Earth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPDQ RSTUVWXYZPA2OAB2C2D2 E2OF2G2H2I2 J2JK2L2I2I2M2I2SN2I2 O2KI2P2Q2R2S2T2I2N2I 2I2U2V2W2I2I2 I2WI2NKX2KKKKKKY2Z2I 2KI2Z2 JI2ZI2A3I2I2X2C2KM2F 2B3KC3

A midnight black with clouds is in the skyA
I seem to feel upon my limbs the weightB
Of its vast brooding shadow All in vainC
Turns the tired eye in search of form no starD
Pierces the pitchy veil no ruddy blazeE
From dwellings lighted by the cheerful hearthF
Tinges the flowering summits of the grassG
No sound of life is heard no village humH
Nor measured tramp of footstep in the pathI
Nor rush of wing while on the breast of EarthJ
I lie and listen to her mighty voiceK
A voice of many tones sent up from streamsL
That wander through the gloom from woods unseenM
Swayed by the sweeping of the tides of airN
From rocky chasms where darkness dwells all dayO
And hollows of the great invisible hillsP
And sands that edge the ocean stretching farD
Into the night a melancholy soundQ
-
O Earth dost thou too sorrow for the pastR
Like man thy offspring Do I hear thee mournS
Thy childhood's unreturning hours thy springsT
Gone with their genial airs and melodiesU
The gentle generations of thy flowersV
And thy majestic groves of olden timeW
Perished with all their dwellers Dost thou wailX
For that fair age of which the poets tellY
Ere the rude winds grew keen with frost or fireZ
Fell with the rains or spouted from the hillsP
To blast thy greenness while the virgin nightA2
Was guiltless and salubrious as the dayO
Or haply dost thou grieve for those that dieA
For living things that trod thy paths awhileB2
The love of thee and heaven and now they sleepC2
Mixed with the shapeless dust on which thy herdsD2
Trample and graze I too must grieve with theeE2
O'er loved ones lost Their graves are far awayO
Upon thy mountains yet while I reclineF2
Alone in darkness on thy naked soilG2
The mighty nourisher and burial placeH2
Of man I feel that I embrace their dustI2
-
Ha how the murmur deepens I perceiveJ2
And tremble at its dreadful import EarthJ
Uplifts a general cry for guilt and wrongK2
And heaven is listening The forgotten gravesL2
Of the heart broken utter forth their plaintI2
The dust of her who loved and was betrayedI2
And him who died neglected in his ageM2
The sepulchres of those who for mankindI2
Laboured and earned the recompense of scornS
Ashes of martyrs for the truth and bonesN2
Of those who in the strife for libertyI2
Were beaten down their corses given to dogsO2
Their names to infamy all find a voiceK
The nook in which the captive overtoiledI2
Lay down to rest at last and that which holdsP2
Childhood's sweet blossoms crushed by cruel handsQ2
Send up a plaintive sound From battle fieldsR2
Where heroes madly drave and dashed their hostsS2
Against each other rises up a noiseT2
As if the armed multitudes of deadI2
Stirred in their heavy slumber Mournful tonesN2
Come from the green abysses of the seaI2
story of the crimes the guilty soughtI2
To hide beneath its waves The glens the grovesU2
Paths in the thicket pools of running brookV2
And banks and depths of lake and streets and lanesW2
Of cities now that living sounds are hushedI2
Murmur of guilty force and treacheryI2
-
Here where I rest the vales of ItalyI2
Are round me populous from early timeW
And field of the tremendous warfare wagedI2
'Twixt good and evil Who alas shall dareN
Interpret to man's ear the mingled voiceK
That comes from her old dungeons yawning nowX2
To the black air her amphitheatresK
Where the dew gathers on the mouldering stonesK
And fanes of banished gods and open tombsK
And roofless palaces and streets and hearthsK
Of cities dug from their volcanic gravesK
I hear a sound of many languagesK
The utterance of nations now no moreY2
Driven out by mightier as the days of heavenZ2
Chase one another from the sky The bloodI2
Of freemen shed by freemen till strange lordsK
Came in the hour of weakness and made fastI2
The yoke that yet is worn cries out to HeavenZ2
-
What then shall cleanse thy bosom gentle EarthJ
From all its painful memories of guiltI2
The whelming flood or the renewing fireZ
Or the slow change of time that so at lastI2
The horrid tale of perjury and strifeA3
Murder and spoil which men call historyI2
May seem a fable like the inventions toldI2
By poets of the gods of Greece O thouX2
Who sittest far beyond the Atlantic deepC2
Among the sources of thy glorious streamsK
My native Land of Groves a newer pageM2
In the great record of the world is thineF2
Shall it be fairer Fear and friendly hopeB3
And envy watch the issue while the linesK
By which thou shalt be judged are written downC3

William Cullen Bryant



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