The Eighth Crusade Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHDIJKLM HDNOPDQRSTTUDVWXYZA2 J B2C2D2QE2RF2B NG2H2NH2I2J2BK2 L2PYM2N2JO2P2Q2R2S2 LT2U2R2V2 U2W2JD2T2 X2QP2Y2O2 LO2P2Z2A3B3 B3D2C3D3E3B3 P2 F3B3N NG3 NH3I3BLO2 I3LJ3S2O2K3L3M3Z2N3L 3O3 P3Q3A2R3S3T3U2 T3L3 N2L3DU3X2A2 U2V3U3T3T3W3D X3T3 LT3Y3Z3Z3JZ3A4B4 C4LD4X3 DE4T3L3F4T3G4LL3H4LT 3L3H4I4T3X3A2 J4K4A2 A2T3T3X3G4 T T3S3L4M4N4LL3 L3D2 L3K2L3L3A3 BL LT3T3T2L3D2F4O4BB3S3 BE2E4 L3 E4E2T3T3T3X3L3L3DDLX 3P4T3A4A2D4Q4L3QBT3L L3T3 TS3T3 HDDR4I4S4BBD4T3T3Q3L 3LT4IT3T3 U4 V4W4T3X4Y4T3T3 X3 S3Z4LS3LDL3T3L3JDI2R 2 R2 B T3L3LT2G4B3T3DU2LF4U 2LU2S3U2LD4XD4L3BZ3D LT3N2QL3A2T3L3N2V2 V2Q4LT3B3N2L3P4 L3X3June but we kept the fire place piled with logs | A |
And every day it rained And every morning | B |
I heard the wind and rain among the leaves | C |
Try as I would my spirits grew no better | D |
What was it Was I ill or sick in mind | E |
I spent the whole day working with my hands | F |
For there was brush to clear and corn to plant | G |
Between the gusts of rain and there at night | H |
I sat about the room and hugged the fire | D |
And the rain dripped and the wind blew we shivered | I |
For cold and it was June I ached all through | J |
For my hard labor why did muscles grow not | K |
To hardness and cure body if 'twere body | L |
Or soul if it were soul | M |
- | |
But there at night | H |
As I sat aching worn before the hour | D |
Of sleep and restless in this interval | N |
Of nothingness the silence out of doors | O |
Timed by the dripping rain and by the slap | P |
Of cards upon a table by a boarder | D |
Who passed the time in playing solitaire | Q |
Sometimes my ancient host would fill his pipe | R |
And scrape away the dust of long past years | S |
To show me what had happened in his life | T |
And as he smoked and talked his aged wife | T |
Would parallel his theme as a brooks' branches | U |
Formed by a slender island flow together | D |
Or yet again she'd intercalate a touch | V |
An episode or version And sometimes | W |
He'd make her hush or sometimes he'd suspend | X |
While she went on to what she wished to finish | Y |
When he'd resume They talked together thus | Z |
He found the story and began to tell it | A2 |
And she hung on his story told it too | J |
- | |
This night the rain came down in buckets full | B2 |
And Claude who brought the logs in showed his breath | C2 |
Between the opening of the outer door | D2 |
And the swift on rush of the room's warm air | Q |
And my host who had hoed the whole day long | E2 |
Hearty at eighty years sat with his pipe | R |
Reading the organ of the Adventists | F2 |
His wife beside him knitting | B |
- | |
On the table | N |
Are several magazines with their monthly grist | G2 |
Of stories and of pictures O such stories | H2 |
Who writes these stories How does it happen people | N |
Are born into the world to read these stories | H2 |
But anyway the lamp is very bad | I2 |
And every bone in me aches and why always | J2 |
Must one be either reading knitting talking | B |
Why not sit quietly and think | K2 |
- | |
At last | L2 |
Between the clicking needles and the slap | P |
Of cards upon the table and the swish | Y |
Of rain upon the window my host speaks | M2 |
It says here when the Germans are defeated | N2 |
And that means when the Turks are beaten too | J |
The Christian world will take back Palestine | O2 |
And drive the Turks out God be praised I hope so | P2 |
Amen breaks in the wife May we both live | Q2 |
To see the day Perhaps you'll get your trunk back | R2 |
From Jaffa if the Allies win | S2 |
- | |
To me | L |
The wife turns and goes on He has a trunk | T2 |
At least his trunk went on to Jaffa and | U2 |
It never came back The bishop's trunk came back | R2 |
But his trunk never came | V2 |
- | |
And then the husband | U2 |
What are you saying mother you go on | W2 |
As if our friend here knew the story too | J |
And then you talk as if our hope of the war | D2 |
Was centered on recovering that trunk | T2 |
- | |
Oh not at all | X2 |
