Captain Craig Iii Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDAEFGHIJKLMNKO PEQRSTUVWXYSZA2GB2C2 D2E2CF2G2H2I2RJ2K2L2 L2RM2A2N2O2P2Q2AR2S2 RT2U2KP2 GA2Q2RV2IW2X2EA2 Y2PZ2A3H2B3C3Q2Q2D3Q 2E3F3G3N2Q2N2Q2Q2Q2H 3I3Q2Q2Q2RN2Q2Q2N2N2 QC3Q2N2XN2Q2N2Q2Q2N2 Q2N2J3H3H3N2K3X2M2OM 2X2N2N2L3N2Q2Q2M3Q2Q 2N2N2VQ2Q2X2L3N2N3A3 N2N2L3O3L3Q2L3V2V2Q2 Q2L3P3P3V2A3Q3Q2L3Q2 ZH3VL3R3Q2L3 L3UN2L3N2L3L3N2S3N2L 3Q2N2L3Q2Q2N2N2N2N3N 2N2V2L3L3ZQ2T3L3N2N2 N3N2N3 H3U3N2 Q2L3VP2N2Q2Q2 Q2Q2Q2R3N2N2N2H3R3V3 Q2Q2Q2Q2Q2Q2 N2O3N3N2Q2W3Q2O2N2V H3X3L3L3L3L3L3QN2Y3N 2N2N2Z3A4L3H3N2N2Q2Q 2L3Q2N2V2N2A3N2Z Q2N2N2N2N2K3Q2Q2N2L3 H3L3Q2H3L3Q2Q2ZV2Q2Q 2H3N2R3H3L3QP2N2L3Q2 T3O2Z3L3V2N2Q2Q2B4H3 N2Q2Q2N2L3L3Q2N3Q2V2 L3N2L3N2V2H3Q2Q2L3Q2 C4L3L3L3N2H3 K3D4Q2Q2V2Q2Q2N2H3 R3N2QL3N2L3N2L3V2L3N 3O2N2N2N2L3N2L3R3E4L 3F4G4 K3N3Q2L3Q2V2Q2Q2L3N2 K3K3 V2V2V2A3H4H3I4N2J4H3 K4N2L3Q2Q2O2K3L3Q2L3 N2Q2L3Q2N2V2L3N2N2 L3H3N2L3N2L3Q2H3H3Q2 Q2N2Q2N2L3L3N2L3Y3L3 Y3L3 L3Q2K3 L4L3N2M4O2N2K3Y3N2Q2 Q2 R3Y3N2L3H3Q2N2N2L3N2 H3Q2Q2Q2K3N4 H3L3R3O4L3L3Q2N2K3N2 L3N2N2K3Q2L3N2L3K3L3 N2N2V2L3H3Q2L3Q2Q2N2 P4V2Q2Q2Q2Q2L3Q2Q2 L3Q4 Q2V2L3L3V2Q2L3R3Q2 V2L3L3L3N2L3H3N2Q2L3 L3R4L3L3Q2Q2S4N2N2N2 L3 Q2V2Q2K3Q2Q2V2L3L3Q2 Q2K3Q2L3 Q2Q2N2Q2K3L3Q2V2Q2L3 Q2Q2H3L3Q2V2Q2L3N2N2 Q2L3V2L3N2L3L3VQ2H3N 2H3L3H3K3V2V2N2N2K3V 2Q2L3K3 K3K3K3 K3L3P2P2N2Q2K3N2N2L3 L3P2K3Q2V2Q2Q2N2H3H3 K3Q2L3Q2N2N2V2K3Q2N2 N2V2 N2R3L3N2K3Q2Z3L3L3L3 K3N2Q2 N2K3N2N2N2Q2N2Q2N2M3 Q2N2L3N2Q2Q2U3N2N2K3 N2L3N2H3V2Q2O3L3Q2Q2 L3N2L3Q2N2Q2N2L3U3N2 H3Q2Q2H3Q2N2L3Q2R4N2 R4Q2L3K3N2K3H3Q2L3H3 N2Q2 L3N2N2V2R3Q2N2Q2Q2L3 L3N2T4Q3Q2Q2N2Q2H3 N2H3N2Q2H3Q2Q2K3N2K3 L3VL3V2H3N2L3Q2H3Q2N 2 N2Q2L3Q2N2K3L3Q2Q2U4 L3Q2L3N2H3N2H3Q2V2N2 Q2L3

I found the old man sitting in his bed	A
Propped up and uncomplaining On a chair	B
Beside him was a dreary bowl of broth	C
A magazine some glasses and a pipe	D
I do not light it nowadays he said	A
But keep it for an antique influence	E
That it exerts an aura that it sheds	F
Like hautboys or Provence You understand	G
The charred memorial defeats us yet	H
But think you not for always We are young	I
And we are friends of time Time that made smoke	J
Will drive away the smoke and we shall know	K
The work that we are doing We shall build	L
With embers of all shrines one pyramid	M
And we shall have the most resplendent flame	N
From earth to heaven as the old words go	K
And we shall need no smoke Why don't you laugh	O
	-
I gazed into those calm half lighted eyes	P
And smiled at them with grim obedience	E
He told me that I did it very well	Q
But added that I should undoubtedly	R
Do better in the future There is nothing	S
He said so beneficial in a sick room	T
As a well bred spontaneity of manner	U
Your sympathetic scowl obtrudes itself	V
And is indeed surprising After death	W
Were you to take it with you to your coffin	X
An unimaginative man might think	Y
That you had lost your life in worrying	S
To find out what it was that worried you	Z
The ways of unimaginative men	A2
Are singularly fierce Why do you stand	G
Sit here and watch me while I take this soup	B2
The doctor likes it therefore it is good	C2
	-
The man who wrote the decalogue pursued	D2
The Captain having swallowed four or five	E2
Heroic spoonfuls of his lukewarm broth	C
Forgot the doctors And I think sometimes	F2
The man of Galilee or if you choose	G2
The men who made the sayings of the man	H2
Like Buddha and the others who have seen	I2
Was to men's loss the Poet though it be	R
The Poet only of him we revere	J2
The Poet we remember We have put	K2
The prose of him so far away from us	L2
The fear of him so crudely over us	L2
That I have wondered wondered Cautiously	R
But yet as one were cautious in a dream	M2
He set the bowl down on the chair again	A2
Crossed his thin fingers looked me in the face	N2
And looking smiled a little Go away	O2
He said at last and let me go to sleep	P2
I told you I should eat but I shall not	Q2
To morrow I shall eat and I shall read	A
Some clauses of a jocund instrument	R2
That I have been preparing here of late	S2
For you and for the rest assuredly	R
'Attend the testament of Captain Craig	T2
Good citizens good fathers and your sons	U2
Good mothers and your daughters ' I should say so	K
Now go away and let me go to sleep	P2
	-
I stood before him and held out my hand	G
He took it pressed it and I felt again	A2
The sick soft closing on it He would not	Q2
Let go but lay there looking up to me	R
With eyes that had a sheen of water on them	V2
