The Clergyman's Second Tale Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIII JJKLMMIICCNNIIOOPPII QQQRROSTTUUVVWWIIUUU PPXXWYRRZZZA2A2MMRB2 C2D2CIE2E2F2F2LLUUG2 G2GGIICCH2H2I2I2EEII PPIIIIIJRRIIIIIIIIII J2K2L2L2L2M2M2NNN2N2 O2O2IIIII2I2D2C2RRWW IICCIICCPPOOIIIAAEEI IPPYYIIP2P2H2H2Q2Q2K KKMMIIKKKR2R2S2S2S2B J2IIIIIICCNNNIIIIT2T 2U2U2IIINNV2V2RRROOS H2H2IILKKIIO2O2KKIII ICCCNNC2D2IIIIOSXXII IIAAW2W2CCX2X2A2A2A2 IY2IIH2H2Z2RIIAXX IINNIIIIA3A3X2X2 IIB3B3C3C3GGD3D3E3E3 IIO2O2BBF3F3IIII IIIXXG3

Edward and Jane a married couple were	A
And fonder she of him or he of her	A
Was hard to say their wedlock had begun	B
When in one year they both were twenty one	B
And friends who would not sanction left them free	C
He gentle born nor his inferior she	C
And neither rich to the newly wedded boy	D
A great Insurance Office found employ	D
Strong in their loves and hopes with joy they took	E
This narrow lot and the world's altered look	E
Beyond their home they nothing sought or craved	F
And even from the narrow income saved	F
Their busy days for no ennui had place	G
Neither grew weary of the other's face	G
Nine happy years had crowned their married state	H
With children one a little girl of eight	H
With nine industrious years his income grew	I
With his employers rose his favour too	I
Nine years complete had passed when something ailed	I
Friends and the doctors said his health had failed	I
He must recruit or worse would come to pass	J
And though to rest was hard for him alas	J
Three months of leave he found he could obtain	K
And go they said get well and work again	L
Just at this juncture of their married life	M
Her mother sickening begged to have his wife	M
Her house among the hills in Surrey stood	I
And to be there said Jane would do the children good	I
They let their house and with the children she	C
Went to her mother he beyond the sea	C
Far to the south his orders were to go	N
A watering place whose name we need not know	N
For climate and for change of scene was best	I
There he was bid laborious task to rest	I
A dismal thing in foreign lands to roam	O
To one accustomed to an English home	O
Dismal yet more in health if feeble grown	P
To live a boarder helpless and alone	P
In foreign town and worse yet worse is made	I
If 'tis a town of pleasure and parade	I
Dispiriting the public walks and seats	Q
The alien faces that an alien meets	Q
Drearily every day this old routine repeats	Q
Yet here this alien prospered change of air	R
Or change of scene did more than tenderest care	R
Three weeks were scarce completed to his home	O
He wrote to say he thought he now could come	S
His usual work was sure he could resume	T
And something said about the place's gloom	T
And how he loathed idling his time away	U
O but they wrote his wife and all to say	U
He must not think of it 'twas quite too quick	V
Let was their house her mother still was sick	V
Three months were given and three he ought to take	W
For his and her's and for his children's sake	W
He wrote again 'twas weariness to wait	I
This doing nothing was a thing to hate	I
He'd cast his nine laborious years away	U
And was as fresh as on his wedding day	U
At last he yielded feared he must obey	U
And now his health repaired his spirits grown	P
Less feeble less he cared to live alone	P
'Twas easier now to face the crowded shore	X
And table d'h te less tedious than before	X
His ancient silence sometimes he would break	W
And the mute Englishman was heard to speak	Y
His youthful colour soon his youthful air	R
Came back amongst the crowd of idlers there	R
With whom good looks entitle to good name	Z
For his good looks he gained a sort of fame	Z
People would watch him as he went and came	Z
Explain the tragic mystery who can	A2
Something there is we know not what in man	A2
With all established happiness at strife	M
And bent on revolution in his life	M
Explain the plan of Providence who dare	R
And tell us wherefore in this world there are	B2
Beings who seem for this alone to live	C2
Temptation to another soul to give	D2
A beauteous woman at the table d'h te	C
To try this English heart at least to note	I
This English countenance conceived the whim	E2
She sat exactly opposite to him	E2
Ere long he noticed with a vague surprise	F2
How every day on him she bent her eyes	F2
Soft and inquiring now they looked and then	L
Wholly withdrawn unnoticed came again	L
His shrunk aside and yet there came a day	U
Alas they did not wholly turn away	U
So beautiful her beauty was so strange	G2
And to his northern feeling such a change	G2
Her throat and neck Junonian in their grace	G
The blood just mantled in her southern face	G
Dark hair dark eyes and all the arts she had	I
With which some dreadful power adorns the bad	I
Bad women in their youth and young was she	C
Twenty perhaps at the utmost twenty three	C
And timid seemed and innocent of ill	H2
Her feelings went and came without her will	H2
You will not wish minutely to know all	I2
His efforts in the prospect of the fall	I2
He oscillated to and fro he took	E
High courage oft temptation from him shook	E
Compelled himself to virtuous thoughts and just	I
