Friar Pedro's Ride Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABABCD EFEFEFFB GHGHGHCC IHIHIHBB CDCDCDCC BGBGBGBB BBBBBBCC DHDHDHBB JBJBJBCB KCKBLBBB DMDMDMHH BBBBBBCB BNBNBNOO CDCDCDBB BPBQBQCC BCBCBCHH CHCHCHBB QDQDQDCC BGBGBGCC DQQQQQBB

It was the morning season of the yearA
It was the morning era of the landB
The watercourses rang full loud and clearA
Portala's cross stood where Portala's handB
Had planted it when Faith was taught by FearA
When monks and missions held the sole commandB
Of all that shore beside the peaceful seaC
Where spring tides beat their long drawn reveilleD
-
Out of the mission of San Luis ReyE
All in that brisk tumultuous spring weatherF
Rode Friar Pedro in a pious wayE
With six dragoons in cuirasses of leatherF
Each armed alike for either prayer or frayE
Handcuffs and missals they had slung togetherF
And as an aid the gospel truth to scatterF
Each swung a lasso alias a riataB
-
In sooth that year the harvest had been slackG
The crop of converts scarce worth computationH
Some souls were lost whose owners had turned backG
To save their bodies frequent flagellationH
And some preferred the songs of birds alackG
To Latin matins and their souls' salvationH
And thought their own wild whoopings were less drearyC
Than Father Pedro's droning miserereC
-
To bring them back to matins and to primeI
To pious works and secular submissionH
To prove to them that liberty was crimeI
This was in fact the Padre's present missionH
To get new souls perchance at the same timeI
And bring them to a sense of their conditionH
That easy phrase which in the past and presentB
Means making that condition most unpleasantB
-
He saw the glebe land guiltless of a furrowC
He saw the wild oats wrestle on the hillD
He saw the gopher working in his burrowC
He saw the squirrel scampering at his willD
He saw all this and felt no doubt a thoroughC
And deep conviction of God's goodness stillD
He failed to see that in His glory HeC
Yet left the humblest of His creatures freeC
-
He saw the flapping crow whose frequent noteB
Voiced the monotony of land and skyG
Mocking with graceless wing and rusty coatB
His priestly presence as he trotted byG
He would have cursed the bird by bell and roteB
But other game just then was in his eyeG
A savage camp whose occupants preferredB
Their heathen darkness to the living WordB
-
He rang his bell and at the martial soundB
Twelve silver spurs their jingling rowels clashedB
Six horses sprang across the level groundB
As six dragoons in open order dashedB
Above their heads the lassos circled roundB
In every eye a pious fervor flashedB
They charged the camp and in one moment moreC
They lassoed six and reconverted fourC
-
The Friar saw the conflict from a knollD
And sang Laus Deo and cheered on his menH
Well thrown Bautista that's another soulD
After him Gomez try it once againH
This way Felipe there the heathen stoleD
Bones of St Francis surely that makes TENH
Te Deum laudamus but they're very wildB
Non nobis Domine all right my childB
-
When at that moment as the story goesJ
A certain squaw who had her foes eludedB
Ran past the Friar just before his noseJ
He stared a moment and in silence broodedB
Then in his breast a pious frenzy roseJ
And every other prudent thought excludedB
He caught a lasso and dashed in a canterC
After that Occidental AtalantaB
-
High o'er his head he swirled the dreadful nooseK
But as the practice was quite unfamiliarC
His first cast tore Felipe's captive looseK
And almost choked Tiburcio CamillaB
And might have interfered with that brave youth'sL
Ability to gorge the tough tortillaB
But all things come by practice and at lastB
His flying slip knot caught the maiden fastB
-
Then rose above the plain a mingled yellD
Of rage and triumph a demoniac whoopM
The Padre heard it like a passing knellD
And would have loosened his unchristian loopM
But the tough raw hide held the captive wellD
And held alas too well the captor dupeM
For with one bound the savage fled amainH
Dragging horse Friar down the lonely plainH
-
Down the arroyo out across the meadB
By heath and hollow sped the flying maidB
Dragging behind her still the panting steedB
And helpless Friar who in vain essayedB
To cut the lasso or to check his speedB
He felt himself beyond all human aidB
And trusted to the saints and for that matterC
To some weak spot in Felipe's riataB
-
Alas the lasso had been duly blessedB
And like baptism held the flying wretchN
A doctrine that the priest had oft expressedB
Which like the lasso might be made to stretchN
But would not break so neither could divestB
Themselves of it but like some awful fetchN
The holy Friar had to recognizeO
The image of his fate in heathen guiseO
-
He saw the glebe land guiltless of a furrowC
He saw the wild oats wrestle on the hillD
He saw the gopher standing in his burrowC
He saw the squirrel scampering at his willD
He saw all this and felt no doubt how thoroughC
The contrast was to his condition stillD
The squaw kept onward to the sea till nightB
And the cold sea fog hid them both from sightB
-
The morning came above the serried coastB
Lighting the snow peaks with its beacon firesP
Driving before it all the fleet winged hostB
Of chattering birds above the Mission spiresQ
Filling the land with light and joy but mostB
The savage woods with all their leafy lyresQ
In pearly tints and opal flame and fireC
The morning came but not the holy FriarC
-
Weeks passed away In vain the Fathers soughtB
Some trace or token that might tell his storyC
Some thought him dead or like Elijah caughtB
Up to the heavens in a blaze of gloryC
In this surmise some miracles were wroughtB
On his account and souls in purgatoryC
Were thought to profit from his intercessionH
In brief his absence made a deep impressionH
-
A twelvemonth passed the welcome Spring once moreC
Made green the hills beside the white faced MissionH
Spread her bright dais by the western shoreC
And sat enthroned a most resplendent visionH
The heathen converts thronged the chapel doorC
At morning mass when says the old traditionH
A frightful whoop throughout the church resoundedB
And to their feet the congregation boundedB
-
A tramp of hoofs upon the beaten courseQ
Then came a sight that made the bravest quailD
A phantom Friar on a spectre horseQ
Dragged by a creature decked with horns and tailD
By the lone Mission with the whirlwind's forceQ
They madly swept and left a sulphurous trailD
And that was all enough to tell the storyC
And leave unblessed those souls in purgatoryC
-
And ever after on that fatal dayB
That Friar Pedro rode abroad lassoingG
A ghostly couple came and went awayB
With savage whoop and heathenish hallooingG
Which brought discredit on San Luis ReyB
And proved the Mission's ruin and undoingG
For ere ten years had passed the squaw and FriarC
Performed to empty walls and fallen spireC
-
The Mission is no more upon its wallD
The golden lizards slip or breathless pauseQ
Still as the sunshine brokenly that fallsQ
Through crannied roof and spider webs of gauzeQ
No more the bell its solemn warning callsQ
A holier silence thrills and overawesQ
And the sharp lights and shadows of to dayB
Outline the Mission of San Luis ReyB

Bret Harte



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