And a faint wet spark within them So he clung	I
Tenaciously with fingers icy warm	W2
And eyes too full to keep the sheen unbroken	X2
I looked at him The fingers closed hard once	E
And then fell down I should have left him then	A2
	-
But when we found him the next afternoon	Y2
My first thought was that he had made his eyes	P
Miraculously smaller They were sharp	Z2
And hard and dry and the spark in them was dry	A3
For a glance it all but seemed as if the man	H2
Had artfully forsworn the brimming gaze	B3
Of yesterday and with a wizard strength	C3
Inveigled in reduced and vitalized	Q2
The straw shine of October and had that	Q2
Been truth we should have humored him no less	D3
Albeit he had fooled us for he said	Q2
That we had made him glad by coming to him	E3
And he was glad the manner of his words	F3
Revealed the source of them and the gray smile	G3
Which lingered like a twilight on his face	N2
Told of its own slow fading that it held	Q2
The promise of the sun Cadaverous	N2
God knows it was and we knew it was honest	Q2
So you have come to hear the old man read	Q2
To you from his last will and testament	Q2
Well it will not be long not very long	H3
So listen He brought out from underneath	I3
His pillow a new manuscript and said	Q2
You have done well to come and hear me read	Q2
My testament There are men in the world	Q2
Who say of me if they remember me	R
That I am poor and I believe the ways	N2
Of certain men who never find things out	Q2
Are stranger than the way Lord Bacon wrote	Q2
Leviticus and Faust He fixed his eyes	N2
Abstractedly on something far from us	N2
And with a look that I remembered well	Q
Gazed hard the while we waited But at length	C3
He found himself and soon began to chant	Q2
With a fitful shift at thin sonorousness	N2
The jocund instrument and had he been	X
Definitively parceling to us	N2
All Kimberley and half of Ballarat	Q2
The lordly quaver of his poor old words	N2
Could not have been the more magniloquent	Q2
No promise of dead carbon or of gold	Q2
However flashed in ambush to corrupt us	N2
	-
I Captain Craig abhorred iconoclast	Q2
Sage errant favored of the Mysteries	N2
And self reputed humorist at large	J3
Do now confessed of my world worshiping	H3
Time questioning sun fearing and heart yielding	H3
Approve and unreservedly devise	N2
To you and your assigns for evermore	K3
God's universe and yours If I had won	X2
What first I sought I might have made you beam	M2
By giving less but now I make you laugh	O
By giving more than what had made you beam	M2
And it is well No man has ever done	X2
The deed of humor that God promises	N2
But now and then we know tragedians	N2
Reform and in denial too divine	L3
For sacrifice too firm for ecstasy	N2
Record in letters or in books they write	Q2
What fragment of God's humor they have caught	Q2
What earnest of its rhythm and I believe	M3
That I in having somewhat recognized	Q2
The formal measure of it have endured	Q2
The discord of infirmity no less	N2
Through fortune than by failure What men lose	N2
Man gains and what man gains reports itself	V
In losses we but vaguely deprecate	Q2
So they be not for us and this is right	Q2
Except that when the devil in the sun	X2
Misguides us we go darkly where the shine	L3
Misleads us and we know not what we see	N2
We know not if we climb or if we fall	N3
And if we fly we know not where we fly	A3
	-
And here do I insert an urging clause	N2
For climbers and up fliers of all sorts	N2
Cliff climbers and high fliers Phaethon	L3
Bellerophon and Icarus did each	O3
Go gloriously up and each in turn	L3
Did famously come down as you have read	Q2
In poems and elsewhere but other men	L3
Have mounted where no fame has followed them	V2
And we have had no sight no news of them	V2
And we have heard no crash The crash may count	Q2
Undoubtedly and earth be fairer for it	Q2
Yet none save creatures out of harmony	L3
Have ever in their fealty to the flesh	P3
Made crashing an ideal It is the flesh	P3
That ails us for the spirit knows no qualm	V2
No failure no down falling so climb high	A3
And having set your steps regard not much	Q3
The downward laughter clinging at your feet	Q2
Nor overmuch the warning only know	L3
As well as you know dawn from lantern light	Q2
That far above you for you and within you	Z
There burns and shines and lives unwavering	H3
And always yours the truth Take on yourself	V
But your sincerity and you take on	L3
