The Legend Of La Brea [1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEDE FEEE FGEG FHIH JKLK FMNM OPQR STJT UVWV XYZY CBFB JJEF A2EEE EB2C2B2 CD2DD2 B DF D2A2DA2 EFF CD2F D2A2E2A2 BFFF D2D2F2D2 CG2EG2 D2FFF AFD2F D2GDG CED2E H2FE2F BD2FD2 CCEC EEEE D2ED2F FCD2C AD2DD2 ED2F2D2 I2FEF EFD FJ2EK2E B| Down beside the loathly Pitch Lake | A |
| In the stately Morichal | B |
| Sat an ancient Spanish Indian | C |
| Peering through the columns tall | B |
| - | |
| Watching vainly for the flashing | D |
| Of the jewelled colibris | E |
| Listening vainly for their humming | D |
| Round the honey blossomed trees | E |
| - | |
| 'Few ' he sighed 'they come and fewer | F |
| To the cocorite bowers | E |
| Murdered madly through the forests | E |
| Which of yore were theirs and ours | E |
| - | |
| By there came a negro hunter | F |
| Lithe and lusty sleek and strong | G |
| Rolling round his sparkling eyeballs | E |
| As he loped and lounged along | G |
| - | |
| Rusty firelock on his shoulder | F |
| Rusty cutlass on his thigh | H |
| Never jollier British subject | I |
| Rollicked underneath the sky | H |
| - | |
| British law to give him safety | J |
| British fleets to guard his shore | K |
| And a square of British freehold | L |
| He had all we have and more | K |
| - | |
| Fattening through the endless summer | F |
| Like his own provision ground | M |
| He had reached the summum bonum | N |
| Which our latest wits have found | M |
| - | |
| So he thought and in his hammock | O |
| Gnawed his junk of sugar cane | P |
| Toasted plantains at the fire stick | Q |
| Gnawed and dozed and gnawed again | R |
| - | |
| Had a wife in his ajoupa | S |
| Or at least what did instead | T |
| Children too who died so early | J |
| He'd no need to earn their bread | T |
| - | |
| Never stole save what he needed | U |
| From the Crown woods round about | V |
| Never lied except when summoned | W |
| Let the warden find him out | V |
| - | |
| Never drank except at market | X |
| Never beat his sturdy mate | Y |
| She could hit as hard as he could | Z |
| And had just as hard a pate | Y |
| - | |
| Had no care for priest nor parson | C |
| Hope of heaven nor fear of hell | B |
| And in all his views of nature | F |
| Held with Comte and Peter Bell | B |
| - | |
| Healthy happy silly kindly | J |
| Neither care nor toil had he | J |
| Save to work an hour at sunrise | E |
| And then hunt the colibri | F |
| - | |
| Not a bad man not a good man | A2 |
| Scarce a man at all one fears | E |
| If the Man be that within us | E |
| Which is born of fire and tears | E |
| - | |
| Round the palm stems round the creepers | E |
| Flashed a feathered jewel past | B2 |
| Ruby crested topaz throated | C2 |
| Plucked the cocorite bast | B2 |
| - | |
| Plucked the fallen ceiba cotton | C |
| Whirred away to build his nest | D2 |
| Hung at last with happy humming | D |
| Round some flower he fancied best | D2 |
| - | |
| Up then went the rusty muzzle | B |
| 'Dat de tenth I shot to day ' | - |
| But out sprang the Indian shouting | D |
| Balked the negro of his prey | F |
| - | |
| 'Eh you Senor Trinidada | D2 |
| What dis new ondacent plan | A2 |
| Spoil a genl'man's chance ob shooting | D |
| I as good as any man | A2 |
| - | |
| 'Dese not your woods dese de Queen's woods | E |
| You seem not know whar you ar | F |
| Gibbin' yuself dese buckra airs here | F |
| You black Indian Papist Dar ' | - |
| - | |
| Stately courteous stood the Indian | C |
