The Lost Galleon Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCC DDEEFGFGHHAA CCBBIIJIJKLLMM NNOPQQQAAARRSTST IIUUVVWWXXEEAHHYZZ CCWWA2A2AAB2B2CC IIC2C2 GGD2D2D2D2 D2D2OOCCD2D2D2D2CCWW D2D2CCCC D2D2OOE2E2D2D2 OOOOOWWD2D2DDDMM OOWWD2D2D2D2D2D2 D2D2D2D2D2D2D2D2F2F2 D2D2 D2D2OOD2D2OOOOD2G2G2 H2I2H2I2D2D2 J2A2J2A2D2D2| In sixteen hundred and forty one | A |
| The regular yearly galleon | A |
| Laden with odorous gums and spice | B |
| India cottons and India rice | B |
| And the richest silks of far Cathay | C |
| Was due at Acapulco Bay | C |
| - | |
| Due she was and overdue | D |
| Galleon merchandise and crew | D |
| Creeping along through rain and shine | E |
| Through the tropics under the line | E |
| The trains were waiting outside the walls | F |
| The wives of sailors thronged the town | G |
| The traders sat by their empty stalls | F |
| And the Viceroy himself came down | G |
| The bells in the tower were all a trip | H |
| Te Deums were on each Father's lip | H |
| The limes were ripening in the sun | A |
| For the sick of the coming galleon | A |
| - | |
| All in vain Weeks passed away | C |
| And yet no galleon saw the bay | C |
| India goods advanced in price | B |
| The Governor missed his favorite spice | B |
| The Se oritas mourned for sandal | I |
| And the famous cottons of Coromandel | I |
| And some for an absent lover lost | J |
| And one for a husband Dona Julia | I |
| Wife of the captain tempest tossed | J |
| In circumstances so peculiar | K |
| Even the Fathers unawares | L |
| Grumbled a little at their prayers | L |
| And all along the coast that year | M |
| Votive candles were scarce and dear | M |
| - | |
| Never a tear bedims the eye | N |
| That time and patience will not dry | N |
| Never a lip is curved with pain | O |
| That can't be kissed into smiles again | P |
| And these same truths as far as I know | Q |
| Obtained on the coast of Mexico | Q |
| More than two hundred years ago | Q |
| In sixteen hundred and fifty one | A |
| Ten years after the deed was done | A |
| And folks had forgotten the galleon | A |
| The divers plunged in the gulf for pearls | R |
| White as the teeth of the Indian girls | R |
| The traders sat by their full bazaars | S |
| The mules with many a weary load | T |
| And oxen dragging their creaking cars | S |
| Came and went on the mountain road | T |
| - | |
| Where was the galleon all this while | I |
| Wrecked on some lonely coral isle | I |
| Burnt by the roving sea marauders | U |
| Or sailing north under secret orders | U |
| Had she found the Anian passage famed | V |
| By lying Maldonado claimed | V |
| And sailed through the sixty fifth degree | W |
| Direct to the North Atlantic Sea | W |
| Or had she found the River of Kings | X |
| Of which De Fonte told such strange things | X |
| In sixteen forty Never a sign | E |
| East or west or under the line | E |
| They saw of the missing galleon | A |
| Never a sail or plank or chip | H |
| They found of the long lost treasure ship | H |
| Or enough to build a tale upon | Y |
| But when she was lost and where and how | Z |
| Are the facts we're coming to just now | Z |
| - | |
| Take if you please the chart of that day | C |
| Published at Madrid por el Rey | C |
| Look for a spot in the old South Sea | W |
| The hundred and eightieth degree | W |
| Longitude west of Madrid there | A2 |
| Under the equatorial glare | A2 |
| Just where the east and west are one | A |
| You'll find the missing galleon | A |
| You'll find the San Gregorio yet | B2 |
| Riding the seas with sails all set | B2 |
| Fresh as upon the very day | C |
| She sailed from Acapulco Bay | C |
| - | |
| How did she get there What strange spell | I |
| Kept her two hundred years so well | I |
| Free from decay and mortal taint | C2 |
| What but the prayers of a patron saint | C2 |
| - | |
| A hundred leagues from Manilla town | G |
| The San Gregorio's helm came down | G |
| Round she went on her heel and not | D2 |
| A cable's length from a galliot | D2 |
| That rocked on the waters just abreast | D2 |
| Of the galleon's course which was west sou' west | D2 |
