The Flood Of Years Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIEJKLMNOPQRS TUVWXYZA2B2HC2B2D2E2 F2G2H2KI2J2J2J2J2A2P J2K2A2L2J2OUJ2M2HN2B 2O2P2J2Q2R2S2FO2J2J2 J2J2J2FB2J2T2J2U2J2N 2FV2W2J2J2X2Y2Z2J2Y2 J2Y2J2J2J2A3B2B3Y2J2 J2J2J2J2YB2Y2K2J2Y2Y 2C3J2D3J2FY2SD2HE3J2 J2Y2Y2D2F3FY2Y2A3J2Y 2G3F3J2H3J2J2J2HY2J2 Y2I3FY2J3J2K3Y2L3Y2Y 2A MIGHTY Hand from an exhaustless Urn | A |
Pours forth the never ending Flood of Years | B |
Among the nations How the rushing waves | C |
Bear all before them On their foremost edge | D |
And there alone is Life The Present there | E |
Tosses and foams and fills the air with roar | F |
Of mingled noises There are they who toil | G |
And they who strive and they who feast and they | H |
Who hurry to and fro The sturdy swain | I |
Woodman and delver with the spade is there | E |
And busy artisan beside his bench | J |
And pallid student with his written roll | K |
A moment on the mounting billow seen | L |
The flood sweeps over them and they are gone | M |
There groups of revellers whose brows are twined | N |
With roses ride the topmost swell awhile | O |
And as they raise their flowing cups and touch | P |
The clinking brim to brim are whirled beneath | Q |
The waves and disappear I hear the jar | R |
Of beaten drums and thunders that break forth | S |
From cannon where the advancing billow sends | T |
Up to the sight long files of arm d men | U |
That hurry to the charge through flame and smoke | V |
The torrent bears them under whelmed and hid | W |
Slayer and slain in heaps of bloody foam | X |
Down go the steed and rider the plumed chief | Y |
Sinks with his followers the head that wears | Z |
The imperial diadem goes down beside | A2 |
The felon s with cropped ear and branded cheek | B2 |
A funeral train the torrent sweeps away | H |
Bearers and bier and mourners By the bed | C2 |
Of one who dies men gather sorrowing | B2 |
And women weep aloud the flood rolls on | D2 |
The wail is stifled and the sobbing group | E2 |
Borne under Hark to that shrill sudden shout | F2 |
The cry of an applauding multitude | G2 |
Swayed by some loud voiced orator who wields | H2 |
The living mass as if he were its soul | K |
The waters choke the shout and all is still | I2 |
Lo next a kneeling crowd and one who spreads | J2 |
The hands in prayer the engulfing wave o ertakes | J2 |
And swallows them and him A sculptor wields | J2 |
The chisel and the stricken marble grows | J2 |
To beauty at his easel eager eyed | A2 |
A painter stands and sunshine at his touch | P |
Gathers upon his canvas and life glows | J2 |
A poet as he paces to and fro | K2 |
Murmurs his sounding lines A while they ride | A2 |
The advancing billow till its tossing crest | L2 |
Strikes them and flings them under while their tasks | J2 |
Are yet unfinished See a mother smile | O |
On her young babe that smiles to her again | U |
The torrent wrests it from her arms she shrieks | J2 |
And weeps and midst her tears is carried down | M2 |
A beam like that of moonlight turns the spray | H |
To glistening pearls two lovers hand in hand | N2 |
Rise on the billowy swell and fondly look | B2 |
Into each other s eyes The rushing flood | O2 |
Flings them apart the youth goes down the maid | P2 |
With hands outstretched in vain and streaming eyes | J2 |
Waits for the next high wave to follow him | Q2 |
An aged man succeeds his bending form | R2 |
Sinks slowly Mingling with the sullen stream | S2 |
Gleam the white locks and then are seen no more | F |
Lo wider grows the stream a sea like flood | O2 |
Saps earth s walled cities massive palaces | J2 |
Crumble before it fortresses and towers | J2 |
Dissolve in the swift waters populous realms | J2 |
Swept by the torrent see their ancient tribes | J2 |
Engulfed and lost their very languages | J2 |
Stifled and never to be uttered more | F |
I pause and turn my eyes and looking back | B2 |
Where that tumultuous flood has been I see | J2 |