Good promise for all climbing fly for truth	R3
And hell shall have no storm to crush your flight	Q2
No laughter to vex down your loyalty	L3
	-
I think you may be smiling at me now	L3
And if I make you smile so much the better	U
For I would have you know that I rejoice	N2
Always to see the thing that I would see	L3
The righteous thing the wise thing I rejoice	N2
Always to think that any thought of mine	L3
Or any word or any deed of mine	L3
May grant sufficient of what fortifies	N2
Good feeling and the courage of calm joy	S3
To make the joke worth while Contrariwise	N2
When I review some faces I have known	L3
Sad faces hungry faces and reflect	Q2
On thoughts I might have moulded human words	N2
I might have said straightway it saddens me	L3
To feel perforce that had I not been mute	Q2
And actionless I might have made them bright	Q2
Somehow though only for the moment Yes	N2
Howbeit I may confess the vanities	N2
It saddens me and sadness of all things	N2
Miscounted wisdom and the most of all	N3
When warmed with old illusions and regrets	N2
I mark the selfishest and on like lines	N2
The shrewdest For your sadness makes you climb	V2
With dragging footsteps and it makes you groan	L3
It hinders you when most you would be free	L3
And there are many days it wearies you	Z
Beyond the toil itself And if the load	Q2
It lays on you may not be shaken off	T3
Till you have known what now you do not know	L3
Meanwhile you climb and he climbs best who sees	N2
Above him truth burn faithfulest and feels	N2
Within him truth burn purest Climb or fall	N3
One road remains and one firm guidance always	N2
One way that shall be taken climb or fall	N3
	-
But 'falling falling falling ' There's your song	H3
The cradle song that sings you to the grave	U3
What is it your bewildered poet says	N2
	-
'The toiling ocean thunders of unrest	Q2
And aching desolation the still sea	L3
Paints but an outward calm that mocks itself	V
To the final and irrefragable sleep	P2
That owns no shifting fury and the shoals	N2
Of ages are but records of regret	Q2
Where Time the sun's arch phantom writes on sand	Q2
The prelude of his ancient nothingness '	-
	-
'T is easy to compound a dirge like that	Q2
And it is easy to be deceived	Q2
And alienated by the fleshless note	Q2
Of half world yearning in it but the truth	R3
To which we all are tending charlatans	N2
And architects alike artificers	N2
In tinsel as in gold evangelists	N2
Of ruin and redemption all alike	H3
The truth we seek and equally the truth	R3
We do not seek but yet may not escape	V3
Was never found alone through flesh contempt	Q2
Or through flesh reverence Look east and west	Q2
And we may read the story where the light	Q2
Shone first the shade now darkens where the shade	Q2
Clung first the light fights westward though the shade	Q2
Still feeds and there is yet the Orient	Q2
	-
But there is this to be remembered always	N2
Whatever be the altitude you reach	O3
You do not rise alone nor do you fall	N3
But you drag others down to more or less	N2
Than your preferred abasement God forbid	Q2
That ever I should preach and in my zeal	W3
Forget that I was born an humorist	Q2
But now for once before I go away	O2
I beg of you to be magnanimous	N2
A moment while I speak to please myself	V
	-
Though I have heard it variously sung	H3
That even in the fury and the clash	X3
Of battles and the closer fights of men	L3
When silence gives the knowing world no sign	L3
One flower there is though crushed and cursed it be	L3
Keeps rooted through all tumult and all scorn	L3
Still do I find when I look sharply down	L3
There's yet another flower that grows well	Q
And has the most unconscionable roots	N2
Of any weed on earth Perennial	Y3
It grows and has the name of Selfishness	N2
No doubt you call it Love In either case	N2
You propagate it with a diligence	N2
That hardly were outmeasured had its leaf	Z3
The very juice in it of that famed herb	A4
Which gave back breath to Glaucus and I know	L3
That in the twilight after the day's work	H3
You take your little children in your arms	N2
Or lead them by their credulous frail hands	N2
Benignly out and through the garden gate	Q2
And show them there the things that you have raised	Q2
Not everything perchance but always one	L3
Miraculously rooted flower plot	Q2
Which is your pride their pattern Socrates	N2
Could he be with you there at such a time	V2
Would have some unsolicited shrewd words	N2
