Betzko: A Hungarian Legend Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEAE AFGH IJKJ LLLH MNLN LOLO PQRQ LKMS ENTN DUVU WLEL TLXL LFLF LLYL HNZN A2B2VC2 LID2I VLYL LE2F2E2 XG2HG2 LA2LA2 H2A2VA2 LI2LI2| Stibor had led in many a fight | A |
| And broken a score of swords | B |
| In furious frays and bloody raids | C |
| Against the Turkish hordes | B |
| - | |
| And Sigismund the Polish king | D |
| Who joined the Magyar bands | E |
| Bestowed upon the valiant knight | A |
| A broad estate of lands | E |
| - | |
| Once when the wars were o'er the knight | A |
| Was holding wassail high | F |
| And the valiant men that followed him | G |
| Were at the revelry | H |
| - | |
| Betzko his Jester pleased him so | I |
| He vowed it his the task | J |
| To do whatever in human power | K |
| His witty Fool might ask | J |
| - | |
| Build on yon cliff the Jester cried | L |
| In drunken jollity | L |
| A mighty castle high and wide | L |
| And name it after me | H |
| - | |
| Ah verily a Jester's prayer | M |
| Exclaimed the knightly crew | N |
| To ask of such a noble lord | L |
| What you know he cannot do | N |
| - | |
| Who says I cannot Stibor cried | L |
| Do whatsoe'er I will | O |
| Within one year a castle shall stand | L |
| On yonder rocky hill | O |
| - | |
| A castle built of ponderous stones | P |
| To give me future fame | Q |
| In honor of my witty Fool | R |
| Betzko shall be its name | Q |
| - | |
| Now the cliff was high three hundred feet | L |
| And perpendicular | K |
| And the skill that could build a castle there | M |
| Must come from lands afar | S |
| - | |
| And craftsmen came from foreign lands | E |
| Italian German and Jew | N |
| Apprentices and fellow craftsmen | T |
| And master masons too | N |
| - | |
| And every traveler journeying | D |
| Along the mountain ways | U |
| Was held to pay his toll of toil | V |
| On the castle for seven days | U |
| - | |
| Slowly they raised the massive towers | W |
| Upon the steep ascent | L |
| And all around a thousand hands | E |
| Built up the battlement | L |
| - | |
| Three hundred feet above the glen | T |
| By the steps five hundred feet | L |
| The castle stood upon the cliff | X |
| At the end of the year complete | L |
| - | |
| Now throughout all the Magyar land | L |
| There's none other half so high | F |
| So massive built so strong and grand | L |
| It reaches the very sky | F |
| - | |
| But from that same high battlement | L |
| Say tales by gypsies told | L |
| The valiant Stibor met his death | Y |
| When he was cross and old | L |
| - | |
| I'll tell you the tale as they told it to me | H |
| And I doubt not it is true | N |
| For 'twas handed down from the middle ages | Z |
| From the lips of knights who knew | N |
| - | |
| One day when the knight was old and cross | A2 |
| And a little the worse for grog | B2 |
| Betzko the Jester thoughtlessly | V |
| Struck Stibor's favorite dog | C2 |
| - | |
| Now the dog was a hound and Stibor's pet | L |
| And as white as Carpathian snow | I |
| And Stibor hurled old Betzko down | D2 |
| From the walls to the rocks below | I |
| - | |
| And as the Jester headlong fell | V |
| From the dizzy dreadful height | L |
| He muttered a curse with his latest breath | Y |
| On the head of the cruel knight | L |
| - | |
| One year from that day old Stibor held | L |
| His drunken wassail long | E2 |
| And spent the hours till the cock crew morn | F2 |
| In jest and wine and song | E2 |
| - | |
| Then he sought his garden on the cliff | X |
| And lay down under a vine | G2 |
| To sleep away the lethargy | H |
| Of a wassail bowl of wine | G2 |
| - | |
| While sleeping soundly under the shade | L |
| And dreaming of revelries | A2 |
| An adder crawled upon his breast | L |
| And bit him in both his eyes | A2 |
| - | |
| Blinded and mad with pain he ran | H2 |
| Toward the precipice | A2 |
| Unheeding till he headlong fell | V |
| Adown the dread abyss | A2 |
| - | |
| Just where old Betzko's blood had dyed | L |
| With red the old rocks gray | I2 |
| Quivering and bleeding and dumb and dead | L |
| Old Stibor's body lay | I2 |
Hanford Lennox Gordon
(1)
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