The Willows Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBBBBBBB CDDCDDCDCD BBBBBBBBB EFFEFEFEF GBBGBGBBGBGB BEEBEBEBEE BHHEHHBHIH BBBBBBBBBBBBBAfter Edgar Allan Poe | A |
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The skies they were ashen and sober | B |
The streets they were dirty and drear | B |
It was night in the month of October | B |
Of my most immemorial year | B |
Like the skies I was perfectly sober | B |
As I stopped at the mansion of Shear | B |
At the Nightingale perfectly sober | B |
And the willowy woodland down here | B |
- | |
Here once in an alley Titanic | C |
Of Ten pins I roamed with my soul | D |
Of Ten pins with Mary my soul | D |
They were days when my heart was volcanic | C |
And impelled me to frequently roll | D |
And made me resistlessly roll | D |
Till my ten strikes created a panic | C |
In the realms of the Boreal pole | D |
Till my ten strikes created a panic | C |
With the monkey atop of his pole | D |
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I repeat I was perfectly sober | B |
But my thoughts they were palsied and sear | B |
My thoughts were decidedly queer | B |
For I knew not the month was October | B |
And I marked not the night of the year | B |
I forgot that sweet morceau of Auber | B |
That the band oft performed down here | B |
And I mixed the sweet music of Auber | B |
With the Nightingale's music by Shear | B |
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And now as the night was senescent | E |
And star dials pointed to morn | F |
And car drivers hinted of morn | F |
At the end of the path a liquescent | E |
And bibulous lustre was born | F |
'Twas made by the bar keeper present | E |
Who mixed a duplicate horn | F |
His two hands describing a crescent | E |
Distinct with a duplicate horn | F |
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And I said This looks perfectly regal | G |
For it's warm and I know I feel dry | B |
I am confident that I feel dry | B |
We have come past the emeu and eagle | G |
And watched the gay monkey on high | B |
Let us drink to the emeu and eagle | G |
To the swan and the monkey on high | B |
To the eagle and monkey on high | B |
For this bar keeper will not inveigle | G |
Bully boy with the vitreous eye | B |
He surely would never inveigle | G |
Sweet youth with the crystalline eye | B |
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But Mary uplifting her finger | B |
Said Sadly this bar I mistrust | E |
I fear that this bar does not trust | E |
Oh hasten oh let us not linger | B |
Oh fly let us fly are we must | E |
In terror she cried letting sink her | B |
Parasol till it trailed in the dust | E |
In agony sobbed letting sink her | B |
Parasol till it trailed in the dust | E |
Till it sorrowfully trailed in the dust | E |
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Then I pacified Mary and kissed her | B |
And tempted her into the room | H |
And conquered her scruples and gloom | H |
And we passed to the end of the vista | E |
But were stopped by the warning of doom | H |
By some words that were warning of doom | H |
And I said What is written sweet sister | B |
At the opposite end of the room | H |
She sobbed as she answered All liquors | I |
Must be paid for ere leaving the room | H |
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Then my heart it grew ashen and sober | B |
As the streets were deserted and drear | B |
For my pockets were empty and drear | B |
And I cried It was surely October | B |
On this very night of last year | B |
That I journeyed I journeyed down here | B |
That I brought a fair maiden down here | B |
On this night of all nights in the year | B |
Ah to me that inscription is clear | B |
Well I know now I'm perfectly sober | B |
Why no longer they credit me here | B |
Well I know now that music of Auber | B |
And this Nightingale kept by one Shear | B |
Bret Harte
(1)
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