But if the Allies win and the trunk is there | Q |
In Jaffa you might get it back You know | P2 |
You'll never get it back while infidels | Y2 |
Rule Palestine | O2 |
- | |
The husband says to me | L |
It looks as if she thought that trunk of mine | O2 |
Which went to Jaffa fifty years ago | P2 |
Is in existence yet when chances are | Z2 |
They kept it for awhile and sold it off | A3 |
Or threw it away | B3 |
- | |
They never threw it away | B3 |
Why I made him a dozen shirts or more | D2 |
And knitted him a lot of lovely socks | C3 |
And made him neck ties and that trunk contained | D3 |
Everything that a man might need in absence | E3 |
A year from home And yet they threw it away | B3 |
- | |
They might have done so | P2 |
- | |
But they never did | F3 |
Perhaps they threw your cabinet tools away | B3 |
They were too valuable | N |
- | |
Too valuable | N |
Fine socks and shirts are worthless are they yes | G3 |
- | |
Not worthless but fine tools are valuable | N |
He turns to me I lost a box of tools | H3 |
Sent on to Jaffa too The scheme was this | I3 |
To work at cabinet making while observing | B |
Conditions there in Palestine and get ready | L |
To drive the Turks from Palestine | O2 |
- | |
What's this | I3 |
I rub my eyes and wake up to this story | L |
I'm here in Illinois in a farmer's house | J3 |
Who boards stray fishermen and takes me in | S2 |
And in a moment Turks and Palestine | O2 |
And that old dream of Louis the Saint arise | K3 |
And show me how the world is small and a man | L3 |
Native to Illinois may travel forth | M3 |
And mix his life with ancient things afar | Z2 |
To day be raising corn here and next month | N3 |
Walking the streets of Jaffa in Mycen | L3 |
Digging for Grecian relics | O3 |
- | |
So I asked | P3 |
Were you in Palestine And the wife spoke quick | Q3 |
He didn't get there that's the joke of it | A2 |
And the husband said It wasn't such a joke | R3 |
You see it was this way myself and the bishop | S3 |
He lived in Springfield I in Pleasant Plains | T3 |
Had planned to meet in Switzerland | U2 |
- | |
Montreaux | T3 |
The wife broke in | L3 |
- | |
Montreaux the husband added | N2 |
You said you two had planned it she went on | L3 |
Now looking over specks and speaking louder | D |
The bishop came to him he planned it out | U3 |
My husband didn't plan the trip at all | X2 |
He knows the bishop planned it | A2 |
- | |
Then the husband | U2 |
Oh for that matter he spoke of it first | V3 |
And I acceded and we worked it out | U3 |
He was to go ahead of me I was | T3 |
To come in later soon as I could raise | T3 |
What funds my congregation could afford | W3 |
To spare for this adventure | D |
- | |
Guess she said | X3 |
How much it was | T3 |
- | |
I shook my head and she | L |
Said in a lowered and a tragic voice | T3 |
Four hundred dollars and you can believe | Y3 |
It strapped his church to raise so great a sum | Z3 |
And if they hadn't thought that Christ would come | Z3 |
Scarcely before the plan could be put through | J |
Of winning back the Holy Land that sum | Z3 |
Had never been made up and put in gold | A4 |
For him to carry in a chamois belt | B4 |
- | |
And then the husband said Mother be still | C4 |
I'll tell our friend the story if you'll let me | L |
I'm done she said I wanted to say that | D4 |
Go on she said | X3 |
- | |
And so he started over | D |
The bishop came to me and said he thought | E4 |
The Advent would be June of seventy six | T3 |
This was the winter of eighteen seventy one | L3 |
He said he had a dream and in this dream | F4 |
An angel stood beside him told him so | T3 |
And told him to get me and go to Jaffa | G4 |
And live there learn the people and the country | L |
We were to live disguised the better to learn | L3 |
The people and the country I was to work | H4 |
At my trade as a cabinet maker he | L |
At carpentry which was his trade and so | T3 |
No one would know us or suspect our plan | L3 |
And thus we could live undisturbed and work | H4 |
And get all things in readiness that in time | I4 |