And as it were in ashes and in dust	I
Abhorred his thought But living thus alone	P
Of solitary tedium weary grown	P
From sweet society so long debarred	I
And fearing in his judgment to be hard	I
On her that he was sometimes off his guard	I
What wonder She relentless still pursued	I
Unmarked and tracked him in his solitude	I
And not in vain alas	J
The days went by and found him in the snare	R
But soon a letter full of tenderest care	R
Came from his wife the little daughter too	I
In a large hand the exercise was new	I
To her papa her love and kisses sent	I
Into his very heart and soul it went	I
Forth on the high and dusty road he sought	I
Some issue for the vortex of his thought	I
Returned packed up his things and ere the day	I
Descended was a hundred miles away	I
There are I know of course who lightly treat	I
Such slips we stumble we regain our feet	I
What can we do they say but hasten on	J2
And disregard it as a thing that's gone	K2
Many there are who in a case like this	L2
Would calm re seek their sweet domestic bliss	L2
Accept unshamed the wifely tender kiss	L2
And lift their little children on their knees	M2
And take their kisses too with hearts at ease	M2
Will read the household prayers to church will go	N
And sacrament nor care if people know	N
Such men so minded do exist God knows	N2
And God be thanked this was not one of those	N2
Late in the night at a provincial town	O2
In France a passing traveller was put down	O2
Haggard he looked his hair was turning grey	I
His hair his clothes were much in disarray	I
In a bedchamber here one day he stayed	I
Wrote letters posted them his reckoning paid	I
And went 'Twas Edward rushing from his fall	I2
Here to his wife he wrote and told her all	I2
Forgiveness yes perhaps she might forgive	D2
For her and for the children he must live	C2
At any rate but their old home to share	R
As yet was something that he could not bear	R
She with her mother still her home should make	W
A lodging near the office he should take	W
And once a quarter he would bring his pay	I
And he would see her on the quarter day	I
But her alone e'en this would dreadful be	C
The children 'twas not possible to see	C
Back to the office at this early day	I
To see him come old looking thus and grey	I
His comrades wondered wondered too to see	C
How dire a passion for his work had he	C
How in a garret too he lived alone	P
So cold a husband cold a father grown	P
In a green lane beside her mother's home	O
Where in old days they had been used to roam	O
His wife had met him on the appointed day	I
Fell on his neck said all that love could say	I
And wept he put the loving arms away	I
At dusk they met for so was his desire	A
She felt his cheeks and forehead all on fire	A
The kisses which she gave he could not brook	E
Once in her face he gave a sidelong look	E
Said but for them he wished that he were dead	I
And put the money in her hand and fled	I
Sometimes in easy and familiar tone	P
Of sins resembling more or less his own	P
He heard his comrades in the office speak	Y
And felt the colour tingling in his cheek	Y
Lightly they spoke as of a thing of nought	I
He of their judgment ne'er so much as thought	I
I know not in his solitary pains	P2
Whether he seemed to feel as in his veins	P2
The moral mischief circulating still	H2
Racked with the torture of the double will	H2
And like some frontier land where armies wage	Q2
The mighty wars engage and yet engage	Q2
All through the summer in the fierce campaign	K
March counter march gain lose and yet regain	K
With battle reeks the desolated plain	K
So felt his nature yielded to the strife	M
Of the contending good and ill of life	M
But a whole year this penance he endured	I
Nor even then would think that he was cured	I
Once in a quarter in the country lane	K
He met his wife and paid his quarter's gain	K
To bring the children she besought in vain	K
He has a life small happiness that gives	R2
Who friendless in a London lodging lives	R2
Dines in a dingy chop house and returns	S2
To a lone room while all within him yearns	S2
For sympathy and his whole nature burns	S2
With a fierce thirst for some one is there none	B
To expend his human tenderness upon	J2
So blank and hard and stony is the way	I
To walk I wonder not men go astray	I
Edward whom still a sense that never slept	I
On the strict path undeviating kept	I
One winter evening found himself pursued	I
Amidst the dusky thronging multitude	I
Quickly he walked but strangely swift was she	C
And pertinacious and would make him see	C
He saw at last and recognising slow	N
Discovered in this hapless thing of woe	N
The occasion of his shame twelve wretched months ago	N
She gaily laughed she cried and sought his hand	I
And spoke sweet phrases of her native land	I
Exiled she said her lovely home had left	I
Not to forsake a friend of all but her bereft	I
Exiled she cried for liberty for love	T2
She was still limpid eyes she turned above	T2
So beauteous once and now such misery in	U2
Pity had all but softened him to sin	U2
But while she talked and wildly laughed and cried	I
And plucked the hand which sadly he denied	I