To say that you might hearken to but I	A3
Say nothing for I am not Socrates	N2
So much good friends for flowers and I thank you	Z
	-
There was a poet once who would have roared	Q2
Away the world and had an end of stars	N2
Where was he when I quoted him oh yes	N2
'T is easy for a man to link loud words	N2
With woeful pomp and unschooled emphasis	N2
And add one thundered contribution more	K3
To the dirges of all hollowness I said	Q2
But here again I find the question set	Q2
Before me after turning books on books	N2
And looking soulward through man after man	L3
If there indeed be more determining	H3
Play service in remotely sounding down	L3
The world's one sidedness If I judge right	Q2
Your pounding protestations echoing	H3
Their burden of unfraught futility	L3
Surge back to mute forgetfulness at last	Q2
And have a kind of sunny sullen end	Q2
Like any cold north storm But there are few	Z
Still seas that have no life to profit them	V2
And even in such currents of the mind	Q2
As have no tide rush in them but are drowsed	Q2
Crude thoughts may dart in armor and upspring	H3
With waking sound when all is dim with peace	N2
Like sturgeons in the twilight out of Lethe	R3
And though they be discordant hard grotesque	H3
And all unwelcome to the lethargy	L3
That you think means repose you know as well	Q
As if your names were shouted when they leap	P2
And when they leap you listen Ah friends friends	N2
There are these things we do not like to know	L3
They trouble us they make us hesitate	Q2
They touch us and we try to put them off	T3
We banish one another and then say	O2
That we are left alone the midnight leaf	Z3
That rattles where it hangs above the snow	L3
Gaunt fluttering forlorn scarcely may seem	V2
So cold in all its palsied loneliness	N2
As we we frozen brothers who have yet	Q2
Profoundly and severely to find out	Q2
That there is more of unpermitted love	B4
In most men's reticence than most men think	H3
	-
Once when I made it out fond headedness	N2
To say that we should ever be apprised	Q2
Of our deserts and their emolument	Q2
At all but in the specious way of words	N2
The wisdom of a warm thought woke within me	L3
And I could read the sun Then did I turn	L3
My long defeated face full to the world	Q2
And through the clouded warfare of it all	N3
Discern the light Through dusk that hindered it	Q2
I found the truth and for the first whole time	V2
Knew then that we were climbing Not as one	L3
Who mounts along with his experience	N2
Bound on him like an Old Man of the Sea	L3
Not as a moral pedant who drags chains	N2
Of his unearned ideals after him	V2
And always to the lead like thud they make	H3
Attunes a cold inhospitable chant	Q2
Of All Things Easy to the Non Attached	Q2
But as a man a scarred man among men	L3
I knew it and I felt the strings of thought	Q2
Between us to pull tight the while I strove	C4
And if a curse came ringing now and then	L3
To my defended ears how could I know	L3
The light that burned above me and within me	L3
And at the same time put on cap and bells	N2
For such as yet were groping	H3
	-
Killigrew	K3
Made there as if to stifle a small cough	D4
I might have kicked him but regret forbade	Q2
The subtle admonition and indeed	Q2
When afterwards I reprimanded him	V2
The fellow never knew quite what I meant	Q2
I may have been unjust The Captain read	Q2
Right on without a chuckle or a pause	N2
As if he had heard nothing	H3
	-
How forsooth	R3
Shall any man by curses or by groans	N2
Or by the laugh jarred stillness of all hell	Q
Be so drawn down to servitude again	L3
That on some backward level of lost laws	N2
And undivined relations he may know	L3
No longer Love's imperative resource	N2
Firm once and his well treasured then but now	L3
Too fondly thrown away And if there come	V2
But once on all his journey singing down	L3
To find him the gold throated forward call	N3
What way but one what but the forward way	O2
Shall after that call guide him When his ears	N2
Have earned an inward skill to methodize	N2
The clash of all crossed voices and all noises	N2
How shall he grope to be confused again	L3
As he has been by discord When his eyes	N2
Have read the book of wisdom in the sun	L3
And after dark deciphered it on earth	R3
How shall he turn them back to scan some huge	E4
Blood lettered protest of bewildered men	L3
That hunger while he feeds where they would starve	F4
And all absurdly perish	G4
	-
Killigrew	K3