The Lord would send us power and do all things | T3 |
We were the messengers to go ahead | X3 |
And make the ways straight so I told her of it | A2 |
- | |
You told me yes but my trust was as great | J4 |
As yours was in the bishop little the good | K4 |
To tell me of it | A2 |
- | |
Well I told you of it | A2 |
And she said 'If the Lord commands you so | T3 |
You must obey ' And so she knit the socks | T3 |
And made that trunk of things as she has said | X3 |
And in six weeks I sailed from Philadelphia | G4 |
- | |
'Twas nearer two months said the wife | T |
- | |
Perhaps | T3 |
Somewhere between six weeks and that The bishop | S3 |
Left Springfield in a month from our first talk | L4 |
I knew for I went over when he left | M4 |
And I remember how his poor wife cried | N4 |
And how the children cried He had a family | L |
Of some eight children | L3 |
- | |
Only seven then | L3 |
The son named David died the year before | D2 |
- | |
Mother you're right 'twas seven children then | L3 |
The oldest was not more than twelve I think | K2 |
And all the children cried and at the train | L3 |
His congregation almost to a man | L3 |
Was there to see him off | A3 |
- | |
Well one was missing | B |
You know you know the wife said pregnantly | L |
- | |
I'll come to that in time if you'll be still | L |
Well so the bishop left and in six weeks | T3 |
Or somewhere there I started for Montreaux | T3 |
To meet the bishop Shipped ahead my trunk | T2 |
To Jaffa as the bishop did But now | L3 |
I must tell you my dream The night before | D2 |
I reached Montreaux I had a wondrous dream | F4 |
I saw the bishop on the station platform | O4 |
His face with brandy blossoms splotched and wearing | B |
His gold head cane And sure enough next day | B3 |
As I stepped from the train I saw the bishop | S3 |
His face with brandy blossoms splotched and wearing | B |
His gold head cane And I thought something wrong | E2 |
And still I didn't act upon the thought | E4 |
- | |
I should say not the wife broke in again | L3 |
- | |
Oh well what could I do if I had thought | E4 |
More clearly than I did that things were wrong | E2 |
You can't uproot the confidence of years | T3 |
Because of dreams And as to brandy blossoms | T3 |
I knew his face was red but didn't know | T3 |
Or think just then that brandy made it red | X3 |
And so I went up to the house he lived in | L3 |
A mansion beautiful and we sat down | L3 |
And he sat there bolt upright in a rocker | D |
Hands spread upon his knees his black eyes bigger | D |
Than I had ever seen them eyeing me | L |
Silently for a moment when he said | X3 |
'What money did you bring ' And so I told him | P4 |
And he said quickly 'let me have it ' So | T3 |
I took my belt off counted out the gold | A4 |
And gave it to him And he took it thrust it | A2 |
With this hand in this pocket that in that | D4 |
And sat there and said nothing more just looked | Q4 |
And then before a word was spoke again | L3 |
I heard a step upon the stair the stair | Q |
Came down into this room where we were sitting | B |
And I looked up and there I rubbed my eyes | T3 |
I looked again rose from my chair to see | L |
And saw descending the most lovely woman | L3 |
Who was | T3 |
- | |
A lovely woman sneered the wife | T |
Well she was just affinity to the bishop | S3 |
That's what she was | T3 |
- | |
Affinity is right | H |
You see she was the leader in the choir | D |
And she had run away with him or rather | D |
Had gone abroad upon another boat | R4 |
And met him in Montreaux Now from this time | I4 |
For forty hours or so all is a blank | S4 |
I just remember trying to speak and choking | B |
And flying from the room the bishop clutching | B |
At my coat sleeve to hold me After that | D4 |
I can't recall a thing until I saw | T3 |
A little cottage way up in the Alps | T3 |
I was knocking at the door was faint and sick | Q3 |
The door was opened and they took me in | L3 |
And warmed me with a glass of wine and tucked me | L |
In a good bed where I slept half a week | T4 |
It seems in my bewilderment I wandered | I |
