The Doe: A Fragment (from Wandering Willie) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCDCEDFFGGHHAACCII FFJJKCKCCLCLLMLMNONO P FP FQQKRKRRRRRSSRTTRFUU FVVCKCKCCWXWXKKXRXRY YC CRZA2ZB2CC CCCCFFFFCCC2C2RRD2D2 E2E2KF2G2KH2I2H2I2CS CSRRRPRPFFK SJ2 J2UKK2K2KRRKRRRRKRKR KKKKK L2RL2RRRM2M2RRRRRRN2 SSC RRCO2KO2KRL2RL2CCRRAnd 'Yonder look yoho yoho | A |
Nancy is off ' the farmer cried | B |
Advancing by the river side | B |
Red kerchieft and brown coated 'So | C |
My girl who else could leap like that | D |
So neatly like a lady 'Zounds | C |
Look at her how she leads the hounds ' | E |
And waving his dusty beaver hat | D |
He cheered across the chase filled water | F |
And clapt his arm about his daughter | F |
And gave to Joan a courteous hug | G |
And kiss that like a stubborn plug | G |
From generous vats in vastness rounded | H |
The inner wealth and spirit sounded | H |
Eagerly pointing South where lo | A |
The daintiest fleetest footed doe | A |
Led o'er the fields and thro' the furze | C |
Beyond her lively delicate ears | C |
Prickt up erect and in her track | I |
A dappled lengthy striding pack | I |
- | |
Scarce had they cast eyes upon her | F |
When every heart was wagered on her | F |
And half in dread and half delight | J |
They watched her lovely bounding flight | J |
As now across the flashing green | K |
And now beneath the stately trees | C |
And now far distant in the dene | K |
She headed on with graceful ease | C |
Hanging aloft with doubled knees | C |
At times athwart some hedge or gate | L |
And slackening pace by slow degrees | C |
As for the foremost foe to wait | L |
Renewing her outstripping rate | L |
Whene'er the hot pursuers neared | M |
By garden wall and paled estate | L |
Where clambering gazers whooped and cheered | M |
Here winding under elm and oak | N |
And slanting up the sunny hill | O |
Splashing the water here like smoke | N |
Among the mill holms round the mill | O |
- | |
And 'Let her go she shows her game | P |
My Nancy girl my pet and treasure ' | - |
The farmer sighed his eyes with pleasure | F |
Brimming ''Tis my daughter's name | P |
My second daughter lying yonder ' | - |
And Willie's eye in search did wander | F |
And caught at once with moist regard | Q |
The white gleams of a grey churchyard | Q |
'Three weeks before my girl had gone | K |
And while upon her pillows propped | R |
She lay at eve the weakling fawn | K |
For still it seems a fawn just dropt | R |
A se'nnight to my Nancy's bed | R |
I brought to make my girl a gift | R |
The mothers of them both were dead | R |
And both to bless it was my drift | R |
By giving each a friend not thinking | S |
How rapidly my girl was sinking | S |
And I remember how to pat | R |
Its neck she stretched her hand so weak | T |
And its cold nose against her cheek | T |
Pressed fondly and I fetched the mat | R |
To make it up a couch just by her | F |
Where in the lone dark hours to lie | U |
For neither dear old nurse nor I | U |
Would any single wish deny her | F |
And there unto the last it lay | V |
And in the pastures cared to play | V |
Little or nothing there its meals | C |
And milk I brought and even now | K |
The creature such affection feels | C |
For that old room that when and how | K |
'Tis strange to mark it slinks and steals | C |
To get there and all day conceals | C |
And once when nurse who since that time | W |
Keeps house for me was very sick | X |
Waking upon the midnight chime | W |
And listening to the stair clock's click | X |
I heard a rustling half uncertain | K |
Close against the dark bed curtain | K |
And while I thrust my leg to kick | X |
And feel the phantom with my feet | R |
A loving tongue began to lick | X |
My left hand lying on the sheet | R |
And warm sweet breath upon me blew | Y |
And that 'twas Nancy then I knew | Y |
So for her love I had good cause | C |
To have the creature 'Nancy' christened ' | - |
- | |
He paused and in the moment's pause | C |
His eyes and Willie's strangely glistened | R |
Nearer came Joan and Bessy hung | Z |
With face averted near enough | A2 |
To hear and sob unheard the young | Z |
And careless ones had scampered off | B2 |
