The Bothie Of Tober-na-vuolich Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BC D EFDBFDDBCEFEFAAFGDFH DDDIDDCDDFDDJEDDKFBB DCDFEKDAKDDBDBKBELAD FFDBBDDFDCEKEKFKDFDE B AFD FBBCCDBLFDBFFCBBBEDB FFDBFCBMNBBBFFFACDDB FBBDCOBKCDFDDBEBFDDA ABBDBCEEFEECECFFCEEF ACNEAFEEACCCFN| A Long Vacation Pastoral | A |
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| Nunc formosissimus annus | B |
| Ite me felix quondam pecus ite camen | C |
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| Socii cratera coronant | D |
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| It was the afternoon and the sports were now at the ending | E |
| Long had the stone been put tree cast and thrown the hammer | F |
| Up the perpendicular hill Sir Hector so called it | D |
| Eight stout gillies had run with speed and agility wondrous | B |
| Run too the course on the level had been the leaping was over | F |
| Last in the show of dress a novelty recently added | D |
| Noble ladies their prizes adjudged for costume that was perfect | D |
| Turning the clansmen about as they stood with upraised elbows | B |
| Bowing their eye glassed brows and fingering kilt and sporran | C |
| It was four of the clock and the sports were come to the ending | E |
| Therefore the Oxford party went off to adorn for the dinner | F |
| Be it recorded in song who was first who last in dressing | E |
| Hope was first black tied white waistcoated simple His Honour | F |
| For the postman made out he was heir to the earldom of Ilay | A |
| Being the younger son of the younger brother the Colonel | A |
| Treated him therefore with special respect doffed bonnet and ever | F |
| Called him His Honour His Honour he therefore was at the cottage | G |
| Always His Honour at least sometimes the Viscount of Day | D |
| Hope was first His Honour and next to His Honour the Tutor | F |
| Still more plain the Tutor the grave man nicknamed Adam | H |
| White tied clerical silent with antique square cut waistcoat | D |
| Formal unchanged of black cloth but with sense and feeling beneath it | D |
| Skilful in Ethics and Logic in Pindar and Poets unrivalled | D |
| Shady in Latin said Lindsay but topping in Plays and Aldrich | I |
| Somewhat more splendid in dress in a waistcoat work of a lady | D |
| Lindsay succeeded the lively the cheery cigar loving Lindsay | D |
| Lindsay the ready of speech the Piper the Dialectician | C |
| This was his title from Adam because of the words he invented | D |
| Who in three weeks had created a dialect new for the party | D |
| This was his title from Adam but mostly they called him the Piper | F |
| Lindsay succeeded the lively the cheery cigar loving Lindsay | D |
| Hewson and Hobbes were down at the matutine bathing of course too | D |
| Arthur the bather of bathers par excellence Audley by surname | J |
| Arthur they called him for love and for euphony they had been bathing | E |
| Where in the morning was custom where over a ledge of granite | D |
| Into a granite basin the amber torrent descended | D |
| Only a step from the cottage the road and larches between them | K |
| Hewson and Hobbes followed quick upon Adam on them followed Arthur | F |
| Airlie descended the last effulgent as god of Olympus | B |
| Blue perceptibly blue was the coat that had white silk facings | B |
| Waistcoat blue coral buttoned the white tie finely adjusted | D |
| Coral moreover the studs on a shirt as of crochet of women | C |
| When the fourwheel for ten minutes already had stood at the gateway | D |
| He like a god came leaving his ample Olympian chamber | F |
| And in the fourwheel they drove to the place of the clansmen's meeting | E |
| So in the fourwheel they came and Donald the innkeeper showed them | K |
| Up to the barn where the dinner should be Four tables were in it | D |
| Two at the top and the bottom a little upraised from the level | A |
| These for Chairman and Croupier and gentry fit to be with them | K |
| Two lengthways in the midst for keeper and gillie and peasant | D |
| Here were clansmen many in kilt and bonnet assembled | D |
| Keepers a dozen at least the Marquis's targeted gillies | B |
| Pipers five or six among them the young one the drunkard | D |
| Many with silver brooches and some with those brilliant crystals | B |
