The Happy Harvesters. - A Cantata Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BBCDBBEFGGHHBBDDBBBB IIJJBBKKBBBBLLMM M NLOPL QRBBR SITTU BVBBV LWIIW LVXYV ZLA2A2L BB2LLB2 DC2D2D2C2 A BBBBLLE2E2 I IF2IF2BBII LBLB IIII IBIBBBII A LLE2E2BBIIBBG2G2LL H2 BBBI2BBBI2 J2J2J2A2BBBA2 BBBG2BBBG2 LLL BBBBB G PPIIKKK2K2IIOOIIL2L2 KKE2E2II G M2RLRBGGGGF2N2N2F2 O2BBBBGIGGF2N2N2F2 P2BLBBGIGGF2N2N2F2 G BBA2A2Q2Q2KKR2R2LLS2 S2T2U2 GGV2V2A2I G2 G2G2G2ILLLI G2G2G2ILLLI LLL IQQQI G E2E2IILLVVG2G2GG W2 X2X2KK GGKK LLGI LLY2 BBM2M2 GGZ2Z2 G KKA2A2BBGGLLG2G2E2E2

I	A
	-
Autumn like an old poet in a haze	B
Of golden visions dreams away his days	B
So Hafiz like that one may almost hear	C
The singer's thoughts imbue the atmosphere	D
Sweet as the dreamings of the nightingales	B
Ere yet their songs have waked the eastern vales	B
Or stirred the airy echoes of the wood	E
That haunt the forest's social solitude	F
His thoughts are pastorals his days are rife	G
With the calm wisdom of that inner life	G
That makes the poet heir to worlds unknown	H
All space his empire and the sun his throne	H
As the bee stores the sweetness of the flowers	B
So into autumn's variegated hours	B
Is hived the Hybla richness of the year	D
Choice souls imbibing the ambrosial cheer	D
As autumn seated on the highest hills	B
Gleans honied secrets from the passing rills	B
While from below the harvest canzonas	B
Link vale to mountain with a chain of praise	B
Foremost among the honoured sons of toil	I
Are they who overcome the stubborn soil	I
Brave Cincinnatus in his country home	J
Was even greater than when lord of Rome	J
Down sinks the sun behind the lofty pines	B
That skirt the mountain like the straggling lines	B
Of Ceres' army looking from the height	K
On the dim lowlands deepening into night	K
Soft featured twilight peering through the maze	B
Sees the first starbeam pierce the purple haze	B
Through all the vales the vespers of the birds	B
Cheer the young shepherds homeward with their herds	B
And the stout axles of the heavy wain	L
Creak 'neath the fulness of the ripened grain	L
As the swarth builders of the precious load	M
Returning homewards sing their Autumn Ode	M
	-
	-
AUTUMN ODE	M
	-
God of the Harvest Thou whose sun	N
Has ripened all the golden grain	L
We bless Thee for Thy bounteous store	O
The cup of Plenty running o'er	P
The sunshine and the rain	L
	-
The year laughs out for very joy	Q
Its silver treble echoing	R
Like a sweet anthem through the woods	B
Till mellowed by the solitudes	B
It folds its glossy wing	R
	-
But our united voices blend	S
From day to day unweariedly	I
Sure as the sun rolls up the morn	T
Or twilight from the eve is born	T
Our song ascends to Thee	U
	-
Where'er the various tinted woods	B
In all their autumn splendour dressed	V
Impart their gold and purple dyes	B
To distant hills and farthest skies	B
Along the crimson west	V
	-
Across the smooth extended plain	L
By rushing stream and broad lagoon	W
On shady height and sunny dale	I
Wherever scuds the balmy gale	I
Or gleams the autumn moon	W
	-
From inland seas of yellow grain	L
Where cheerful Labour heaven blest	V
With willing hands and keen edged scythe	X
And accents musically blythe	Y
Reveals its lordly crest	V
	-
From clover fields and meadows wide	Z
Where moves the richly laden wain	L
To barns well stored with new made hay	A2
Or where the flail at early day	A2
Rolls out the ripened grain	L
	-
From meads and pastures on the hills	B
And in the mountain valleys deep	B2
Alive with beeves and sweet breathed kine	L
Of famous Ayr or Devon's line	L
And shepherd guarded sheep	B2
	-
The spirits of the golden year	D
From crystal caves and grottoes dim	C2
From forest depths and mossy sward	D2
Myriad tongued with one accord	D2
Peal forth their harvest hymn	C2
	-
	-
II	A
	-
Their daily labour in the happy fields	B
A two fold crop of grain and pleasure yields	B
While round their hearths before their evening fires	B
Whore comfort reigns whence weariness retires	B
The level tracts denuded of their grain	L
In calm dispute are bravely shorn again	L
Till some rough reaper on a tide of song	E2
Like a bold pirate captivates the throng	E2
	-
	-
A SONG FOR THE FLAIL	I
	-
A song a song for the good old Flail	I
And the brawny arms that wield it	F2
Hearty and hale in our yeoman mail	I
Like intrepid knights we'll shield it	F2
We are old nature's peers	B
Right royal cavaliers	B
Knights of the Plough for no Golden Fleece we sail	I
We're Princes in our own right our sceptre is the Flail	I
	-
A song a song for the golden grain	L