| - | |
| Then said the galleon's commandante | D2 |
| General Pedro Sobriente | D2 |
| That was his rank on land and main | O |
| A regular custom of Old Spain | O |
| My pilot is dead of scurvy may | C |
| I ask the longitude time and day | C |
| The first two given and compared | D2 |
| The third the commandante stared | D2 |
| The first of June I make it second | D2 |
| Said the stranger Then you've wrongly reckoned | D2 |
| I make it first as you came this way | C |
| You should have lost d'ye see a day | C |
| Lost a day as plainly see | W |
| On the hundred and eightieth degree | W |
| Lost a day Yes if not rude | D2 |
| When did you make east longitude | D2 |
| On the ninth of May our patron's day | C |
| On the ninth You had no ninth of May | C |
| Eighth and tenth was there but stay | C |
| Too late for the galleon bore away | C |
| - | |
| Lost was the day they should have kept | D2 |
| Lost unheeded and lost unwept | D2 |
| Lost in a way that made search vain | O |
| Lost in a trackless and boundless main | O |
| Lost like the day of Job's awful curse | E2 |
| In his third chapter third and fourth verse | E2 |
| Wrecked was their patron's only day | D2 |
| What would the holy Fathers say | D2 |
| - | |
| Said the Fray Antonio Estavan | O |
| The galleon's chaplain a learned man | O |
| Nothing is lost that you can regain | O |
| And the way to look for a thing is plain | O |
| To go where you lost it back again | O |
| Back with your galleon till you see | W |
| The hundred and eightieth degree | W |
| Wait till the rolling year goes round | D2 |
| And there will the missing day be found | D2 |
| For you'll find if computation's true | D |
| That sailing East will give to you | D |
| Not only one ninth of May but two | D |
| One for the good saint's present cheer | M |
| And one for the day we lost last year | M |
| - | |
| Back to the spot sailed the galleon | O |
| Where for a twelvemonth off and on | O |
| The hundred and eightieth degree | W |
| She rose and fell on a tropic sea | W |
| But lo when it came to the ninth of May | D2 |
| All of a sudden becalmed she lay | D2 |
| One degree from that fatal spot | D2 |
| Without the power to move a knot | D2 |
| And of course the moment she lost her way | D2 |
| Gone was her chance to save that day | D2 |
| - | |
| To cut a lengthening story short | D2 |
| She never saved it Made the sport | D2 |
| Of evil spirits and baffling wind | D2 |
| She was always before or just behind | D2 |
| One day too soon or one day too late | D2 |
| And the sun meanwhile would never wait | D2 |
| She had two Eighths as she idly lay | D2 |
| Two Tenths but never a Ninth of May | D2 |
| And there she rides through two hundred years | F2 |
| Of dreary penance and anxious fears | F2 |
| Yet through the grace of the saint she served | D2 |
| Captain and crew are still preserved | D2 |
| - | |
| By a computation that still holds good | D2 |
| Made by the Holy Brotherhood | D2 |
| The San Gregorio will cross that line | O |
| In nineteen hundred and thirty nine | O |
| Just three hundred years to a day | D2 |
| From the time she lost the ninth of May | D2 |
| And the folk in Acapulco town | O |
| Over the waters looking down | O |
| Will see in the glow of the setting sun | O |
| The sails of the missing galleon | O |
| And the royal standard of Philip Rey | D2 |
| The gleaming mast and glistening spar | G2 |
| As she nears the surf of the outer bar | G2 |
| A Te Deum sung on her crowded deck | H2 |
| An odor of spice along the shore | I2 |
| A crash a cry from a shattered wreck | H2 |
| And the yearly galleon sails no more | I2 |
| In or out of the olden bay | D2 |
| For the blessed patron has found his day | D2 |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| Such is the legend Hear this truth | J2 |
| Over the trackless past somewhere | A2 |
| Lie the lost days of our tropic youth | J2 |
| Only regained by faith and prayer | A2 |
| Only recalled by prayer and plaint | D2 |
| Each lost day has its patron saint | D2 |
Bret Harte (francis)
(1)
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