Sir Galahad Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABC DEBFGHIJ KLMBCFNOPQIRC STUVWXJCYZJA2B2C2D2E 2F2HG2QH2I2EJ2K2 F2F2UL2MBC M2N2O2N2P2 O2F2UB P2P2 Q2P2N2D NP2QR2S2CT2U2V2VQR2W 2X2VRUY2LJZ2Z2A3 B3C3D3R2E3F3 G3H3SI3L2B2J3K3M L3M3N3O3P3Q3G3E3R3H3 SS3M3A3M3QDM3 K3VHQT3U3U3U3VV3W3UV KU3NX3U3Y3Z3N2VN2S3U 3U3Q U3N2KKU G3A4FCS3KU3DB4B4C4D4 U3VB4E4E3 N2B4N2N2VVU3U3N2B4 F4Y2U3B4CU3N2B4G4B4U 3B4U3UU3U DH4U3I4U3J4 U3E3CMB4U3U3 B3BI met Hosea Job on Randolph Street | A |
Who said to me I'm going for the train | B |
I want you with me | C |
- | |
And it happened then | D |
My mind was hard as muscles of the back | E |
Grow hard resisting cold or shock or strain | B |
And need the osteopath to be made supple | F |
To give the nerves and streams of life a chance | G |
Hosea Job was just the osteopath | H |
To loose relax my mood And so I said | I |
All right and went | J |
- | |
Hosea was a man | K |
Whom nothing touched of danger or of harm | L |
His life was just a rare bit dream where some one | M |
Seems like to fall before a truck or train | B |
Instead he walks across them Or you see | C |
Shadows of falling things great buildings topple | F |
Pianos skid like bulls from hellish corners | N |
And chase the oblivious fool who stands and smiles | O |
The buildings slant and sway like monstrous searchlights | P |
But never touch him And the mad piano | Q |
Comes up to him puts down its angry head | I |
Runs out a friendly tongue and licks his hand | R |
And lows a symphony | C |
- | |
By which I mean | S |
Hosea had some money and would sign | T |
A bond or note for any man who asked him | U |
He'd rent a house and leave it rent another | V |
Then rent a farm move out from town and in | W |
He'd have the leases of superfluous places | X |
Cancelled some how was never sued for rent | J |
One time he had a fancy he would see | C |
South Africa took ship with a load of mules | Y |
First telegraphing home from New Orleans | Z |
He'd be back in the Spring Likewise he went | J |
To Klondike with the rush I think he owned | A2 |
More kinds of mining stock than there were mines | B2 |
He had more quaint peculiar men for friends | C2 |
Than one could think were living He believed | D2 |
In every doctrine in its time that promised | E2 |
Salvation for the world He took no thought | F2 |
For life or for to morrow or for health | H |
Slept with his windows closed ate what he wished | G2 |
And if he cut his finger let it go | Q |
I offered him peroxide once he laughed | H2 |
And when I asked him if his soul was saved | I2 |
He only said I see things I lie back | E |
And take it easy Nothing can go wrong | J2 |
In any serious sense | K2 |
- | |
So many thought | F2 |
Hosea was a nut and others thought | F2 |
That I was just a nut for liking him | U |
And what would any man of business say | L2 |
If he knew that I didn't ask a question | M |
But simply went with him to take the train | B |
That day he asked me | C |
- | |
And the train had gone | M2 |
Five miles or so when I said Where you going | N2 |
Hosea answered and it made me start | O2 |
Hosea answered simply We are going | N2 |
To see Sir Galahad | P2 |
- | |
It made me start | O2 |
To hear Hosea say this for I thought | F2 |
He was now really off But I looked at him | U |
And saw his eyes were sane | B |
- | |
Sir Galahad | P2 |
Who is Sir Galahad | P2 |
- | |
Hosea answered | Q2 |
I'm going up to see Sir Galahad | P2 |
And sound him out about re entering | N2 |
The game and run for governor again | D |
- | |
So then I knew he was the man our fathers | N |
Worked with and knew and called Sir Galahad | P2 |
Now in retirement fifteen years or so | Q |
Well I was twenty five when he was famous | R2 |
Sir Galahad was forty then and now | S2 |
Must be some fifty five while I am forty | C |
So flashed across my thought the matter of time | T2 |
And ages So I thought of all he did | U2 |
Of how he went from faith to faith in politics | V2 |
And ran for every office up to governor | V |
And ran for governor four times or so | Q |
And never was elected to an office | R2 |
He drew more bills to remedy injustice | W2 |
Improve the courts relieve the poor reform | X2 |
Administration than the legislature | V |
Could read much less digest or understand | R |
The people beat him and the leaders flogged him | U |
They shut the door against his face until | Y2 |
He had no place to go except a farm | L |
Among the stony hills and there he went | J |
And thither we were going to see the knight | Z2 |
And call him from his solitude to the fight | Z2 |
Against injustice greed | A3 |
- | |
So we got off | B3 |
The train at Alden just a little village | C3 |
Of fifty houses lying beneath the sprawl | D3 |
Of hills and hills And here there was a stillness | R2 |
Made lonelier by an anvil ringing by | E3 |
A plow man's voice at intervals | F3 |
- | |
Here Hosea | G3 |
Engaged a horse and buggy and we drove | H3 |
And wound about a crooked road between | S |
Great hills that stood together like the backs | I3 |
Of elephants in a herd where boulders lay | L2 |
As thick as hail in places Ruined pines | B2 |
Stood like burnt matches There was one which stuck | J3 |
