Hugo's "pool in the forest"

Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)



How calm, how beauteous and how cool--
 How like a sister to the skies,
Appears the broad, transparent pool
 That in this quiet forest lies.
The sunshine ripples on its face,
 And from the world around, above,
It hath caught down the nameless grace
 Of such reflections as we love.

But deep below its surface crawl
 The reptile horrors of the night--
The dragons, lizards, serpents--all
 The hideous brood that hate the light;
Through poison fern and slimy weed
 And under ragged, jagged stones
They scuttle, or, in ghoulish greed,
 They lap a dead man's bleaching bones.

And as, O pool, thou dost cajole
 With seemings that beguile us well,
So doeth many a human soul
 That teemeth with the lusts of hell.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
69

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH IJIJ
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 695
Words 125
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 4

Eugene Field

Eugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. more…

All Eugene Field poems | Eugene Field Books

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    Who wrote the poem “Funeral Blues"?
    A Pablo Neruda
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    C Amy Clampitt
    D Victor Hugo