The Ballad Of Yaada [1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A AAAA BABA BBBB CDCD BBBB CBCB EFEF EBEB CGCG HIHI ABAB JBJB CACAA LEGEND OF THE PACIFIC COAST | A |
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There are fires on Lulu Island and the sky is opalescent | A |
With the pearl and purple tinting from the smouldering of peat | A |
And the Dream Hills lift their summits in a sweeping hazy crescent | A |
With the Capilano canyon at their feet | A |
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There are fires on Lulu Island and the smoke uplifting lingers | B |
In a faded scarf of fragrance as it creeps across the day | A |
And the Inlet and the Narrows blur beneath its silent fingers | B |
And the canyon is enfolded in its grey | A |
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But the sun its face is veiling like a cloistered nun at vespers | B |
As towards the alter candles of the night a censer swings | B |
And the echo of tradition wakes from slumbering and whispers | B |
Where the Capilano river sobs and sings | B |
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It was Yaada lovely Yaada who first taught the stream its sighing | C |
For 'twas silent till her coming and 'twas voiceless as the shore | D |
But throughout the great forever it will sing the song undying | C |
That the lips of lovers sing for evermore | D |
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He was chief of all the Squamish and he ruled the coastal waters | B |
And he warred upon her people in the distant Charlotte Isles | B |
She a winsome basket weaver daintiest of Haida daughters | B |
Made him captive to her singing and her smiles | B |
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Till his hands forgot to havoc and his weapons lost their lusting | C |
Till his stormy eyes allured her from the land of Totem Poles | B |
Till she followed where he called her followed with a woman's trusting | C |
To the canyon where the Capilano rolls | B |
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And the women of the Haidas plied in vain their magic power | E |
Wailed for many moons her absence wailed for many moons their prayer | F |
Bring her back O Squamish foeman bring to us our Yaada flower | E |
But the silence only answered their despair | F |
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But the men were swift to battle swift to cross the coastal water | E |
Swift to war and swift of weapon swift to paddle trackless miles | B |
Crept with stealth along the canyon stole her from her love and brought her | E |
Once again unto the distant Charlotte Isles | B |
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But she faded ever faded and her eyes were ever turning | C |
Southward toward the Capilano while her voice had hushed its song | G |
And her riven heart repeated words that on her lips were burning | C |
Not to friend but unto foeman I belong | G |
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Give me back my Squamish lover though you hate I still must love him | H |
Give me back the rugged canyon where my heart must ever be | I |
Where his lodge awaits my coming and the Dream Hills lift above him | H |
And the Capilano learned its song from me | I |
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But through long forgotten seasons moons too many to be numbered | A |
He yet waited by the canyon she called across the years | B |
And the soul within the river though centuries had slumbered | A |
Woke to sob a song of womanly tears | B |
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For her little lonely spirit sought the Capilano canyon | J |
When she died among the Haidas in the land of Totem Poles | B |
And you yet may hear her singing to her lover like companion | J |
If you listen to the river as it rolls | B |
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But 'tis only when the pearl and purple smoke is idly swinging | C |
From the fires on Lulu Island to the hazy mountain crest | A |
That the undertone of sobbing echoes through the river's singing | C |
In the Capilano canyon of the West | A |
Emily Pauline Johnson
(1)
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