The silent ocean of the Past a waste | T2 |
Of waters weltering over graves its shores | J2 |
Strewn with the wreck of fleets where mast and hull | U2 |
Drop away piecemeal battlemented walls | J2 |
Frown idly green with moss and temples stand | N2 |
Unroofed forsaken by the worshipper | F |
There lie memorial stones whence time has gnawed | V2 |
The graven legends thrones of kings o er turned | W2 |
The broken altars of forgotten gods | J2 |
Foundations of old cities and long streets | J2 |
Where never fall of human foot is heard | X2 |
On all the desolate pavement I behold | Y2 |
Dim glimmerings of lost jewels far within | Z2 |
The sleeping waters diamond sardonyx | J2 |
Ruby and topaz pearl and chrysolite | Y2 |
Once glittering at the banquet on fair brows | J2 |
That long ago were dust and all around | Y2 |
Strewn on the surface of that silent sea | J2 |
Are withering bridal wreaths and glossy locks | J2 |
Shorn from dear brows by loving hands and scrolls | J2 |
O erwritten haply with fond words of love | A3 |
And vows of friendship and fair pages flung | B2 |
Fresh from the printer s engine There they lie | B3 |
A moment and then sink away from sight | Y2 |
I look and the quick tears are in my eyes | J2 |
For I behold in every one of these | J2 |
A blighted hope a separate history | J2 |
Of human sorrows telling of dear ties | J2 |
Suddenly broken dreams of happiness | J2 |
Dissolved in air and happy days too brief | Y |
That sorrowfully ended and I think | B2 |
How painfully must the poor heart have beat | Y2 |
In bosoms without number as the blow | K2 |
Was struck that slew their hope and broke their peace | J2 |
Sadly I turn and look before where yet | Y2 |
The Flood must pass and I behold a mist | Y2 |
Where swarm dissolving forms the brood of Hope | C3 |
Divinely fair that rest on banks of flowers | J2 |
Or wander among rainbows fading soon | D3 |
And reappearing haply giving place | J2 |
To forms of grisly aspect such as Fear | F |
Shapes from the idle air where serpents lift | Y2 |
The head to strike and skeletons stretch forth | S |
The bony arm in menace Further on | D2 |
A belt of darkness seems to bar the way | H |
Long low and distant where the Life to come | E3 |
Touches the Life that is The Flood of Years | J2 |
Rolls toward it near and nearer It must pass | J2 |
That dismal barrier What is there beyond | Y2 |
Hear what the wise and good have said Beyond | Y2 |
That belt of darkness still the Years roll on | D2 |
More gently but with not less mighty sweep | F3 |
They gather up again and softly bear | F |
All the sweet lives that late were over whelmed | Y2 |
And lost to sight all that in them was good | Y2 |
Noble and truly great and worthy of love | A3 |
The lives of infants and ingenuous youths | J2 |
Sages and saintly women who have made | Y2 |
Their households happy all are raised and borne | G3 |
By that great current in its onward sweep | F3 |
Wandering and rippling with caressing waves | J2 |
Around green islands with the breath | H3 |
Of flowers that never wither So they pass | J2 |
From stage to stage along the shining course | J2 |
Of that bright river broadening like a sea | J2 |
As its smooth eddies curl along their way | H |
They bring old friends together hands are clasped | Y2 |
In joy unspeakable the mother s arms | J2 |
Again are folded round the child she loved | Y2 |
And lost Old sorrows are forgotten now | I3 |
Or but remembered to make sweet the hour | F |
That overpays them wounded hearts that bled | Y2 |
Or broke are healed forever In the room | J3 |
Of this grief shadowed present there shall be | J2 |
A Present in whose reign no grief shall gnaw | K3 |
The heart and never shall a tender tie | Y2 |
Be broken in whose reign the eternal Change | L3 |
That waits on growth and action shall proceed | Y2 |
With everlasting Concord hand in hand | Y2 |
William Cullen Bryant
(1)
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