Ran stumbled climbed for forty hours or so | T3 |
By rocky chasms up the piney slopes | T3 |
- | |
He might have lost his life the wife exclaimed | U4 |
- | |
These were the kindest people in the world | V4 |
A French family They gave me splendid food | W4 |
And when I left two francs to reach the place | T3 |
Where lived the English Consul who arranged | X4 |
After some days for money for my passage | Y4 |
Back to America and in six weeks | T3 |
I preached a sermon here in Pleasant Plains | T3 |
- | |
Beware of false prophets was the text she said | X3 |
- | |
And I who heard this story through spoke up | S3 |
The thing about this that I fail to get | Z4 |
Concerns this woman the affinity | L |
If as seems evident she and the bishop | S3 |
Had planned this run a way and used the faith | |
And you the congregation to get money | L |
To do it with or used you in particular | D |
To get the money for themselves to live on | L3 |
After they had arrived there in Montreaux | T3 |
If all this be I said why did this woman | L3 |
Descend just at the moment when he asked you | J |
For the money that you had You might have seen her | D |
Before you gave the money if you had | I2 |
You might have held it back | R2 |
- | |
I would indeed | |
You can be sure I should have held it back | R2 |
- | |
And then the old wife gasped and dropped her knitting | B |
- | |
Now James you let me answer that I know | T3 |
She was done with the bishop that's the reason | L3 |
Be still and let me answer Here's the story | L |
We found out later that the bishop's trunk | T2 |
And kit of tools had been returned from Jaffa | G4 |
There to Montreaux were there that very day | B3 |
Which means the bishop never meant to go | T3 |
To Palestine at all but meant to meet | |
This woman in Montreaux and live with her | D |
Well that takes money So he used my husband | U2 |
To get that money Now you wonder I see | L |
Why she would chance the spoiling of the scheme | F4 |
Descend into the room before my husband | U2 |
Had given up this money and this money | L |
You see was treated as a common fund | U2 |
Belonging to the church and to be used | |
To get back Palestine and so the bishop | S3 |
As head of the church superior to my husband | U2 |
Could say 'give me the money' that was natural | L |
My husband could not be surprised at that | D4 |
Or question it Well why did she descend | X |
And almost lose the money Oh the cat | D4 |
I know what she did as well as I had seen | L3 |
Her do it Yes she listened at the landing | B |
And when she heard my husband tell the sum | Z3 |
Which he had brought it wasn't enough to please her | D |
And Satan entered in her heart and she | L |
Waited until she heard the bishop's pockets | T3 |
Clink with the double eagles then descended | N2 |
To expose the bishop and disgrace him there | Q |
And everywhere in all the world Now listen | L3 |
She got that money or the most of it | A2 |
In spite of what she did For in six weeks | T3 |
After my husband had returned she walked | |
The brazen thing the public streets of Springfield | |
As jaunty as you please and pretty soon | L3 |
The bishop died and all the papers printed | N2 |
The story of his shame | V2 |
- | |
She had scarce finished | |
When the man at solitaire threw down the deck | |
And make a whacking noise and rose and came | V2 |
Around in front of us and stood and looked | Q4 |
The old man and old woman over me | L |
He studied too Then in an organ voice | T3 |
Is there a single verse in the New Testament | |
That hasn't sprouted one church anyway | B3 |
Letting alone the verses that have sprouted | N2 |
Two three or four or five I know of one | L3 |
Where is it that it says that Jesus wept | |
Let's found a church on that verse Jesus wept | |
With that he went out in the rain and slammed | |
The door behind him | P4 |
- | |
The old clergyman | L3 |
Had fallen asleep His wife looked up and said | X3 |
That man is crazy ain't he I'm afraid |
Edgar Lee Masters
(1)
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