The Witches' Brew Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDDCEFGEHIIHJIIJ KLKLMMNNOOPQQPPRSRST ITIOSSOUVVUNLWWOCOCC OCCOVXOCCCCYVVYZOZOC CORORA2A2B2OOB2CMCMMPerched on a dead volcanic pile | A |
Now charted as a submerged peak | B |
Near to a moon washed coral isle | A |
A hundred leagues from Mozambique | B |
Three water witches of the East | C |
Under the stimulus of rum | D |
Decided that the hour had come | D |
To hold a Saturnalian feast | C |
In course of which they hoped to find | E |
For their black art once and for all | F |
The true effect of alcohol | G |
Upon the cold aquatic mind | E |
From two Phoenicians who were drowned | H |
The witches three whose surnames ran | I |
Lulu Ardath Maryan | I |
Had by an incantation found | H |
A cavern near the coast of Crete | J |
And saw when they had entered in | I |
A blacksmith with a dorsal fin | I |
Whose double pectorals and webbed feet | J |
Proved while his dusky shoulders swung | K |
His breed to be of land and water | L |
Last of great Neptune's stock that sprung | K |
From Vulcan's union with his daughter | L |
The sisters' terms accepted he | M |
Together with his family | M |
Left his native Cretan shore | N |
To dig the witches' copper ore | N |
Out of their sub aquaceous mines | O |
In the distant Carolines | O |
And forge a cauldron that might stand | P |
Stationary and watertight | Q |
A thousand cubits in its height | Q |
Its width a thousand breadths as spanned | P |
By the smith's gigantic hand | P |
So that each fish however dry | R |
Might have before the Feast was through | S |
His own demonstrable supply | R |
Of this Pan Oceanic brew | S |
A thousand leagues or so away | T |
Down the Pacific to Cape Horn | I |
And Southwards from Magellan lay | T |
A table land to which was borne | I |
This cauldron from the Carolines | O |
For here as well the sisters knew | S |
The Spanish conquerors of Peru | S |
Had stored their rich and ancient wines | O |
About the time the English burst | U |
Upon their galleons under Drake | V |
Who sank or captured them to slake | V |
A vast Elizabethan thirst | U |
With pick and bar the Cretan tore | N |
His way to the interior | L |
Of every sunken ship whose hold | W |
Had wines almost four centuries old | W |
Upon the broad Magellan floors | O |
Great passage way from West to East | C |
Were also found more recent stores | O |
The products of a stronger yeast | C |
For twenty years or thereabout | C |
The Bacchanals of Western nations | O |
Scenting universal drought | C |
Had searched the ocean to find out | C |
The most secluded ports and stations | O |
Where unmolested they might go | V |
'To serve their god while here below ' | X |
With all the strength of their libations | O |
So to the distant isles there sailed | C |
In honour of the ivy god | C |
Scores of log loaded ships that hailed | C |
From Christiania to Cape Cod | C |
With manifests entitled ham | Y |
Corn beef molasses chamois milk | V |
Cotton Irish linen silk | V |
Pickles dynamite and jam | Y |
And myriad substances whose form | Z |
Dissolved into quite other freights | O |
Beneath the magic of a storm | Z |
That scattered them around the Straits | O |
For this is what the blacksmith read | C |
While raking up the ocean bed | C |
Budweiser Guinness Schlitz in kegs | O |
Square Face Gin and Gordon's Dry | R |
O'Brien's Burke's and Johnny Begg's | O |
Munich Bock and Seagram's Rye | R |
Dewar's Hennessey's Star | A2 |
Glenlivet White Horse and Old Parr | A2 |
With Haig and Haig Canadian Club | B2 |
Jamaica Rum and other brands | O |
Known to imbibers in all lands | O |
That stock from Brewery or Pub | B2 |
All these the Cretan with the aid | C |
Of his industrious progeny | M |
Drew to the cauldron and there laid | C |
By order of the witches three | M |
The real foundation for the spree | M |
E. J. Pratt
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< The Toll Of The Bells Poem
Next Poem
Write your comment about The Witches' Brew poem by E. J. Pratt
Swathi : We want a summary for this poem pls ......
Swathi: We want a summary for this poem .. pls
Swathi: We want a summary for this poem .. pls
Arunachalam : For study
Best Poems of E. J. Pratt