Hymn To Death Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQKRE STHUVWXLYZA2R VB2C2HD2E2AXF2G2H2I2 J2QK2L2M2N2O2P2Q2R2S 2UT2U2V2Q2N2Q2Q2Q2Q2 W2ED2X2Y2N2DA2Z2U2VV 2A3B3Q2U2KC3D3K2F2E3 VF3KG3H3XI3J3K2XG3Q2 K3Q2L3M3N3D3O3K2Q2P3 H2IKVN2 X2EQ3G3R3HQ2HQ2Q2S3H HHHHT3Q2U3 VQ2Q2V3KA2D3WHHQ2Q3Q 2G3G3FW3T3X3Y3Z3FQ2R 2KH HQ2HHIA4HHIOh could I hope the wise and pure in heart | A |
Might hear my song without a frown nor deem | B |
My voice unworthy of the theme it tries | C |
I would take up the hymn to Death and say | D |
To the grim power The world hath slandered thee | E |
And mocked thee On thy dim and shadowy brow | F |
They place an iron crown and call thee king | G |
Of terrors and the spoiler of the world | H |
Deadly assassin that strik'st down the fair | I |
The loved the good that breathest on the lights | J |
Of virtue set along the vale of life | K |
And they go out in darkness I am come | L |
Not with reproaches not with cries and prayers | M |
Such as have stormed thy stern insensible ear | N |
from the beginning I am come to speak | O |
Thy praises True it is that I have wept | P |
Thy conquests and may weep them yet again | Q |
And thou from some I love wilt take a life | K |
Dear to me as my own Yet while the spell | R |
Is on my spirit and I talk with thee | E |
In sight of all thy trophies face to face | S |
Meet is it that my voice should utter forth | T |
Thy nobler triumphs I will teach the world | H |
To thank thee Who are thine accusers Who | U |
The living they who never felt thy power | V |
And know thee not The curses of the wretch | W |
Whose crimes are ripe his sufferings when thy hand | X |
Is on him and the hour he dreads is come | L |
Are writ among thy praises But the good | Y |
Does he whom thy kind hand dismissed to peace | Z |
Upbraid the gentle violence that took off | A2 |
His fetters and unbarred his prison cell | R |
- | |
Raise then the hymn to Death Deliverer | V |
God hath anointed thee to free the oppressed | B2 |
And crush the oppressor When the armed chief | C2 |
The conqueror of nations walks the world | H |
And it is changed beneath his feet and all | D2 |
Its kingdoms melt into one mighty realm | E2 |
Thou while his head is loftiest and his heart | A |
Blasphemes imagining his own right hand | X |
Almighty thou dost set thy sudden grasp | F2 |
Upon him and the links of that strong chain | G2 |
That bound mankind are crumbled thou dost break | H2 |
Sceptre and crown and beat his throne to dust | I2 |
Then the earth shouts with gladness and her tribes | J2 |
Gather within their ancient bounds again | Q |
Else had the mighty of the olden time | K2 |
Nimrod Sesostris or the youth who feigned | L2 |
His birth from Libyan Ammon smitten yet | M2 |
The nations with a rod of iron and driven | N2 |
Their chariot o'er our necks Thou dost avenge | O2 |
In thy good time the wrongs of those who know | P2 |
No other friend Nor dost thou interpose | Q2 |
Only to lay the sufferer asleep | R2 |
Where he who made him wretched troubles not | S2 |
His rest thou dost strike down his tyrant too | U |
Oh there is joy when hands that held the scourge | T2 |
Drop lifeless and the pitiless heart is cold | U2 |
Thou too dost purge from earth its horrible | V2 |
And old idolatries from the proud fanes | Q2 |
Each to his grave their priests go out till none | N2 |
Is left to teach their worship then the fires | Q2 |
Of sacrifice are chilled and the green moss | Q2 |
O'ercreeps their altars the fallen images | Q2 |
Cumber the weedy courts and for loud hymns | Q2 |
Chanted by kneeling multitudes the wind | W2 |
Shrieks in the solitary aisles When he | E |
Who gives his life to guilt and laughs at all | D2 |
The laws that God or man has made and round | X2 |
Hedges his seat with power and shines in wealth | Y2 |
Lifts up his atheist front to scoff at Heaven | N2 |
And celebrates his shame in open day | D |
Thou in the pride of all his crimes cutt'st off | A2 |
The horrible example Touched by thine | Z2 |
The extortioner's hard hand foregoes the gold | U2 |
Wrung from the o'er worn poor The perjurer | V |
Whose tongue was lithe e'en now and voluble | V2 |
Against his neighbour's life and he who laughed | A3 |
And leaped for joy to see a spotless fame | B3 |
Blasted before his own foul calumnies | Q2 |
Are smit with deadly silence He who sold | U2 |
His conscience to preserve a worthless life | K |
Even while he hugs himself on his escape | C3 |
