Pilgrims at Terror Creek

“There is no effort on my brow,

  I do not strive,* I do not weep;

I rush with the swift spheres and glow

  In joy, and when I will, I sleep.”

     ~ Matthew Arnold [speaking in the voice of Nature], Mortality

Decaffeinated nature lovers feel

(And do not think) that nature doesn’t strain;

It does not have to struggle; yet the real,

Harsh truth is nature’s elements know pain

To nth and inconceivable degrees.

The pain in earthquakes and tsunamis comes

To others, not to nature.  Fox cubs freeze

But nature doesn’t feel.  Destruction thrums

Throughout our world and through the universe,

In galaxies that chomp each other, whales

That chomp and swallow, all in tortures worse

Than Vlad’s, huge stabs for those whom he impales.

  This Vlad is part of Nature.  Don’t forget

    That, Nature Lovers. He is Nature’s threat.

…

* N.B.  Arnold could not bring himself to put in the effort to write correctly rhyming and correctly rhythmical verse.  Having said that, I now explain that occasionally the “matter” in a poem (its subject matter) is so intensely cruel that, yes, it might cause the rhythm of that cruel part of the poem to go wonky.  I fail to see, however, why it should cause disruption of pure rhyme.