The Murderess

Alice Cary 1820 (Mount Healthy) – 1871



Along the still cold plain o’erhead,
  In pale embattled crowds.
The stars their tents of darkness spread,
  And camped among the clouds;
Cinctured with shadows, like a wraith,
  Night moaned along the lea;
Like the blue hungry eye of Death,
  Shone the perfidious sea;
The moon was wearing to the wane,
  The winds were wild and high,
And a red meteor's flaming mane
  Streamed from the northern sky.

Across the black and barren moor,
  Her dainty bosom bare;
And white lips sobbing evermore,
  Rides Eleanor the fair.
So hath the pining sea-maid plained
  For love of mortal lips,
Riding the billows, silver-reined.
  Hard by disastrous ships.

Why covers she her mournful eyes?
  Why do her pulses cease,
As if she saw before her rise
  The ghost of murdered Peace?
From out her path the ground-bird drifts
  With wildly startled calls,
The moonlight snake its white fold lifts
  From where her shadow falls.

Ah me! I that delicate hand of hers,
  Now trembling like a reed.
Like to the ancient mariner’s
  Hath done a hellish deed;
And full of mercy were the frown
  Which might the power impart
To press the eternal darkness down
Against her bleeding heart.
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Submitted by halel on July 13, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

59 sec read
9

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCDEFEF XGXGAHAH IJIJKLKL MAMANANA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,130
Words 197
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 12, 8, 8, 8

Alice Cary

Alice Cary was an American poet, and the older sister of fellow poet Phoebe Cary. more…

All Alice Cary poems | Alice Cary Books

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