The Singing-woman From The Wood's Edge Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AAAA BBAA CCDD EECC EE FFGG EEHH EEII EEAA JJ

What should I be but a prophet and a liarA
Whose mother was a leprechaun whose father was a friarA
Teethed on a crucifix and cradled under waterA
What should I be but the fiend's god daughterA
-
And who should be my playmates but the adder and the frogB
That was got beneath a furze bush and born in a bogB
And what should be my singing that was christened at an altarA
But Aves and Credos and Psalms out of the PsalterA
-
You will see such webs on the wet grass maybeC
As a pixie mother weaves for her babyC
You will find such flame at the wave's weedy ebbD
As flashes in the meshes of a mer mother's webD
-
But there comes to birth no common spawnE
From the love of a priest for a leprechaunE
And you never have seen and you never will seeC
Such things as the things that swaddled meC
-
After all's said and after all's doneE
What should I be but a harlot and a nunE
-
In through the bushes on any foggy dayF
My Da would come a swishing of the drops awayF
With a prayer for my death and a groan for my birthG
A mumbling of his beads for all that he was worthG
-
And there sit my Ma her knees beneath her chinE
A looking in his face and a drinking of it inE
And a marking in the moss some funny little sayingH
That would mean just the opposite of all that he was prayingH
-
He taught me the holy talk of Vesper and of MatinE
He heard me my Greek and he heard me my LatinE
He blessed me and crossed me to keep my soul from evilI
And we watched him out of sight and we conjured up the devilI
-
Oh the things I haven't seen and the things I haven't knownE
What with hedges and ditches till after I was grownE
And yanked both ways by my mother and my fatherA
With a Which would you better and a Which would you ratherA
-
With him for a sire and her for a damJ
What should I be but just what I amJ

Edna St. Vincent Millay



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