Trembles as doubly terrible at length | D3 |
Thy steps o'ertake him and there is no time | K2 |
For parley nor will bribes unclench thy grasp | F2 |
Oft too dost thou reform thy victim long | E3 |
Ere his last hour And when the reveller | V |
Mad in the chase of pleasure stretches on | F3 |
And strains each nerve and clears the path of life | K |
Like wind thou point'st him to the dreadful goal | G3 |
And shak'st thy hour glass in his reeling eye | H3 |
And check'st him in mid course Thy skeleton hand | X |
Shows to the faint of spirit the right path | I3 |
And he is warned and fears to step aside | J3 |
Thou sett'st between the ruffian and his crime | K2 |
Thy ghastly countenance and his slack hand | X |
Drops the drawn knife But oh most fearfully | G3 |
Dost thou show forth Heaven's justice when thy shafts | Q2 |
Drink up the ebbing spirit then the hard | K3 |
Of heart and violent of hand restores | Q2 |
The treasure to the friendless wretch he wronged | L3 |
Then from the writhing bosom thou dost pluck | M3 |
The guilty secret lips for ages sealed | N3 |
Are faithless to the dreadful trust at length | D3 |
And give it up the felon's latest breath | O3 |
Absolves the innocent man who bears his crime | K2 |
The slanderer horror smitten and in tears | Q2 |
Recalls the deadly obloquy he forged | P3 |
To work his brother's ruin Thou dost make | H2 |
Thy penitent victim utter to the air | I |
The dark conspiracy that strikes at life | K |
And aims to whelm the laws ere yet the hour | V |
Is come and the dread sign of murder given | N2 |
- | |
Thus from the first of time hast thou been found | X2 |
On virtue's side the wicked but for thee | E |
Had been too strong for the good the great of earth | Q3 |
Had crushed the weak for ever Schooled in guile | G3 |
For ages while each passing year had brought | R3 |
Its baneful lesson they had filled the world | H |
With their abominations while its tribes | Q2 |
Trodden to earth imbruted and despoiled | H |
Had knelt to them in worship sacrifice | Q2 |
Had smoked on many an altar temple roofs | Q2 |
Had echoed with the blasphemous prayer and hymn | S3 |
But thou the great reformer of the world | H |
Tak'st off the sons of violence and fraud | H |
In their green pupilage their lore half learned | H |
Ere guilt had quite o'errun the simple heart | H |
God gave them at their birth and blotted out | H |
His image Thou dost mark them flushed with hope | T3 |
As on the threshold of their vast designs | Q2 |
Doubtful and loose they stand and strik'st them down | U3 |
- | |
- | |
- | |
Alas I little thought that the stern power | V |
Whose fearful praise I sung would try me thus | Q2 |
Before the strain was ended It must cease | Q2 |
For he is in his grave who taught my youth | V3 |
The art of verse and in the bud of life | K |
Offered me to the muses Oh cut off | A2 |
Untimely when thy reason in its strength | D3 |
Ripened by years of toil and studious search | W |
And watch of Nature's silent lessons taught | H |
Thy hand to practise best the lenient art | H |
To which thou gavest thy laborious days | Q2 |
And last thy life And therefore when the earth | Q3 |
Received thee tears were in unyielding eyes | Q2 |
And on hard cheeks and they who deemed thy skill | G3 |
Delayed their death hour shuddered and turned pale | G3 |
When thou wert gone This faltering verse which thou | F |
Shalt not as wont o'erlook is all I have | W3 |
To offer at thy grave this and the hope | T3 |
To copy thy example and to leave | X3 |
A name of which the wretched shall not think | Y3 |
As of an enemy's whom they forgive | Z3 |
As all forgive the dead Rest therefore thou | F |
Whose early guidance trained my infant steps | Q2 |
Rest in the bosom of God till the brief sleep | R2 |
Of death is over and a happier life | K |
Shall dawn to waken thine insensible dust | H |
- | |
Now thou art not and yet the men whose guilt | H |
Has wearied Heaven for vengeance he who bears | Q2 |
False witness he who takes the orphan's bread | H |
And robs the widow he who spreads abroad | H |
Polluted hands of mockery of prayer | I |
Are left to cumber earth Shuddering I look | A4 |
On what is written yet I blot not out | H |
The desultory numbers let them stand | H |
The record of an idle revery | I |
William Cullen Bryant
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Hymn To Death poem by William Cullen Bryant
Best Poems of William Cullen Bryant