| Found amid granite dust on the frosty scalp of the Cairn Gorm | K |
| But with snuff boxes all and all of them using the boxes | B |
| Here too were Catholic Priest and Established Minister standing | E |
| Catholic Priest for many still clung to the Ancient Worship | L |
| And Sir Hector's father himself had built them a chapel | A |
| So stood Priest and Minister near to each other but silent | D |
| One to say grace before the other after the dinner | F |
| Hither anon too came the shrewd ever ciphering Factor | F |
| Hither anon the Attach the Guardsman mute and stately | D |
| Hither from lodge and bothie in all the adjoining shootings | B |
| Members of Parliament many forgetful of votes and blue books | B |
| Here amid heathery hills upon beast and bird of the forest | D |
| Venting the murderous spleen of the endless Railway Committee | D |
| Hither the Marquis of Ayr and Dalgarnish Earl and Croupier | F |
| And at their side amid murmurs of welcome long looked for himself too | D |
| Eager the grey but boy hearted Sir Hector the Chief and the Chairman | C |
| Then was the dinner served and the Minister prayed for a blessing | E |
| And to the viands before them with knife and with fork they beset them | K |
| Venison the red and the roe with mutton and grouse succeeding | E |
| Such was the feast with whisky of course and at top and bottom | K |
| Small decanters of sherry not overchoice for the gentry | F |
| So to the viands before them with laughter and chat they beset them | K |
| And when on flesh and on fowl had appetite duly been sated | D |
| Up rose the Catholic Priest and returned God thanks for the dinner | F |
| Then on all tables were set black bottles of well mixed toddy | D |
| And with the bottles and glasses before them they sat digesting | E |
| Talking enjoying but chiefly awaiting the toasts and speeches | B |
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| Spare me O great Recollection for words to the task were unequal | A |
| Spare me O mistress of Song nor bid me remember minutely | F |
| All that was said and done o'er the well mixed tempting toddy | D |
| How were healths proposed and drunk 'with all the honours ' | - |
| Glasses and bonnets waving and three times three thrice over | F |
| Queen and Prince and Army and Landlords all and Keepers | B |
| Bid me not grammar defying repeat from grammar defiers | B |
| Long constructions strange and plusquam Thucydidean | C |
| Tell how as sudden torrent in time of speat in the mountain | C |
| Hurries six ways at once and takes at last to the roughest | D |
| Or as the practised rider at Astley's or Franconi's | B |
| Skilfully boldly bestrides many steeds at once in the gallop | L |
| Crossing from this to that with one leg here one yonder | F |
| So less skilful but equally bold and wild as the torrent | D |
| All through sentences six at a time unsuspecting of syntax | B |
| Hurried the lively good will and garrulous tale of Sir Hector | F |
| Left to oblivion be it the memory faithful as ever | F |
| How the Marquis of Ayr with wonderful gesticulation | C |
| Floundering on through game and mess room recollections | B |
| Gossip of neighbouring forest praise of targeted gillies | B |
| Anticipation of royal visit skits at pedestrians | B |
| Swore he would never abandon his country nor give up deer stalking | E |
| How too more brief and plainer in spite of the Gaelic accent | D |
| Highland peasants gave courteous answer to flattering nobles | B |
| Two orations alone the memorial song will render | F |
| For at the banquet's close spake thus the lively Sir Hector | F |
| Somewhat husky with praises exuberant often repeated | D |
| Pleasant to him and to them of the gallant Highland soldiers | B |
| Whom he erst led in the fight something husky but ready though weary | F |
| Up to them rose and spoke the grey but gladsome chieftain | C |
| Fill up your glasses my friends once more With all the honours | B |
| There was a toast I forgot which our gallant Highland homes have | M |
| Always welcomed the stranger delighted I may say to see such | N |
| Fine young men at my table My friends are you ready the Strangers | B |
| Gentlemen here are your healths and I wish you With all the honours | B |