Looked hard for a subtile object on the wall	N3
And having found it sighed The Captain paused	Q2
If he grew tedious most assuredly	L3
Did he crave pardon of us he had feared	Q2
Beforehand that he might be wearisome	V2
But there was not much more of it he said	Q2
No more than just enough And we rejoiced	Q2
That he should look so kindly on us then	L3
Commend me to a dying man's grimace	N2
For absolute humor always Killigrew	K3
Maintains but I know better	K3
	-
Work for them	V2
You tell me Work the folly out of them	V2
Go back to them and teach them how to climb	V2
While you teach caterpillars how to fly	A3
You tell me that Alnaschar is a fool	H4
Because he dreams And what is this you ask	H3
I make him wise I teach him to be still	I4
While you go polishing the Pyramids	N2
I hold Alnaschar's feet And while you have	J4
The ghost of Memnon's image all day singing	H3
I sit with aching arms and hardly catch	K4
A few spilled echoes of the song of songs	N2
The song that I should have as utterly	L3
For mine as other men should once have had	Q2
The sweetest a glad shepherd ever trilled	Q2
In Sharon long ago Is this the way	O2
For me to do good climbing any more	K3
Than Phaethon's Do you think the golden tone	L3
Of that far singing call you all have heard	Q2
Means any more for you than you should be	L3
Wise heartedly glad heartedly yourselves	N2
Do this there is no more for you to do	Q2
And you have no dread left no shame no scorn	L3
And while you have your wisdom and your gold	Q2
Songs calling and the Princess in your arms	N2
Remember if you like from time to time	V2
Down yonder where the clouded millions go	L3
Your bloody knuckled scullions are not slaves	N2
Your children of Alnaschar are not fools	N2
	-
Nor are they quite so foreign or far down	L3
As you may think to see them What you take	H3
To be the cursedest mean thing that crawls	N2
On earth is nearer to you than you know	L3
You may not ever crush him but you lose	N2
You may not ever shield him but you gain	L3
As he with all his crookedness gains with you	Q2
Your preaching and your teaching your achieving	H3
Your lifting up and your discovering	H3
Are more than often more than you have dreamed	Q2
The world refracted evidence of what	Q2
Your dream denies You cannot hide yourselves	N2
In any multitude or solitude	Q2
Or mask yourselves in any studied guise	N2
Of hardness or of old humility	L3
But soon by some discriminating man	L3
Some humorist at large like Socrates	N2
You get yourselves found out Now I should be	L3
Found out without an effort For example	Y3
When I go riding trimmed and shaved again	L3
Consistent adequate respectable	Y3
Some citizen for curiosity	L3
Will ask of a good neighbor 'What is this '	-
'It is the funeral of Captain Craig '	-
Will be the neighbor's word 'And who good man	L3
Was Captain Craig ' 'He was an humorist	Q2
And we are told that there is nothing more	K3
For any man alive to say of him '	-
'There is nothing very strange in that ' says A	L4
'But the brass band What has he done to be	L3
Blown through like this by cornets and trombones	N2
And here you have this incompatible dirge	M4
Where are the jokes in that ' Then B should say	O2
'Maintained his humor nothing more or less	N2
The story goes that on the day before	K3
He died some say a week but that's a trifle	Y3
He said with a subdued facetiousness	N2
Play Handel not Chopin assuredly not	Q2
Chopin ' He was indeed an humorist	Q2
	-
He made the paper fall down at arm's length	R3
And with a tension of half quizzical	Y3
Benignity that made it hard for us	N2
He looked up first at Morgan then at me	L3
Almost I thought as if his eyes would ask	H3
If we were satisfied and as he looked	Q2
The tremor of an old heart's weariness	N2
Was on his mouth He gazed at each of us	N2
But spoke no further word that afternoon	L3
He put away the paper closed his eyes	N2
And went to sleep with his lips flickering	H3
And after that we left him At midnight	Q2
Plunket and I looked in but he still slept	Q2
And everything was going as it should	Q2
The watchman yawned rattled his newspaper	K3
And wondered what it was that ailed his lamp	N4
	-
Next day we found the Captain wide awake	H3
Propped up and searching dimly with a spoon	L3
Through another dreary dish of chicken broth	R3
Which he raised up to me at my approach	O4
So fervently and so unconsciously	L3
That one could only laugh He looked again	L3
