Don Diego Of The South Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCB DDEEFF GGHHII JJKKLLMM NNOOJJ PPQQRR SSBCTUU VVWWXX YYNNZZA2A2 B2C2 D2E2E2F2F2G2KK XXCC H2H2I2J2K2K2 OOIIL2 M2M2N2XO2O2I2I2 YP2P2CBO2O2Good said the Padre believe me still | A |
Don Giovanni or what you will | A |
The type's eternal We knew him here | B |
As Don Diego del Sud I fear | C |
The story's no new one Will you hear | B |
- | |
One of those spirits you can't tell why | D |
God has permitted Therein I | D |
Have the advantage for I hold | E |
That wolves are sent to the purest fold | E |
And we'd save the wolf if we'd get the lamb | F |
You're no believer Good I am | F |
- | |
Well for some purpose I grant you dim | G |
The Don loved women and they loved him | G |
Each thought herself his last love Worst | H |
Many believed that they were his first | H |
And such are these creatures since the Fall | I |
The very doubt had a charm for all | I |
- | |
You laugh You are young but I indeed | J |
I have no patience To proceed | J |
You saw as you passed through the upper town | K |
The Eucinal where the road goes down | K |
To San Felipe There one morn | L |
They found Diego his mantle torn | L |
And as many holes through his doublet's band | M |
As there were wronged husbands you understand | M |
- | |
Dying so said the gossips Dead | N |
Was what the friars who found him said | N |
May be Quien sabe Who else should know | O |
It was a hundred years ago | O |
There was a funeral Small indeed | J |
Private What would you To proceed | J |
- | |
Scarcely the year had flown One night | P |
The Commandante awoke in fright | P |
Hearing below his casement's bar | Q |
The well known twang of the Don's guitar | Q |
And rushed to the window just to see | R |
His wife a swoon on the balcony | R |
- | |
One week later Don Juan Ramirez | S |
Found his own daughter the Dona Inez | S |
Pale as a ghost leaning out to hear | B |
The song of that phantom cavalier | C |
Even Alcalde Pedro Blas | T |
Saw it was said through his niece's glass | U |
The shade of Diego twice repass | U |
- | |
What these gentlemen each confessed | V |
Heaven and the Church only knows At best | V |
The case was a bad one How to deal | W |
With Sin as a Ghost they couldn't but feel | W |
Was an awful thing Till a certain Fray | X |
Humbly offered to show the way | X |
- | |
And the way was this Did I say before | Y |
That the Fray was a stranger No Se or | Y |
Strange very strange I should have said | N |
That the very week that the Don lay dead | N |
He came among us Bread he broke | Z |
Silent nor ever to one he spoke | Z |
So he had vowed it Below his brows | A2 |
His face was hidden There are such vows | A2 |
- | |
Strange are they not You do not use | B2 |
Snuff A bad habit | C2 |
- | |
Well the views | D2 |
Of the Fray were these that the penance done | E2 |
By the caballeros was right but one | E2 |
Was due from the cause and that in brief | F2 |
Was Dona Dolores Gomez chief | F2 |
And Inez Sanchicha Concepcion | G2 |
And Carmen well half the girls in town | K |
On his tablets the Friar had written down | K |
- | |
These were to come on a certain day | X |
And ask at the hands of the pious Fray | X |
For absolution That done small fear | C |
But the shade of Diego would disappear | C |
- | |
They came each knelt in her turn and place | H2 |
To the pious Fray with his hidden face | H2 |
And voiceless lips and each again | I2 |
Took back her soul freed from spot or stain | J2 |
Till the Dona Inez with eyes downcast | K2 |
And a tear on their fringes knelt her last | K2 |
- | |
And then perhaps that her voice was low | O |
From fear or from shame the monks said so | O |
But the Fray leaned forward when presto all | I |
Were thrilled by a scream and saw her fall | I |
Fainting beside the confessional | L2 |
- | |
And so was the ghost of Diego laid | M2 |
As the Fray had said Never more his shade | M2 |
Was seen at San Gabriel's Mission Eh | N2 |
The girl interests you I dare say | X |
Nothing said she when they brought her to | O2 |
Only a faintness They spoke more true | O2 |
Who said 'twas a stubborn soul But then | I2 |
Women are women and men are men | I2 |
- | |
So to return As I said before | Y |
Having got the wolf by the same high law | P2 |
We saved the lamb in the wolf's own jaw | P2 |
And that's my moral The tale I fear | C |
But poorly told Yet it strikes me here | B |
Is stuff for a moral What's your view | O2 |
You smile Don Pancho Ah that's like you | O2 |
Bret Harte (francis)
(1)
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