As it wooes the flail's embraces	B
In wavy sheaves like a golden main	L
With its bright spray in our faces	B
	-
Mirth hastens at our call	I
Jovial hearts have we all	I
Knights of the Plough for no Golden Fleece we sail	I
We're Princes in our own right our sceptre is the Flail	I
	-
A song a song for the good old Flail	I
That our fathers used before us	B
A song for the Flail and the faces hale	I
Of the queenly dames that bore us	B
We are old nature's peers	B
Right royal cavaliers	B
Knights of the Plough for no Golden Fleece we sail	I
We're Princes in our own right our sceptre is the Flail	I
	-
	-
III	A
	-
Fair was the maid and lovely as the morn	L
From starry Night and rosy Twilight born	L
Within whose mind a rivulet of song	E2
Rehearsed the strains that from her lips ere long	E2
Welled free and sparkling as the vocal woods	B
Repeat the day spring's sweetest interludes	B
Her gentle eyes' serenest depths of blue	I
Shrined love and truth and all their retinue	I
The health and beauty of her youthful face	B
Made it the Harem of each maiden grace	B
And such perfection blended with her air	G2
She seemed some stately Goddess moving there	G2
Beholding her you thought she might have been	L
The long lost flower loving Proserpine	L
	-
	-
AN AUTUMN CHANGE	H2
	-
Oh dreamy autumn days	B
I seek your faded ways	B
As one who calmly strays	B
Through visions of the past	I2
I walk the golden hours	B
And where I gathered flowers	B
The stricken leaves in showers	B
Are hurled upon the blast	I2
	-
Thus mused the lonely maid	J2
As through the autumn glade	J2
With pensive heart she strayed	J2
Regretting Love's delay	A2
In vain the traitor flies	B
To pleading lips and eyes	B
Sweet looks and tender sighs	B
He falls an easy prey	A2
	-
Oh dreamy autumn days	B
I tread your bridal ways	B
As one who homeward strays	B
Through realms divinely fair	G2
I walk Love's radiant hours	B
Fragrant with passion flowers	B
And blessings fall like dowers	B
Down the elysian air	G2
	-
Thus mused the maiden now	L
With sunny heart and brow	L
For Love had turned his prow	L
	-
Towards the Golden Isles	B
Where from Pierean springs	B
The soul of Music sings	B
Its sweet imaginings	B
Through all the Land of Smiles	B
	-
	-
IV	G
	-
Up the wide chimney rolls the social fire	P
Warming the hearts of matron youth and sire	P
Painting such grotesque shadows on the wall	I
The stripling looms a giant stout and tall	I
While they whose statures reach the common height	K
Seem spectres mocking the hilarious night	K
From hand to hand the ripened fruit went round	K2
And rural sports a pleased acceptance found	K2
The youthful fiddler on his three legged stool	I
Fancied himself at least an Ole Bull	I
Some easy bumpkin seated on the floor	O
Hunted the slipper till his ribs were sore	O
Some chose the graceful waltz or lively reel	I
While deeper heads the chess battalions wheel	I
Till some old veteran compelled to yield	L2
More brave than skilful vanquished quits the field	L2
As a flushed harper when the doubtful fight	K
Favors the prowess of some stately knight	K
In stirring numbers of triumphal song	E2
Upholds the spirits of the victor throng	E2
A sturdy ploughboy wedded to the soil	I
Thus sung the praises of the partner of his toil	I
	-
	-
	-
THE SOLDIERS OF THE PLOUGH	G
	-
No maiden dream nor fancy theme	M2
Brown Labour's muse would sing	R
Her stately mien and russet sheen	L
Demand a stronger wing	R
Long ages since the sage the prince	B
The man of lordly brow	G
All honour gave that army brave	G
The Soldiers of the Plough	G
Kind heaven speed the Plough	G
And bless the hands that guide it	F2
God gives the seed	N2
The bread we need	N2
Man's labour must provide it	F2
	-
In every land the toiling hand	O2
Is blest as it deserves	B
Not so the race who in disgrace	B
From honest labour swerves	B
From fairest bowers bring rarest flowers	B
To deck the swarthy brow	G
Of those whose toil improves the soil	I
The Soldiers of the Plough	G
Kind heaven speed the Plough	G
And bless the hands that guide it	F2
God gives the seed	N2
The bread we need	N2
Man's labour must provide it	F2
	-
Blest is his lot in hall or cot	P2
Who lives as nature wills	B
Who pours his corn from Ceres' horn	L
And quaffs his native rills	B
No breeze that sweeps trade's stormy deeps	B
Can touch his golden prow	G
Their foes are few their lives are true	I
The Soldiers of the Plough	G
Kind heaven speed the Plough	G
And bless the hands that guide it	F2
God gives the seed	N2
The bread we need	N2
Man's labour must provide it	F2
