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 L3X3

June 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

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