Nightmare: A Tale For An Autumn Evening Poem Rhyme Scheme

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After a Print by George Cruikshank	A
	-
	-
It was a gusty night	B
With the wind booming and swooping	C
Looping round corners	D
Sliding over the cobble stones	E
Whipping and veering	C
And careering over the roofs	F
Like a thousand clattering horses	G
Mr Spruggins had been dining in the city	H
Mr Spruggins was none too steady in his gait	I
And the wind played ball with Mr Spruggins	G
And laughed as it whistled past him	J
It rolled him along the street	K
With his little feet pit a patting on the flags of the sidewalk	L
And his muffler and his coat tails blown straight out behind him	J
It bumped him against area railings	G
And chuckled in his ear when he said Ouch	M
Sometimes it lifted him clear off his little patting feet	K
And bore him in triumph over three grey flagstones and a quarter	N
The moon dodged in and out of clouds winking	C
It was all very unpleasant for Mr Spruggins	G
And when the wind flung him hard against his own front door	O
It was a relief	P
Although the breath was quite knocked out of him	J
The gas lamp in front of the house flared up	Q
And the keyhole was as big as a barn door	O
The gas lamp flickered away to a sputtering blue star	R
And the keyhole went out with it	S
Such a stabbing and jabbing	C
And sticking and picking	C
And poking and pushing and prying	C
With that key	H
And there is no denying that Mr Spruggins rapped out an oath or two	T
Rub a dub dubbing them out to a real snare drum roll	U
But the door opened at last	V
And Mr Spruggins blew through it into his own hall	W
And slammed the door to so hard	X
That the knocker banged five times before it stopped	Y
Mr Spruggins struck a light and lit a candle	Z
And all the time the moon winked at him through the window	A2
Why couldn't you find the keyhole Spruggins	G
Taunted the wind	B2
I can find the keyhole	U
And the wind thin as a wire	N
Darted in and seized the candle flame	C2
And knocked it over to one side	D2
And pummelled it down down down	E2
But Mr Spruggins held the candle so close that it singed his chin	F2
And ran and stumbled up the stairs in a surprisingly agile manner	N
For the wind through the keyhole kept saying Spruggins Spruggins	G
behind him	J
The fire in his bedroom burned brightly	H
The room with its crimson bed and window curtains	G
Was as red and glowing as a carbuncle	H
It was still and warm	G2
There was no wind here for the windows were fastened	H2
And no moon	I2
For the curtains were drawn	J2
The candle flame stood up like a pointed pear	K2
In a wide brass dish	L2
Mr Spruggins sighed with content	M2
He was safe at home	N2
The fire glowed red and yellow roses	G
In the black basket of the grate	I
And the bed with its crimson hangings	G
Seemed a great peony	H
Wide open and placid	O2
Mr Spruggins slipped off his top coat and his muffler	N
He slipped off his bottle green coat	P2
And his flowered waistcoat	P2
He put on a flannel dressing gown	E2
And tied a peaked night cap under his chin	F2
He wound his large gold watch	Q2
And placed it under his pillow	H
Then he tiptoed over to the window and pulled back the curtain	R2
There was the moon dodging in and out of the clouds	G
But behind him was his quiet candle	H
There was the wind whisking along the street	P2
The window rattled but it was fastened	P2
Did the wind say Spruggins	G
All Mr Spruggins heard was S s s s s	G
Dying away down the street	P2
He dropped the curtain and got into bed	P2
Martha had been in the last thing with the warming pan	S2
The bed was warm	G2
And Mr Spruggins sank into feathers	G
With the familiar ticking of his watch just under his head	P2
Mr Spruggins dozed	P2
He had forgotten to put out the candle	H
But it did not make much difference as the fire was so bright	P2
Too bright	P2
The red and yellow roses pricked his eyelids	G
They scorched him back to consciousness	G
He tried to shift his position	R2
He could not move	T2
Something weighed him down	E2
He could not breathe	U2
He was gasping	C
Pinned down and suffocating	C
He opened his eyes	G
The curtains of the window were flung back	V2
The fire and the candle were out	P2
And the room was filled with green moonlight	P2
And pressed against the window pane	W2
Was a wide round face	G
Winking winking	C
Solemnly dropping one eyelid after the other	N
Tick tock went the watch under his pillow	H
Wink wink went the face at the window	H
It was not the fire roses which had pricked him	J
It was the winking eyes	G
Mr Spruggins tried to bounce up	Q
He could not because	G
His heart flapped up into his mouth	X2
And fell back dead	P2
On his chest was a fat pink pig	Y2
On the pig a blackamoor	N
With a ten pound weight for a cap	Z2
His mustachios kept curling up and down like angry snakes	G
And his eyes rolled round and round	P2
With the pupils coming into sight and disappearing	C
And appearing again on the other side	P2
The holsters at his saddle bow were two port bottles	G
And a curved table knife hung at his belt for a scimitar	N
While a fork and a keg of spirits were strapped to the saddle behind	P2
He dug his spurs into the pig	Y2
Which trampled and snorted	P2
And stamped its cloven feet deeper into Mr Spruggins	G
Then the green light on the floor began to undulate	P2
It heaved and hollowed	P2
It rose like a tide	P2
Sea green	A3
Full of claws and scales	G
And wriggles	G
The air above his bed began to move	T2
It weighed over him	J
In a mass of draggled feathers	G
Not one lifted to stir the air	N
They drooped and dripped	P2
With a smell of port wine and brandy	P2
Closing down slowly	P2
Trickling drops on the bed quilt	P2
Suddenly the window fell in with a great scatter of glass	G
And the moon burst into the room	B3
Sizzling S s s s s Spruggins Spruggins	G
It rolled toward him	J
A green ball of flame	C2
With two eyes in the center	N
A red eye and a yellow eye	C3
Dropping their lids slowly	P2
One after the other	N
Mr Spruggins tried to scream	D3
But the blackamoor	N
Leapt off his pig	Y2
With a cry	N
Drew his scimitar	N
And plunged it into Mr Spruggins's mouth	X2
	-
Mr Spruggins got up in the cold dawn	J2
And remade the fire	N
Then he crept back to bed	P2
By the light which seeped in under the window curtains	G
And lay there shivering	C
While the bells of St George the Martyr chimed the quarter after seven	R2

Amy Lowell

Nightmare: A Tale For An Autumn Evening Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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