A stranger came and swept her from his side	I
He watched them in the gas lit darkness go	N
And a voice said within him Even so	N
So midst the gloomy mansions where they dwell	V2
The lost souls walk the flaming streets of hell	V2
The lamps appeared to fling a baleful glare	R
A brazen heat was heavy in the air	R
And it was hell and he some unblest wanderer there	R
For a long hour he stayed the streets to roam	O
Late gathering sense he gained his garret home	O
There found a telegraph that bade him come	S
Straight to the country where his daughter still	H2
His darling child lay dangerously ill	H2
The doctor would he bring Away he went	I
And found the doctor to the office sent	I
A letter asking leave and went again	L
And with a wild confusion in his brain	K
Joining the doctor caught the latest train	K
The train swift whirled them from the city light	I
Into the shadows of the natural night	I
'Twas silent starry midnight on the down	O2
Silent and chill when they straight come from town	O2
Leaving the station walked a mile to gain	K
The lonely house amid the hills where Jane	K
Her mother and her children should be found	I
Waked by their entrance but of sleep unsound	I
The child not yet her altered father knew	I
Yet talked of her papa in her delirium too	I
Danger there was yet hope there was and he	C
To attend the crisis and the changes see	C
And take the steps at hand should surely be	C
Said Jane the following day 'Edward you know	N
Over and over I have told you so	N
As in a better world I seek to live	C2
As I desire forgiveness I forgive	D2
Forgiveness does not feel the word to say	I
As I believe in One who takes away	I
Our sin and gives us righteousness instead	I
You to this sin I do believe are dead	I
'Twas I you know who let you leave your home	O
And bade you stay when you so wished to come	S
My fault was that I've told you so before	X
And vainly told but now 'tis something more	X
Say is it right without a single friend	I
Without advice to leave me to attend	I
Children and mother both Indeed I've thought	I
Through want of you the child her fever caught	I
Chances of mischief come with every hour	A
It is not in a single woman's power	A
Alone and ever haunted more or less	W2
With anxious thoughts of you and your distress	W2
'Tis not indeed I'm sure of it in me	C
All things with perfect judgment to foresee	C
This weight has grown too heavy to endure	X2
And you I tell you now and I am sure	X2
Neglect your duty both to God and man	A2
Persisting thus in your unnatural plan	A2
This feeling you must conquer for you can	A2
And after all you know we are but dust	I
What are we in ourselves that we should trust '	Y2
He scarcely answered her but he obtained	I
A longer leave and quietly remained	I
Slowly the child recovered long was ill	H2
Long delicate and he must watch her still	H2
To give up seeing her he could not near	Z2
To leave her less attended did not dare	R
The child recovered slowly slowly too	I
Recovered he and more familiar drew	I
Home's happy breath and apprehension o'er	A
Their former life he yielded to restore	X
And to his mournful garret went no more	X
	-
Midnight was dim and hazy overhead	I
When the tale ended and we turned to bed	I
On the companion way descending slow	N
The artillery captain as we went below	N
Said to the lawyer life could not be meant	I
To be so altogether innocent	I
What did the atonement show he for the rest	I
Could not he thought have written and confessed	I
Weakness it was and adding crime to crime	A3
To leave his family that length of time	A3
The lawyer said the American was sure	X2
Each nature knows instinctively its cure	X2
	-
Midnight was in the cabin still and dead	I
Our fellow passengers were all in bed	I
We followed them and nothing further spoke	B3
Out of the sweetest of my sleep I woke	B3
At two and felt we stopped amid a dream	C3
Of England knew the letting off of steam	C3
And rose 'Twas fog and were we off Cape Race	G
The captain would be certain of his place	G
Wild in white vapour flew away the force	D3
And self arrested was the eager course	D3
That had not ceased before But shortly now	E3
Cape Race was made to starboard on the bow	E3
The paddles plied I slept The following night	I
In the mid seas we saw a quay and light	I
And peered through mist into an unseen town	O2
And on scarce seeming land set one companion down	O2
And went With morning and a shining sun	B
Under the bright New Brunswick coast we run	B
And visible discern to every eye	F3
Rocks pines and little ports and passing by	F3
The boats and coasting craft When sunk the night	I
Early now sunk the northern streamers bright	I
Floated and flashed the cliffs and clouds behind	I
With phosphorus the billows all were lined	I
	-
That evening while the arctic streamers bright	I
Rolled from the clouds in waves of airy light	I
The lawyer said 'I laid by for to night	I
A story that I would not tell before	X
For the last time a confidential four	X
We meet Receive in your elected ears	G3
A tale of human suffering and tears '	-

Arthur Hugh Clough

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