	-
	-
V	G
	-
Fast sped the rushing chariot of the Hours	B
Without the Harvest Moon through fleecy bowers	B
Of hazy cloudlets swept her graceful way	A2
Proud as an empress on her marriage day	A2
The admiring planets lit her stately march	Q2
With smiles that gleamed along the silent arch	Q2
And all the starry midnight blazed with light	K
As if 'twere earth and heaven's nuptial night	K
The cock crowed certain that the day had broke	R2
The aged house dog suddenly awoke	R2
And bayed so loud a challenge to the moon	L
From the old orchard fled the thievish 'coon	L
Within the lightest hearts that ever beat	S2
Still found their harmless pleasures pure and sweet	S2
The fire still burned on the capacious hearth	T2
In sympathy with the redundant mirth	U2
	-
Old graybeards felt the glow of youth revive	G
Old matrons smiled upon the human hive	G
Where life's rare nectar fit for gods to sip	V2
In forfeit kisses passed from lip to lip	V2
Be hushed rude Mirth as merry as the May	A2
Is she who comes to sing her roundelay	I
	-
	-
CLAIRE	G2
	-
Whither now blushing Claire	G2
Maid of the sylph like air	G2
Blooming and debonair	G2
Whither so early	I
Chasing the merry morn	L
Down through the golden corn	L
List'ning the hunter's horn	L
Ring through the barley	I
	-
Flowerets fresh and fair	G2
Answered the blushing Claire	G2
Fit for my bridal hair	G2
Bloom 'mongst the barley	I
Hark 'tis the hunter's horn	L
Waking the sylvan morn	L
And through the yellow corn	L
Comes my brave Charlie	I
	-
Through the dew dripping grain	L
Pressed the heart stricken swain	L
Crushed with a weight of pain	L
	-
Drooped like the barley	I
Ah timid shepherd boy	Q
Man's love should ne'er be coy	Q
Sweet is Claire's maiden joy	Q
Kissing her Charlie	I
	-
	-
VI	G
	-
A pleasant soul as ever trilled a song	E2
Was hers who warbled Claire All the day long	E2
Her voice was ringing like a bridal bell	I
Gladness and joy leaped up at every swell	I
And love was deeper warmer for the tone	L
That clasped the heart like an enchanted zone	L
A youth was there more comely than the rest	V
One who could turn a furrow with the best	V
Compete for manly strength and portly air	G2
Or wield a scythe with any reaper there	G2
The spirit of her voice had moved above	G
The waters of his soul and waked his song to Love	G
	-
	-
BALLAD	W2
	-
Come tell me merry Brooklet of a gentle Maid I seek	X2
Thou'lt know her by the freshness of the rose upon her cheek	X2
Her eyes are chaste and tender and so serenely bright	K
You can read her heart's pure secrets by their warm religious light	K
	-
The Maid has not come hither said the Brooklet in reply	G
I've listened for her footfall ere the stars were in the sky	G
The Fountain has been singing of a Maid with eyes so bright	K
You may read the cherished secrets of her bosom by their light	K
	-
Pray tell me merry Brooklet what saith her thoughts of one	L
Who wronged her loving nature ere the setting of the sun	L
What say they of yon autumn moon that smiles so mournfully	G
On the slowly dying season and the blasted moorland tree	I
	-
She sitteth by the Fountain the Brook replied again	L
Her heart as pure as heaven and her thoughts without a stain	L
'Oh fickle moon and changeful man ' she saith 'a year ago	Y2
All the paths were true love lighted where I'm groping now in woe '	-
	-
She sitteth by the Fountain the gentle mists arise	B
And kiss away the tear pearls that tremble in her eyes	B
The Fountain singeth to me that the Maiden in her dream	M2
Shrinks as the vapours claim her as the Oread of the stream	M2
	-
Off sped the merry Streamlet adown the sloping vale	G
The Shepherd seeks the Fountain where sits the Maiden pale	G
And to the wandering Brooklet through many a lonely wild	Z2
The burden of the Fountain was that Love was reconciled	Z2
	-
	-
VII	G
	-
But soon the Morn on many a distant height	K
Fingers the raven locks of lingering Night	K
The last dark shadows that precede the day	A2
Have stripped the splendour from the Milky Way	A2
And Nature seems disturbed by fitful dreams	B
As one who shudders when the owlet screams	B
The painful burden of the Whippoorwill	G
Like a vague Sorrow floats from hill to hill	G
Along the vales the doleful accents run	L
Where the white vapours dread the burning sun	L
While human voices stir the haunted air	G2
One sings the Plough another warbles Claire	G2
The Happy Harvesters a lightsome throng	E2
Dispersing homewards prove the excellence of Song	E2

Charles Sangster

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