At each of us and as he looked he frowned	Q2
And there was something in that frown of his	N2
That none of us had ever seen before	K3
Kind friends he said be sure that I rejoice	N2
To know that you have come to visit me	L3
Be sure I speak with undisguised words	N2
And earnest when I say that I rejoice	N2
But what the devil whispered Killigrew	K3
I kicked him for I thought I understood	Q2
The old man's eyes had glimmered wearily	L3
At first but now they glittered like to those	N2
Of a glad fish Beyond a doubt said he	L3
My dream this morning was more singular	K3
Than any other I have ever known	L3
Give me that I might live ten thousand years	N2
And all those years do nothing but have dreams	N2
I doubt me much if any one of them	V2
Could be so quaint or so fantastical	L3
So pregnant as a dream of mine this morning	H3
You may not think it any more than odd	Q2
You may not feel you cannot wholly feel	L3
How droll it was I dreamed that I found Hamlet	Q2
Found him at work drenched with an angry sweat	Q2
Predestined he declared with emphasis	N2
To root out a large weed on Lethe wharf	P4
And after I had watched him for some time	V2
I laughed at him and told him that no root	Q2
Would ever come the while he talked like that	Q2
The power was not in him I explained	Q2
For such compound accomplishment He glared	Q2
At me of course next moment laughed at me	L3
And finally laughed with me I was right	Q2
And we had eisel on the strength of it	Q2
'They tell me that this water is not good '	-
Said Hamlet and you should have seen him smile	L3
Conceited Pelion and Ossa pah	Q4
	-
But anon comes in a crocodile We stepped	Q2
Adroitly down upon the back of him	V2
And away we went to an undiscovered country	L3
A fertile place but in more ways than one	L3
So like the region we had started from	V2
That Hamlet straightway found another weed	Q2
And there began to tug I laughed again	L3
Till he cried out on me and on my mirth	R3
Protesting all he knew 'The Fates ' he said	Q2
'Have ordered it that I shall have these roots '	-
But all at once a dreadful hunger seized him	V2
And it was then we killed the crocodile	L3
Killed him and ate him Washed with eisel down	L3
That luckless reptile was to the last morsel	L3
And there we were with flag fens all around us	N2
And there was Hamlet at his task again	L3
Ridiculous And while I watched his work	H3
The drollest of all changes came to pass	N2
The weed had snapped off just above the root	Q2
Not warning him and I was left alone	L3
The bubbles rose and I laughed heartily	L3
To think of him I laughed when I woke up	R4
And when my soup came in I laughed again	L3
I think I may have laughed a little no	L3
Not when you came Why do you look like that	Q2
You don't believe me Crocodiles why not	Q2
Who knows what he has eaten in his life	S4
Who knows but I have eaten Atropos	N2
'Briar and oak for a soldier's crown ' you say	N2
Provence Oh no Had I been Socrates	N2
Count Pretzel would have been the King of Spain	L3
	-
Now of all casual things we might have said	Q2
To make the matter smooth at such a time	V2
There may have been a few that we had found	Q2
Sufficient Recollection fails however	K3
To say that we said anything We looked	Q2
Had he been Carmichael we might have stood	Q2
Like faithful hypocrites and laughed at him	V2
But the Captain was not Carmichael at all	L3
For the Captain had no frogs he had the sun	L3
So there we waited hungry for the word	Q2
Tormented unsophisticated stretched	Q2
Till with a drawl to save us Killigrew	K3
Good humoredly spoke out The Captain fixed	Q2
His eyes on him with some severity	L3
	-
That was a funny dream beyond a doubt	Q2
Said Killigrew too funny to be laughed at	Q2
Too humorous we mean Too humorous	N2
The Captain answered I approve of that	Q2
Proceed We were not glad for Killigrew	K3
Well he went on 't was only this You see	L3
My dream this morning was a droll one too	Q2
I dreamed that a sad man was in my room	V2
Sitting as I do now beside the bed	Q2
I questioned him but he made no reply	L3
Said not a word but sang Said not a word	Q2
But sang the Captain echoed Very good	Q2
Now tell me what it was the sad man sang	H3
Now that said Killigrew constrainedly	L3
And with a laugh that might have been left out	Q2
Is why I know it must have been a dream	V2
But there he was and I lay in the bed	Q2
Like you and I could see him just as well	L3
As you see my right hand And for the songs	N2