Against a single cloud so white it seemed | K3 |
A bursted bale of cotton | M |
- | |
We reached the summit | L3 |
And drove along past orchards past a field | M3 |
Level and green kept like a garden rich | N3 |
Against the coming harvest Here we met | O3 |
A scarecrow man driving a scarecrow horse | P3 |
Hitched to a wobbly wagon And we stopped | Q3 |
The scarecrow stopped The scarecrow and Hosea | G3 |
Talked much of people and of farming I | E3 |
Sat listening and I gathered from the talk | R3 |
And what Hosea told me as we drove | H3 |
That once this field so level and so green | S |
The scarecrow owned He had cleaned out the stumps | S3 |
And tried to farm it failed and lost the field | M3 |
But raged to lose it thought he might succeed | A3 |
In further time Now having lost the field | M3 |
So many years ago could be a scarecrow | Q |
And drive a scarecrow horse yet laugh again | D |
And have no care the sorrow healed | M3 |
- | |
It seemed | K3 |
The clearing of the stumps was scarce a starter | V |
Toward a field of profit For in truth | H |
The soil possessed a secret which the scarecrow | Q |
Never went deep enough to learn about | T3 |
His problem was all stumps Not solving that | U3 |
He sold it to a farmer who out slaved | U3 |
The busiest bee but only half succeeded | U3 |
He tried to raise potatoes made a failure | V |
He planted it in beans had half a crop | V3 |
He sowed wheat once and reaped a stack of straw | W3 |
The secret of the soil eluded him | U |
And here Hosea laughed This fellow's failure | V |
Was just the thing that gave another man | K |
The secret of the soil For he had studied | U3 |
The properties of soils and fertilizers | N |
And when he heard the field had failed to raise | X3 |
Potatoes beans and wheat he simply said | U3 |
There are other things to raise the question is | Y3 |
Whether the soil is suited to the things | Z3 |
He tried to raise or whether it needs building | N2 |
To raise the things he tried to raise or whether | V |
It must be builded up for anything | N2 |
At least he said the field is clear of stumps | S3 |
Pass on your field he said If I lose out | U3 |
I'll pass it on The field is his he said | U3 |
Who can make something grow | Q |
- | |
And so this field | U3 |
Of waving wheat along which we were driving | N2 |
Was just the very field the scarecrow man | K |
Had failed to master as that other man | K |
Had failed to master after him | U |
- | |
Hosea | G3 |
Kept talking of this field as we drove on | A4 |
That field he said is economical | F |
Of men compared with many fields You see | C |
It only used two men To grub the stumps | S3 |
Took all the scarecrow's strength That other man | K |
Ran off to Oklahoma from this field | U3 |
I have known fields that ate a dozen men | D |
In country such as this The field remains | B4 |
And laughs and waits for some one who divines | B4 |
The secret of the field Some farmers live | C4 |
To prove what can't be done and narrow down | D4 |
The guess of what is possible It's right | U3 |
A certain crop should prosper and another | V |
Should fail and when a farmer tries to raise | B4 |
A crop before it's time he wastes himself | E4 |
And wastes the field to try | E3 |
- | |
We now were climbing | N2 |
To higher hills and rockier fields Hosea | B4 |
Had fallen into silence I was thinking | N2 |
About Sir Galahad was wondering | N2 |
Which man he was the scarecrow or the farmer | V |
Who didn't know the seed to sow or whether | V |
He might still prove the farmer raising wheat | U3 |
Now we were come to give him back the field | U3 |
With all the stumps grubbed out the secret lying | N2 |
Revealed and ready for the appointed hands | B4 |
- | |
We passed an orchard growing on a knoll | F4 |
And saw a barn perked on a rocky hill | Y2 |
And near the barn a house Hosea said | U3 |
This is Sir Galahad's We tied the horse | B4 |
And we were in the silence of the country | C |
At mid day on a day in June No bird | U3 |
Was singing fowl was cackling cow was lowing | N2 |
No dog was barking All was summer stillness | B4 |
We crossed a back yard past a windlass well | G4 |
Dodged under clothes lines through a place of chips | B4 |
Walked in a path along the house I said | U3 |
Sir Galahad is ploughing or perhaps | B4 |
Is mending fences cutting weeds It seemed | U3 |
Too bad to come so far and not to find him | U |
We'll find him said Hosea Let us sit | U3 |
Under that tree and wait for him | U |
- | |
And then | D |
We turned the corner of the house and there | H4 |
Under a tree an old man sat his head | U3 |
Bowed down upon his breast locked fast in sleep | I4 |
And by his feet a dog half blind and fat | U3 |
Lay dozing too inert to rise and bark | J4 |
- | |
Hosea gripped my arm Be still he said | U3 |
Let's ask him where Sir Galahad is said I | E3 |
And then Hosea whispered God forgive me | C |
I had forgotten you too have forgotten | M |
The man is old he's very old The years | B4 |
Go by unnoticed Come Sir Galahad | U3 |
Should sleep and not be waked | U3 |
- | |
We tip toed off | B3 |
And hurried back to Alden for the train | B |
Edgar Lee Masters
(1)
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