A Captive Throstle Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDD EEDDFGHHDDIIJJCCKKLL MMNNOOPP OOOQQIIRMSTUUIIVVWWD DDDII II RRRWWBBMMIIXYZZMMIIA 2A2IIB2B2C2 RR D2D2E2E2DDF2F2MMIIII DDPoor little mite with mottled breast | A |
Half fledged and fallen from the nest | A |
For whom this world hath just begun | B |
Who want to fly yet scarce can run | B |
Why open wide your yellow beak | C |
Is it for hunger or to speak | C |
To tell me that you fain would be | D |
Loosed from my hand to liberty | D |
- | |
Well you yourself decide your fate | E |
But be not too precipitate | E |
Which will you have If you agree | D |
To quit the lanes and lodge with me | D |
I promise you a bed more soft | F |
Even than that where you aloft | G |
First opened wondering eyes and found | H |
A world of green leaves all around | H |
When you awake you straight shall see | D |
A fresh turf green and velvety | D |
Well of clear water sifted seed | I |
All things in short that bird can need | I |
And gentle beings far more fair | J |
Than build on bough or skim through air | J |
When all without is wet and bleak | C |
Laying against your cage their cheek | C |
To make you pipe shall coax and coo | K |
And bud their pretty lips at you | K |
And when the clammy winter rain | L |
Drips from the roof and clouds the pane | L |
When windows creak and chimneys roar | M |
And beggars wail outside the door | M |
And stretch out fingers lank and thin | N |
You shall be safely housed within | N |
And through the wood fire's flickering glow | O |
Watch drifting leaves or driving snow | O |
Till Marian pulls the shutters up | P |
And you go sleep and I go sup | P |
- | |
But now suppose I let you go | O |
To rains that beat to winds that blow | O |
To heedless chance and prowling foe | O |
Mayhap this very day alas | Q |
You will be drowned in tangled grass | Q |
Or that escaped some slinking stoat | I |
May seize and suck your speckled throat | I |
Or hawk slow wheeling in the sky | R |
Your fluttering feeble wings descry | M |
And straightway downward flashing thence | S |
Relish and rend your innocence | T |
Should you survive and glad and strong | U |
Make autumn spring like with your song | U |
You will be lured the very first | I |
Where netted berries bulge and burst | I |
And by their guardian caught alive | V |
You may before I can arrive | V |
To bid him not be so unsparing | W |
Have paid the forfeit of your daring | W |
Time too will come there will not be | D |
Berry on bush or pod on tree | D |
Stripped be the hawthorn bare the holly | D |
And all the boughs drip melancholy | D |
And you will have to scrape for food | I |
Amid a frosty solitude | I |
- | |
Which shall it be Now quick decide | I |
Safety confined or peril wide | I |
- | |
Then did the little bird reply | R |
'Tis true as yet I scarce can fly | R |
But oh it is such joy to try | R |
Just as you came I was beginning | W |
To win my wings exult in winning | W |
To feel the promptings of the pinion | B |
The dawn of a divine dominion | B |
Over the empty air and over | M |
Fields of young wheat and breadths of clover | M |
Pledge of a power to scale some day | I |
My native elm tree's topmost spray | I |
And mid the leaves and branches warm | X |
Sing far beyond the reach of harm | Y |
And shall I barter gift like this | Z |
For doled out joy and measured bliss | Z |
For a trim couch and dainty fare | M |
Forfeit the freedom of the air | M |
Shall I exchange for punctual food | I |
April's sweet loves and summer's brood | I |
The dewy nest 'neath twinkling stars | A2 |
For crushing roof and cramping bars | A2 |
No Come what chance or foe that may | I |
Menace of death this very day | I |
The weasel's clutch the falcon's swoop | B2 |
What if these kill they do not coop | B2 |
Autumn's worst ambush winter's rage | C2 |
Are sweeter than the safest cage '' | - |
- | |
Off little mite I let you fly | R |
And do as I would be done by | R |
- | |
Nature within your heart hath sown | D2 |
A wisdom wiser than my own | D2 |
And from your choice I learn to prize | E2 |
The birth right of unbounded skies | E2 |
Delightful danger of being free | D |
Sweet sense of insecurity | D |
The privilege to risk one's all | F2 |
On being nor captive caged nor thrall | F2 |
The wish to range the wing to soar | M |
Past space behind through space before | M |
The ecstasy of unknown flight | I |
The doubt the danger the delight | I |
To range and roam unchained unvext | I |
Nor know what worlds will open next | I |
And since Death waits both caged and free | D |
To die at least of liberty | D |
Alfred Austin
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