| Pointed through the palm tree shade | D2 |
| 'Does the gentleman of colour | F |
| Know how yon Pitch Lake was made ' | - |
| - | |
| Grinned the negro grinned and trembled | D2 |
| Through his nerves a shudder ran | A2 |
| Saw a snake like eye that held him | E2 |
| Saw he'd met an Obeah man | A2 |
| - | |
| Saw a fetish such a bottle | B |
| Buried at his cottage door | F |
| Toad and spider dirty water | F |
| Rusty nails and nine charms more | F |
| - | |
| Saw in vision such a cock's head | D2 |
| In the path and it was white | D2 |
| Saw Brinvilliers in his pottage | F2 |
| Faltered cold and damp with fright | D2 |
| - | |
| Fearful is the chance of poison | C |
| Fearful too the great unknown | G2 |
| Magic brings some positivists | E |
| Humbly on their marrow bone | G2 |
| - | |
| Like the wedding guest enchanted | D2 |
| There he stood a trembling cur | F |
| While the Indian told his story | F |
| Like the Ancient Mariner | F |
| - | |
| Told how 'Once that loathly Pitch Lake | A |
| Was a garden bright and fair | F |
| How the Chaymas off the mainland | D2 |
| Built their palm ajoupas there | F |
| - | |
| 'How they throve and how they fattened | D2 |
| Hale and happy safe and strong | G |
| Passed the livelong days in feasting | D |
| Passed the nights in dance and song | G |
| - | |
| 'Till they cruel grew and wanton | C |
| Till they killed the colibris | E |
| Then outspake the great Good Spirit | D2 |
| Who can see through all the trees | E |
| - | |
| 'Said And what have I not sent you | H2 |
| Wanton Chaymas many a year | F |
| Lapp agouti cachicame | E2 |
| Quenc and guazu pita deer | F |
| - | |
| ' Fish I sent you sent you turtle | B |
| Chip chip conch flamingo red | D2 |
| Woodland paui horned screamer | F |
| And blue ramier overhead | D2 |
| - | |
| ' Plums from balata and mombin | C |
| Tania manioc water vine | C |
| Let you fell my slim manacques | E |
| Tap my sweet moriche wine | C |
| - | |
| ' Sent rich plantains food of angels | E |
| Rich ananas food of kings | E |
| Grudged you none of all my treasures | E |
| Save these lovely useless things | E |
| - | |
| 'But the Chaymas' ears were deafened | D2 |
| Blind their eyes and could not see | E |
| How a blissful Indian's spirit | D2 |
| Lived in every colibri | F |
| - | |
| 'Lived forgetting toil and sorrow | F |
| Ever fair and ever new | C |
| Whirring round the dear old woodland | D2 |
| Feeding on the honey dew | C |
| - | |
| 'Till one evening roared the earthquake | A |
| Monkeys howled and parrots screamed | D2 |
| And the Guaraons at morning | D |
| Gathered here as men who dreamed | D2 |
| - | |
| 'Sunk were gardens sunk ajoupas | E |
| Hut and hammock man and hound | D2 |
| And above the Chayma village | F2 |
| Boiled with pitch the cursed ground | D2 |
| - | |
| 'Full and too full safe and too safe | I2 |
| Negro man take care take care | F |
| He that wantons with God's bounties | E |
| Of God's wrath had best beware | F |
| - | |
| 'For the saucy reckless heartless | E |
| Evil days are sure in store | F |
| You may see the Negro sinking | D |
| As the Chayma sank of yore ' | - |
| - | |
| Loudly laughed that stalwart hunter | F |
| 'Eh what superstitious talk | J2 |
| Nyam am nyam an' maney maney | E |
| Birds am birds like park am park | K2 |
| An' dere's twenty thousand birdskins | E |
| Ardered jes' now fram New Yark ' | - |
| - | |
| Eversley | B |
Charles Kingsley
(1)
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