At The Long Sault: May, 1660 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDDCDE FEFGHIHJGHIDKDLLJDMD K NOONPQPRSRTQ GUUVWDVWDXXYZYA2DB2 PGGPC2D2RE2E2RC2D2 F2F2G2E2DDQH2Q RI2CI2 MJ2K2J2 L2DBD RM2L2M2Under the day long sun there is life and mirth | A |
In the working earth | A |
And the wonderful moon shines bright | B |
Through the soft spring night | B |
The innocent flowers in the limitless woods are springing | C |
Far and away | D |
With the sound and the perfume of May | D |
And ever up from the south the happy birds are winging | C |
The waters glitter and leap and play | D |
While the grey hawk soars | E |
- | |
But far in an open glade of the forest set | F |
Where the rapid plunges and roars | E |
Is a ruined fort with a name that men forget | F |
A shelterless pen | G |
With its broken palisade | H |
Behind it musket in hand | I |
Beyond message or aid | H |
In this savage heart of the wild | J |
Mere youngsters grown in a moment to men | G |
Grim and alert and arrayed | H |
The comrades of Daulac stand | I |
Ever before them night and day | D |
The rush and skulk and cry | K |
Of foes not men but devils panting for prey | D |
Behind them the sleepless dream | L |
Of the little frail walled town far away by the plunging stream | L |
Of maiden and matron and child | J |
With ruin and murder impending and none but they | D |
To beat back the gathering horror | M |
Deal death while they may | D |
And then die | K |
- | |
Day and night they have watched while the little plain | N |
Grew dark with the rush of the foe but their host | O |
Broke ever and melted away with no boast | O |
But to number their slain | N |
And now as the days renew | P |
Hunger and thirst and care | Q |
Were they never so stout so true | P |
Press at their hearts but none | R |
Falters or shrinks or utters a coward word | S |
Though each setting sun | R |
Brings from the pitiless wild new hands to the Iroquois horde | T |
And only to them despair | Q |
- | |
Silent white faced again and again | G |
Charged and hemmed round by furious hands | U |
Each for a moment faces them all and stands | U |
In his little desperate ring like a tired bull moose | V |
Whom scores of sleepless wolves a ravening pack | W |
Have chased all night all day | D |
Through the snow laden woods like famine let loose | V |
And he turns at last in his track | W |
Against a wall of rock and stands at bay | D |
Round him with terrible sinews and teeth of steel | X |
They charge and recharge but with many a furious plunge and wheel | X |
Hither and thither over the trampled snow | Y |
He tosses them bleeding and torn | Z |
Till driven and ever to and fro | Y |
Harried wounded and weary grown | A2 |
His mighty strength gives way | D |
And all together they fasten upon him and drag him down | B2 |
- | |
So Daulac turned him anew | P |
With a ringing cry to his men | G |
In the little raging forest glen | G |
And his terrible sword in the twilight whistled and slew | P |
And all his comrades stood | C2 |
With their backs to the pales and fought | D2 |
Till their strength was done | R |
The thews that were only mortal flagged and broke | E2 |
Each struck his last wild stroke | E2 |
And they fell one by one | R |
And the world that had seemed so good | C2 |
Passed like a dream and was naught | D2 |
- | |
And then the great night came | F2 |
With the triumph songs of the foe and the flame | F2 |
Of the camp fires | G2 |
Out of the dark the soft wind woke | E2 |
The song of the rapid rose alway | D |
And came to the spot where the comrades lay | D |
Beyond help or care | Q |
With none but the red men round them | H2 |
To gnash their teeth and stare | Q |
- | |
All night by the foot of the mountain | R |
The little town lieth at rest | I2 |
The sentries are peacefully pacing | C |
And neither from East nor from West | I2 |
- | |
Is there rumour of death or of danger | M |
None dreameth tonight in his bed | J2 |
That ruin was near and the heroes | K2 |
That met it and stemmed it are dead | J2 |
- | |
But afar in the ring of the forest | L2 |
Where the air is so tender with May | D |
And the waters are wild in the moonlight | B |
They lie in their silence of clay | D |
- | |
The numberless stars out of heaven | R |
Look down with a pitiful glance | M2 |
And the lilies asleep in the forest | L2 |
Are closed like the lilies of France | M2 |
Archibald Lampman
(1)
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