Monument Mountain Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLDMNOPPQP RJSTUAVWPXYXZA2PRPXH B2C2XPD2E2F2PG2 PH2B2I2J2E2K2XL2M2N2 PL2IO2P2Q2XPR2S2HPT2 U2E2PPPV2 W2PX2H2Y2Z2W2W2PPXPP XW2W2 W2PPA3W2W2W2B3W2C3D3 SE3PM2F3W2A3PPPW2PG3 H2PB2D2W2H3I3E3XA3X2 W2X2W2J3W2M2W2W2

Thou who wouldst see the lovely and the wildA
Mingled in harmony on Nature's faceB
Ascend our rocky mountains Let thy footC
Fail not with weariness for on their topsD
The beauty and the majesty of earthE
Spread wide beneath shall make thee to forgetF
The steep and toilsome way There as thou stand'stG
The haunts of men below thee and aroundH
The mountain summits thy expanding heartI
Shall feel a kindred with that loftier worldJ
To which thou art translated and partakeK
The enlargement of thy vision Thou shalt lookL
Upon the green and rolling forest topsD
And down into the secrets of the glensM
And streams that with their bordering thickets striveN
To hide their windings Thou shalt gaze at onceO
Here on white villages and tilth and herdsP
And swarming roads and there on solitudesP
That only hear the torrent and the windQ
And eagle's shriek There is a precipiceP
That seems a fragment of some mighty wallR
Built by the hand that fashioned the old worldJ
To separate its nations and thrown downS
When the flood drowned them To the north a pathT
Conducts you up the narrow battlementU
Steep is the western side shaggy and wildA
With mossy trees and pinnacles of flintV
And many a hanging crag But to the eastW
Sheer to the vale go down the bare old cliffsP
Huge pillars that in middle heaven upbearX
Their weather beaten capitals here darkY
With the thick moss of centuries and thereX
Of chalky whiteness where the thunderboltZ
Has splintered them It is a fearful thingA2
To stand upon the beetling verge and seeP
Where storm and lightning from that huge gray wallR
Have tumbled down vast blocks and at the baseP
Dashed them in fragments and to lay thine earX
Over the dizzy depth and hear the soundH
Of winds that struggle with the woods belowB2
Come up like ocean murmurs But the sceneC2
Is lovely round a beautiful river thereX
Wanders amid the fresh and fertile meadsP
The paradise he made unto himselfD2
Mining the soil for ages On each sideE2
The fields swell upward to the hills beyondF2
Above the hills in the blue distance riseP
The mighty columns with which earth props heavenG2
-
There is a tale about these reverend rocksP
A sad tradition of unhappy loveH2
And sorrows borne and ended long agoB2
When over these fair vales the savage soughtI2
His game in the thick woods There was a maidJ2
The fairest of the Indian maids bright eyedE2
With wealth of raven tresses a light formK2
And a gay heart About her cabin doorX
The wide old woods resounded with her songL2
And fairy laughter all the summer dayM2
She loved her cousin such a love was deemedN2
By the morality of those stern tribesP
Incestuous and she struggled hard and longL2
Against her love and reasoned with her heartI
As simple Indian maiden might In vainO2
Then her eye lost its lustre and her stepP2
Its lightness and the gray haired men that passedQ2
Her dwelling wondered that they heard no moreX
The accustomed song and laugh of her whose looksP
Were like the cheerful smile of Spring they saidR2
Upon the Winter of their age She wentS2
To weep where no eye saw and was not foundH
When all the merry girls were met to danceP
And all the hunters of the tribe were outT2
Nor when they gathered from the rustling huskU2
The shining ear nor when by the river's sideE2
Thay pulled the grape and startled the wild shadesP
With sounds of mirth The keen eyed Indian damesP
Would whisper to each other as they sawP
Her wasting form and say the girl will dieV2
-
One day into the bosom of a friendW2
A playmate of her young and innocent yearsP
She poured her griefs Thou know'st and thou aloneX2
She said for I have told thee all my loveH2
And guilt and sorrow I am sick of lifeY2
All night I weep in darkness and the mornZ2
Glares on me as upon a thing accursedW2
That has no business on the earth I hateW2
The pastimes and the pleasant toils that onceP
I loved the cheerful voices of my friendsP
Have an unnatural horror in mine earX
In dreams my mother from the land of soulsP
Calls me and chides me All that look on meP
Do seem to know my shame I cannot bearX
Their eyes I cannot from my heart root outW2
The love that wrings it so and I must dieW2
-
It was a summer morning and they wentW2
To this old precipice About the cliffsP
Lay garlands ears of maize and shaggy skinsP
Of wolf and bear the offerings of the tribeA3
Here made to the Great Spirit for they deemedW2
Like worshippers of the elder time that GodW2
Doth walk on the high places and affectW2
The earth o'erlooking mountains She had onB3
The ornaments with which her father lovedW2
To deck the beauty of his bright eyed girlC3
And bade her wear when stranger warriors cameD3
To be his guests Here the friends sat them downS
And sang all day old songs of love and deathE3
And decked the poor wan victim's hair with flowersP
And prayed that safe and swift might be her wayM2
To the calm world of sunshine where no griefF3
Makes the heart heavy and the eyelids redW2
Beautiful lay the region of her tribeA3
Below her waters resting in the embraceP
Of the wide forest and maize planted gladesP
Opening amid the leafy wildernessP
She gazed upon it long and at the sightW2
Of her own village peeping through the treesP
And her own dwelling and the cabin roofG3
Of him she loved with an unlawful loveH2
And came to die for a warm gush of tearsP
Ran from her eyes But when the sun grew lowB2
And the hill shadows long she threw herselfD2
From the steep rock and perished There was scoopedW2
Upon the mountain's southern slope a graveH3
And there they laid her in the very garbI3
With which the maiden decked herself for deathE3
With the same withering wild flowers in her hairX
And o'er the mould that covered her the tribeA3
Built up a simple monument a coneX2
Of small loose stones Thenceforward all who passedW2
Hunter and dame and virgin laid a stoneX2
In silence on the pile It stands there yetW2
And Indians from the distant West who comeJ3
To visit where their fathers' bones are laidW2
Yet tell the sorrowful tale and to this dayM2
The mountain where the hapless maiden diedW2
Is called the Mountain of the MonumentW2

William Cullen Bryant



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