A Tale Of Polypheme. Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Henry Austin Dobson

A Tale Of Polypheme. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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There's nothing new Not that I go so far	A
As he who also said There's nothing true	B
Since on the contrary I hold there are	A
Surviving still a verity or two	B
But as to novelty in my conviction	C
There's nothing new especially in fiction	C
	-
Hence at the outset I make no apology	D
If this my story is as old as Time	E
Being indeed that idyll of mythology	D
The Cyclops' love which somewhat varied I'm	E
To tell once more the adverse Muse permitting	F
In easy rhyme and phrases neatly fitting	F
	-
Once on a time there's nothing new I said	G
It may be fifty years ago or more	H
Beside a lonely posting road that led	G
Seaward from Town there used to stand of yore	H
With low built bar and old bow window shady	D
An ancient Inn the Dragon and the Lady	D
	-
Say that by chance wayfaring Reader mine	I
You cast a shoe and at this dusty Dragon	C
Where beast and man were equal on the sign	I
Inquired at once for Blacksmith and for flagon	I
The landlord showed you while you drank your hops	J
A road side break beyond the straggling shops	J
	-
And so directed thereupon you led	G
Your halting roadster to a kind of pass	K
This you descended with a crumbling tread	G
And found the sea beneath you like a glass	K
And soon beside a building partly walled	L
Half hut half cave you raised your voice and called	L
	-
Then a dog growled and straightway there began	I
Tumult within for bleating with affright	L
A goat burst out escaping from the can	I
And following close rose slowly into sight	L
Blind of one eye and black with toil and tan	I
An uncouth limping heavy shouldered man	I
	-
Part smith part seaman and part shepherd too	L
You scarce knew which as pausing with the pail	M
Half filled with goat's milk silently he drew	L
An anvil forth and reaching shoe and nail	M
Bared a red forearm bringing into view	L
Anchors and hearts in shadowy tattoo	L
	-
And then he lit his fire But I dispense	N
Henceforth with you my Reader and your horse	O
As being but a colorable pretence	O
To bring an awkward hero in perforce	O
Since this our smith for reasons never known	I
To most society preferred his own	I
	-
Women declared that he'd an Evil Eye	P
This in a sense was true he had but one	I
Men on the other hand alleged him shy	P
We sometimes say so of the friends we shun	I
But wrong or right suffices to affirm it	L
The Cyclops lived a veritable hermit	L
	-
Dwelling below the cliff beside the sea	O
Caved like an ancient British Troglodyte	L
Milking his goat at eve and it may be	O
Spearing the fish along the flats at night	L
Until at last one April evening mild	L
Came to the Inn a Lady and a Child	L
	-
The Lady was a nullity the Child	L
One of those bright bewitching little creatures	O
Who if she once but shyly looked and smiled	L
Would soften out the ruggedest of features	O
Fragile and slight a very fay for size	O
With pale town cheeks and clear germander eyes	O
	-
Nurses no doubt might name her somewhat wild	L
And pedants possibly pronounce her slow	Q
Or corset makers add that for a child	L
She needed cultivation all I know	Q
Is that whene'er she spoke or laughed or romped you	L
Felt in each act the beauty of impromptu	L
	-
The Lady was a nullity a pale	M
Nerveless and pulseless quasi invalid	L
Who lest the ozone should in aught avail	M
Remained religiously indoors to read	L
So that in wandering at her will the Child	L
Did in reality run somewhat wild	L
	-
At first but peering at the sanded floor	H
And great shark jaw bone in the cosy bar	A
Then watching idly from the dusky door	H
The noisy advent of a coach or car	A
Then stealing out to wonder at the fate	L
Of blistered Ajax by the garden gate	L
	-
Some old ship's figure head until at last	L
Straying with each excursion more and more	H
She reached the limits of the road and passed	L
Plucking the pansies downward to the shore	H
And so as you respected Reader showed	L
Came to the smith's desirable abode	L
	-
There by the cave the occupant she found	L
Weaving a crate and with a gladsome cry	P
The dog frisked out although the Cyclops frowned	L
With all the terrors of his single eye	P
Then from a mound came running too the goat	L
Uttering her plaintive desultory note	L
	-
The Child stood wondering at the silent man	I
Doubtful to go or stay when presently	O
She felt a plucking for the goat began	I
To crop the trail of twining briony	I
She held behind her so that laughing she	O
Turned her light steps retreating to the sea	O
	-
But the goat followed her on eager feet	L
And therewithal an air so grave and mild	L
Coupled with such a deprecatory bleat	L
Of injured confidence that soon the Child	L
Filled the lone shore with louder merriment	L