| So he said and the cheers ensued and all the honours | B |
| All our Collegians were bowed to the Attach detecting His Honour | F |
| Guardsman moving to Arthur and Marquis sidling to Airlie | F |
| And the small Piper below getting up and nodding to Lindsay | F |
| But while the healths were being drunk was much tribulation and trouble | A |
| Nodding and beckoning across observed of Attach and Guardsman | C |
| Adam wouldn't speak indeed it was certain he couldn't | D |
| Hewson could and would if they wished Philip Hewson a poet | D |
| Hewson a radical hot hating lords and scorning ladies | B |
| Silent mostly but often reviling in fire and fury | F |
| Feudal tenures mercantile lords competition and bishops | B |
| Liveries armorial bearings amongst other matters the Game laws | B |
| He could speak and was asked to by Adam but Lindsay aloud cried | D |
| Whisky was hot in his brain Confound it no not Hewson | C |
| A'nt he cock sure to bring in his eternal political humbug | O |
| However so it must be and after due pause of silence | B |
| Waving his hand to Lindsay and smiling oddly to Adam | K |
| Up to them rose and spoke the poet and radical Hewson | C |
| I am I think perhaps the most perfect stranger present | D |
| I have not as have some of my friends in my veins some tincture | F |
| Some few ounces of Scottish blood no nothing like it | D |
| I am therefore perhaps the fittest to answer and thank you | D |
| So I thank you sir for myself and for my companions | B |
| Heartily thank you all for this unexpected greeting | E |
| All the more welcome as showing you do not account us intruders | B |
| Are not unwilling to see the north and the south forgather | F |
| And surely seldom have Scotch and English more thoroughly mingled | D |
| Scarcely with warmer hearts and clearer feeling of manhood | D |
| Even in tourney and foray and fray and regular battle | A |
| Where the life and the strength came out in the tug and tussle | A |
| Scarcely where man met man and soul encountered with soul as | B |
| Close as do the bodies and twining limbs of the wrestlers | B |
| When for a final bout are a day's two champions mated | D |
| In the grand old times of bows and bills and claymores | B |
| At the old Flodden field or Bannockburn or Culloden | C |
| And he paused a moment for breath and because of some cheering | E |
| We are the better friends I fancy for that old fighting | E |
| Better friends inasmuch as we know each other the better | F |
| We can now shake hands without pretending or shuffling | E |
| On this passage followed a great tornado of cheering | E |
| Tables were rapped feet stamped a glass or two got broken | C |
| He ere the cheers died wholly away and while still there was stamping | E |
| Added in altered voice with a smile his doubtful conclusion | C |
| I have however less claim than others perhaps to this honour | F |
| For let me say I am neither game keeper nor game preserver | F |
| So he said and sat down but his satire had not been taken | C |
| Only the men who were all on their legs as concerned in the thanking | E |
| Were a trifle confused but mostly sat down without laughing | E |
| Lindsay alone close facing the chair shook his fist at the speaker | F |
| Only a Liberal member away at the end of the table | A |
| Started remembering sadly the cry of a coming election | C |
| Only the Attach glanced at the Guardsman who twirled his moustachio | N |
| Only the Marquis faced round but not quite clear of the meaning | E |
| Joined with the joyous Sir Hector who lustily beat on the table | A |
| And soon after the chairman arose and the feast was over | F |
| Now should the barn be cleared and forthwith adorned for the dancing | E |
| And to make way for this purpose the tutor and pupils retiring | E |
| Were by the chieftain addressed and invited to come to the castle | A |
| But ere the door way they quitted a thin man clad as the Saxon | C |
| Trouser and cap and jacket of homespun blue hand woven | C |
| Singled out and said with determined accent to Hewson | C |
| Touching his arm Young man if ye pass through the Braes o' Lochaber | F |
| See by the loch side ye come to the Bothie of Tober na vuolich | N |
Arthur Hugh Clough
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