The Ballad Of Mr. Cooke Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABCCCB DDDBEEEB FFFBGHHB IIIBJJJB KK LLLB MMMBNNNB OOOBFFFB PQQBRSRB TTTBHHHB UUUBVVVB AAABWWWB XXXBYYYB ZZZBA2A2A2B B2B2B2BC2C2C2B AAABD2D2D2BWhere the sturdy ocean breeze | A |
Drives the spray of roaring seas | A |
That the Cliff House balconies | A |
Overlook | B |
There in spite of rain that balked | C |
With his sandals duly chalked | C |
Once upon a tight rope walked | C |
Mr Cooke | B |
- | |
But the jester's lightsome mien | D |
And his spangles and his sheen | D |
All had vanished when the scene | D |
He forsook | B |
Yet in some delusive hope | E |
In some vague desire to cope | E |
ONE still came to view the rope | E |
Walked by Cooke | B |
- | |
Amid Beauty's bright array | F |
On that strange eventful day | F |
Partly hidden from the spray | F |
In a nook | B |
Stood Florinda Vere de Vere | G |
Who with wind disheveled hair | H |
And a rapt distracted air | H |
Gazed on Cooke | B |
- | |
Then she turned and quickly cried | I |
To her lover at her side | I |
While her form with love and pride | I |
Wildly shook | B |
Clifford Snook oh hear me now | J |
Here I break each plighted vow | J |
There's but one to whom I bow | J |
And that's Cooke | B |
- | |
Haughtily that young man spoke | K |
I descend from noble folk | K |
'Seven Oaks ' and then 'Se'nnoak ' | - |
Lastly 'Snook ' | - |
Is the way my name I trace | L |
Shall a youth of noble race | L |
In affairs of love give place | L |
To a Cooke | B |
- | |
Clifford Snook I know thy claim | M |
To that lineage and name | M |
And I think I've read the same | M |
In Horne Tooke | B |
But I swear by all divine | N |
Never never to be thine | N |
Till thou canst upon yon line | N |
Walk like Cooke | B |
- | |
Though to that gymnastic feat | O |
He no closer might compete | O |
Than to strike a BALANCE sheet | O |
In a book | B |
Yet thenceforward from that day | F |
He his figure would display | F |
In some wild athletic way | F |
After Cooke | B |
- | |
On some household eminence | P |
On a clothes line or a fence | Q |
Over ditches drains and thence | Q |
O'er a brook | B |
He by high ambition led | R |
Ever walked and balanced | S |
Till the people wondering said | R |
How like Cooke | B |
- | |
Step by step did he proceed | T |
Nerved by valor not by greed | T |
And at last the crowning deed | T |
Undertook | B |
Misty was the midnight air | H |
And the cliff was bleak and bare | H |
When he came to do and dare | H |
Just like Cooke | B |
- | |
Through the darkness o'er the flow | U |
Stretched the line where he should go | U |
Straight across as flies the crow | U |
Or the rook | B |
One wild glance around he cast | V |
Then he faced the ocean blast | V |
And he strode the cable last | V |
Touched by Cooke | B |
- | |
Vainly roared the angry seas | A |
Vainly blew the ocean breeze | A |
But alas the walker's knees | A |
Had a crook | B |
And before he reached the rock | W |
Did they both together knock | W |
And he stumbled with a shock | W |
Unlike Cooke | B |
- | |
Downward dropping in the dark | X |
Like an arrow to its mark | X |
Or a fish pole when a shark | X |
Bites the hook | B |
Dropped the pole he could not save | Y |
Dropped the walker and the wave | Y |
Swift engulfed the rival brave | Y |
Of J Cooke | B |
- | |
Came a roar across the sea | Z |
Of sea lions in their glee | Z |
In a tongue remarkably | Z |
Like Chinook | B |
And the maddened sea gull seemed | A2 |
Still to utter as he screamed | A2 |
Perish thus the wretch who deemed | A2 |
Himself Cooke | B |
- | |
But on misty moonlit nights | B2 |
Comes a skeleton in tights | B2 |
Walks once more the giddy heights | B2 |
He mistook | B |
And unseen to mortal eyes | C2 |
Purged of grosser earthly ties | C2 |
Now at last in spirit guise | C2 |
Outdoes Cooke | B |
- | |
Still the sturdy ocean breeze | A |
Sweeps the spray of roaring seas | A |
Where the Cliff House balconies | A |
Overlook | B |
And the maidens in their prime | D2 |
Reading of this mournful rhyme | D2 |
Weep where in the olden time | D2 |
Walked J Cooke | B |
Bret Harte
(1)
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