He sang to me there's where the dream part comes	N2
	-
You don't remember them the Captain said	Q2
With a weary little chuckle very well	L3
I might have guessed it Never mind your dream	V2
But let me go to sleep For a moment then	L3
There was a frown on Killigrew's good face	N2
And then there was a smile Not quite said he	L3
The songs that he sang first were sorrowful	L3
And they were stranger than the man himself	V
And he was very strange but I found out	Q2
Through all the gloom of him and of his music	H3
That a say well say mystic cheerfulness	N2
Pervaded him for slowly as he sang	H3
There came a change and I began to know	L3
The method of it all Song after song	H3
Was ended and when I had listened there	K3
For hours I mean for dream hours hearing him	V2
And always glad that I was hearing him	V2
There came another change a great one Tears	N2
Rolled out at last like bullets from his eyes	N2
And I could hear them fall down on the floor	K3
Like shoes and they were always marking time	V2
For the song that he was singing I have lost	Q2
The greater number of his verses now	L3
But there are some like these that I remember	K3
	-
'Ten men from Zanzibar	K3
Black as iron hammers are	K3
Riding on a cable car	K3
Down to Crowley's theatre '	-
	-
Ten men the Captain interrupted there	K3
Ten men my Euthyphron That is beautiful	L3
But never mind I wish to go to sleep	P2
Tell Cebes that I wish to go to sleep	P2
O ye of little faith your golden plumes	N2
Are like to drag par dee We may have smiled	Q2
In after days to think how Killigrew	K3
Had sacrificed himself to fight that silence	N2
But we were grateful to him none the less	N2
And if we smiled that may have been the reason	L3
But the good Captain for a long time then	L3
Said nothing he lay quiet fast asleep	P2
For all that we could see We waited there	K3
Till each of us I fancy must have made	Q2
The paper on the wall begin to squirm	V2
And then got up to leave My friends went out	Q2
And I was going when the old man cried	Q2
You leave me now now it has come to this	N2
What have I done to make you go Come back	H3
Come back	H3
	-
There was a quaver in his cry	K3
That we shall not forget reproachful kind	Q2
Indignant piteous It seemed as one	L3
Marooned on treacherous tide feeding sand	Q2
Were darkly calling over the still straits	N2
Between him and irrevocable shores	N2
Where now there was no lamp to fade for him	V2
No call to give him answer We were there	K3
Before him but his eyes were not much turned	Q2
On us nor was it very much to us	N2
That he began to speak the broken words	N2
The scattered words that he had left in him	V2
	-
So it has come to this And what is this	N2
Death do you call it Death And what is death	R3
Why do you look like that at me again	L3
Why do you shrink your brows and shut your lips	N2
If it be fear then I can do no more	K3
Than hope for all of you that you may find	Q2
Your promise of the sun if it be grief	Z3
You feel to think that this old face of mine	L3
May never look at you and laugh again	L3
Then tell me why it is that you have gone	L3
So long with me and followed me so far	K3
And had me to believe you took my words	N2
For more than ever misers did their gold	Q2
	-
He listened but his eyes were far from us	N2
Too far to make us turn to Killigrew	K3
Or search the futile shelves of our own thoughts	N2
For golden labeled insincerities	N2
To make placebos of The marrowy sense	N2
Of slow November rain that splashed against	Q2
The shingles and the glass reminded us	N2
That we had brought umbrellas He continued	Q2
Oh can it be that I too credulous	N2
Have made myself believe that you believe	M3
Yourselves to be the men that you are not	Q2
I prove and I prize well your friendliness	N2
But I would have that your last look at me	L3
Be not like this for I would scan today	N2
Strong thoughts on all your faces no regret	Q2
No still commiseration oh not that	Q2
No doubt no fear A man may be as brave	U3
As Ajax in the fury of his arms	N2
And in the midmost warfare of his thoughts	N2
Be frail as Paris For the love therefore	K3
That brothered us when we stood back that day	N2
From Delium the love that holds us now	L3
More than it held us at Amphipolis	N2
Forget you not that he who in his work	H3
Would mount from these low roads of measured shame	V2
To tread the leagueless highway must fling first	Q2
And fling forevermore beyond his reach	O3
