faint moonshine | V |
And take a ghastly likeness of men | W |
As if the slain by the wintry storms | B |
Came forth to the air in their earthly forms | B |
- | |
There pass the chasers of seal and whale | H |
With their weapons quaint and grim | X |
And bands of warriors in glittering mail | H |
And herdsmen and hunters huge of limb | X |
There are naked arms with bow and spear | Y |
And furry gauntlets the carbine rear | Y |
- | |
There are mothers and oh how sadly their eyes | B |
On their children's white brows rest | O |
There are youthful lovers the maiden lies | B |
In a seeming sleep on the chosen breast | O |
There are fair wan women with moonstruck air | E |
The snow stars flecking their long loose hair | E |
- | |
They eye him not as they pass along | Z |
But his hair stands up with dread | O |
When he feels that he moves with that phantom throng | Z |
Till those icy turrets are over his head | O |
And the torrent's roar as they enter seems | B |
Like a drowsy murmur heard in dreams | B |
- | |
The glittering threshold is scarcely passed | O |
When there gathers and wraps him round | O |
A thick white twilight sullen and vast | O |
In which there is neither form nor sound | O |
The phantoms the glory vanish all | H |
With the dying voice of the waterfall | H |
- | |
Slow passes the darkness of that trance | B |
And the youth now faintly sees | B |
Huge shadows and gushes of light that dance | B |
On a rugged ceiling of unhewn trees | B |
And walls where the skins of beasts are hung | A2 |
And rifles glitter on antlers strung | A2 |
- | |
On a couch of shaggy skins he lies | B |
As he strives to raise his head | O |
Hard featured woodmen with kindly eyes | B |
Come round him and smooth his furry bed | O |
And bid him rest for the evening star | U |
Is scarcely set and the day is far | U |
- | |
They had found at eve the dreaming one | B2 |
By the base of that icy steep | C2 |
When over his stiffening limbs begun | B2 |
The deadly slumber of frost to creep | C2 |
And they cherished the pale and breathless form | D2 |
Till the stagnant blood ran free and warm | D2 |
William Cullen Bryant
(1)
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