Meantime and sought the loftiest place | C |
To beacon the approaching chase | C |
- | |
'Daily upon the meads to browse | C |
Goes Nancy with those dairy cows | C |
You see behind the clematis | C |
And such a favourite she is | C |
That when fatigued and helter skelter | F |
Among them from her foes to shelter | F |
She dashes when the chase is over | F |
They'll close her in and give her cover | F |
And bend their horns against the hounds | C |
And low and keep them out of bounds | C |
From the house dogs she dreads no harm | C2 |
And is good friends with all the farm | C2 |
Man and bird and beast howbeit | R |
Their natures seem so opposite | R |
And she is known for many a mile | D2 |
And noted for her splendid style | D2 |
For her clear leap and quick slight hoof | E2 |
Welcome she is in many a roof | E2 |
And if I say I love her man | K |
I say but little her fine eyes full | F2 |
Of memories of my girl at Yule | G2 |
And May time make her dearer than | K |
Dumb brute to men has been I think | H2 |
So dear I do not find her dumb | I2 |
I know her ways her slightest wink | H2 |
So well and to my hand she'll come | I2 |
Sidelong for food or a caress | C |
Just like a loving human thing | S |
Nor can I help I do confess | C |
Some touch of human sorrowing | S |
To think there may be such a doubt | R |
That from the next world she'll be shut out | R |
And parted from me And well I mind | R |
How when my girl's last moments came | P |
Her soft eyes very soft and kind | R |
She joined her hands and prayed the same | P |
That she 'might meet her father mother | F |
Sister Bess and each dear brother | F |
And with them if it might be one | K |
Who was her last companion ' | - |
Meaning the fawn the doe you mark | S |
For my bay mare was then a foal | J2 |
And time has passed since then but hark ' | - |
- | |
For like the shrieking of a soul | J2 |
Shut in a tomb a darkened cry | U |
Of inward wailing agony | K |
Surprised them and all eyes on each | K2 |
Fixed in the mute appealing speech | K2 |
Of self reproachful apprehension | K |
Knowing not what to think or do | R |
But Joan recovering first broke through | R |
The instantaneous suspension | K |
And knelt upon the ground and guessed | R |
The bitterness at a glance and pressed | R |
Into the comfort of her breast | R |
The deep throed quaking shape that drooped | R |
In misery's wilful aggravation | K |
Before the farmer as he stooped | R |
Touched with accusing consternation | K |
Soothing her as she sobbed aloud | R |
'Not me not me Oh no no no | K |
Not me God will not take me in | K |
Nothing can wipe away my sin | K |
I shall not see her you will go | K |
You and all that she loves so | K |
Not me not me Oh no no no ' | - |
Colourless her long black hair | L2 |
Like seaweed in a tempest tossed | R |
Tangling astray to Joan's care | L2 |
She yielded like a creature lost | R |
Yielded drooping toward the ground | R |
As doth a shape one half hour drowned | R |
And heaved from sea with mast and spar | M2 |
All dark of its immortal star | M2 |
And on that tender heart inured | R |
To flatter basest grief and fight | R |
Despair upon the brink of night | R |
She suffered herself to sink assured | R |
Of refuge and her ear inclined | R |
To comfort and her thoughts resigned | R |
To counsel her wild hair let brush | N2 |
From off her weeping brows and shook | S |
With many little sobs that took | S |
Deeper drawn breaths till into sighs | C |
Long sighs they sank and to the 'hush ' | - |
Of Joan's gentle chide she sought | R |
Childlike to check them as she ought | R |
Looking up at her infantwise | C |
And Willie gazing on them both | O2 |
Shivered with bliss through blood and brain | K |
To see the darling of his troth | O2 |
Like a maternal angel strain | K |
The sinful and the sinless child | R |
At once on either breast and there | L2 |
In peace and promise reconciled | R |
Unite them nor could Nature's care | L2 |
With subtler sweet beneficence | C |
Have fed the springs of penitence | C |
Still keeping true though harshly tried | R |
The vital prop of human pride | R |
George Meredith
(1)
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