The shackles of a slave who doubts the sun	L3
There is no servitude so fraudulent	Q2
As of a sun shut mind for 't is the mind	Q2
That makes you craven or invincible	L3
Diseased or puissant The mind will pay	N2
Ten thousand fold and be the richer then	L3
To grant new service but the world pays hard	Q2
And accurately sickens till in years	N2
The dole has eked its end and there is left	Q2
What all of you are noting on all days	N2
In these Athenian streets where squandered men	L3
Drag ruins of half warriors to the grave	U3
Or to Hippocrates	N2
	-
His head fell back	H3
And he lay still with wearied eyes half closed	Q2
We waited but a few faint words yet stayed	Q2
Kind friends he said friends I have known so long	H3
Though I have jested with you in time past	Q2
Though I have stung your pride with epithets	N2
Not all forbearing still when I am gone	L3
Say Socrates wrought always for the best	Q2
And for the wisest end Give me the cup	R4
The truth is yours God's universe is yours	N2
Good by good citizens give me the cup	R4
Again we waited and this time we knew	Q2
Those lips of his that would not flicker down	L3
Had yet some fettered message for us there	K3
We waited and we watched him All at once	N2
With a faint flash the clouded eyes grew clear	K3
And then we knew the man was coming back	H3
We watched him and I listened The man smiled	Q2
And looked about him not regretfully	L3
Not anxiously and when at last he spoke	H3
Before the long drowse came to give him peace	N2
One word was all he said Trombones he said	Q2
	-
That evening at The Chrysalis again	L3
We smoked and looked at one another's eyes	N2
And we were glad The world had scattered ways	N2
For us to take we knew but for the time	V2
That one snug room where big beech logs roared smooth	R3
Defiance to the cold rough rain outside	Q2
Sufficed There were no scattered ways for us	N2
That we could see just then and we were glad	Q2
We were glad to be on earth and we rejoiced	Q2
No less for Captain Craig that he was gone	L3
We might for his dead benefit have run	L3
The gamut of all human weaknesses	N2
And uttered after platitudes enough	T4
Wrecked on his own abstractions and all such	Q3
To drive away Gambrinus and the bead	Q2
From Bernard's ale and I suppose we might	Q2
Have praised accordingly the Lord of Hosts	N2
For letting us believe that we were not	Q2
The least and idlest of His handiwork	H3
	-
So Plunket who had knowledge of all sorts	N2
Yet hardly ever spoke began to plink	H3
O tu Palermo quaintly with his nails	N2
On Morgan's fiddle and at once got seized	Q2
As if he were some small thing by the neck	H3
Then the consummate Morgan having told	Q2
Explicitly what hardship might accrue	Q2
To Plunket if he did that any more	K3
Made roaring chords and acrobatic runs	N2
And then with his kind eyes on Killigrew	K3
Struck up the schoolgirls' march in Lohengrin	L3
So Killigrew might smile and stretch himself	V
And have to light his pipe When that was done	L3
We knew that Morgan by the looks of him	V2
Was in the mood for almost anything	H3
From Bach to Offenbach and of all times	N2
That he has ever played that one somehow	L3
That evening of the day the Captain died	Q2
Stands out like one great verse of a good song	H3
One strain that sings itself beyond the rest	Q2
For magic and a glamour that it has	N2
	-
The ways have scattered for us and all things	N2
Have changed and we have wisdom I doubt not	Q2
More fit for the world's work than we had then	L3
But neither parted roads nor cent per cent	Q2
May starve quite out the child that lives in us	N2
The Child that is the Man the Mystery	K3
The Ph oelig nix of the World So now and then	L3
That evening of the day the Captain died	Q2
Returns to us and there comes always with it	Q2
The storm the warm restraint the fellowship	U4
The friendship and the firelight and the fiddle	L3
So too there comes a day that followed it	Q2
A windy dreary day with a cold white shine	L3
Which only gummed the tumbled frozen ruts	N2
That made us ache The road was hard and long	H3
But we had what we knew to comfort us	N2
And we had the large humor of the thing	H3
To make it advantageous for men stopped	Q2
And eyed us on that road from time to time	V2
And on that road the children followed us	N2
And all along that road the Tilbury Band	Q2
Blared indiscreetly the Dead March in Saul	L3

Edwin Arlington Robinson

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