And e'en the Cyclops' heavy brow unbent	L
	-
Thus grew acquaintanceship between the pair	R
The girl and goat for thenceforth day by day	L
The Child would bring her four foot friend such fare	R
As might be gathered on the downward way	L
Foxglove or broom and yellow cytisus	O
Dear to all goats since Greek Theocritus	O
	-
But for the Cyclops that misogynist	L
Having by stress of circumstances smiled	L
Felt it at least incumbent to resist	L
Further encroachment and as one beguiled	L
By adverse fortune with the half door shut	L
Dwelt in the dim seclusion of his hut	L
	-
And yet not less from thence he still must see	O
That daily coming and must hear the goat	L
Bleating her welcome then towards the sea	O
The happy voices of the playmates float	L
Until at last enduring it no more	H
He took his wonted station by the door	H
	-
Here was of course a pitiful surrender	S
For soon the Child on whom the Evil Eye	P
Seemed to exert an influence but slender	S
Would run to question him till by and by	P
His moody humor like a cloud dispersing	F
He found himself uneasily conversing	F
	-
That was a sow's ear that an egg of skate	L
And this an agate rounded by the wave	T
Then came inquiries still more intimate	L
About himself the anvil and the cave	T
And then at last the Child without alarm	U
Would even spell the letters on his arm	U
	-
G A L Galatea So there grew	L
On his part like some half remembered tale	M
The new found memory of an ice bound crew	L
And vague garrulities of spouting whale	M
Of sea cow basking upon berg and floe	Q
And Polar light and stunted Eskimo	Q
	-
Till in his heart which hitherto had been	I
Locked as those frozen barriers of the North	V
There came once more the season of the green	I
The tender bud time and the putting forth	V
So that the man before the new sensation	I
Felt for the child a kind of adoration	I
	-
Rising by night to search for shell and flower	S
To lay in places where she found them first	L
Hoarding his cherished goat's milk for the hour	S
When those young lips might feel the summer's thirst	L
Holding himself for all devotion paid	L
By that clear laughter of the little maid	L
	-
Dwelling alas in that fond Paradise	O
Where no to morrow quivers in suspense	O
Where scarce the changes of the sky suffice	O
To break the soft forgetfulness of sense	O
Where dreams become realities and where	R
I willingly would leave him did I dare	R
	-
Yet for a little space it still endured	L
Until upon a day when least of all	W
The softened Cyclops by his hopes assured	L
Dreamed the inevitable blow could fall	W
Came the stern moment that should all destroy	X
Bringing a pert young cockerel of a Boy	X
	-
Middy I think he'd Acis on his box	O
A black eyed sun burnt mischief making imp	Y
Pet of the mess a Puck with curling locks	O
Who straightway travestied the Cyclops' limp	Y
And marveled how his cousin so could care	R
For such a one eyed melancholy Bear	R
	-
Thus there was war at once not overt yet	L
For still the Child unwilling would not break	Z
The new acquaintanceship nor quite forget	L
The pleasant past while for his treasure's sake	Z
The boding smith with clumsy efforts tried	L
To win the laughing scorner to his side	L
	-
There are some sights pathetic none I know	Q
More sad than this to watch a slow wrought mind	L
Humbling itself for love to come and go	Q
Before some petty tyrant of its kind	L
Saddest ah saddest far when it can do	L
Naught to advance the end it has in view	L
	-
This was at least the Cyclops' case until	A2
Whether the boy beguiled the Child away	L
Or whether that limp Matron on the Hill	A2
Woke from her novel reading trance one day	L
He waited long and wearily in vain	I
But from that hour they never came again	I
	-
Yet still he waited hoping wondering if	B2
They still might come or dreaming that he heard	L
The sound of far off voices on the cliff	B2
Or starting strangely when the she goat stirred	L
But nothing broke the silence of the shore	H
And from that hour the Child returned no more	H
	-
Therefore our Cyclops sorrowed not as one	I
Who can command the gamut of despair	R
But as a man who feels his days are done	I
So dead they seem so desolately bare	R
For though he'd lived a hermit 'twas but only	O
Now he discovered that his life was lonely	O
	-
The very sea seemed altered and the shore	H
The very voices of the air were dumb	C2
Time was an emptiness that o'er and o'er	S
Ticked with the dull pulsation Will she come	C2
So that he sat consuming in a dream	D2
Much like his old forerunner Polypheme	D2
	-
Until there came the question Is she gone	I
With such sad sick persistence that at last	L
Urged by the hungry thought which drove him on	I
Along the steep declivity he passed	L
And by the summit panting stood and still	A2
Just as the horn was sounding on the hill	A2
	-
Then in a dream beside the Dragon door	H
The smith saw travellers standing in the sun	I
Then came the horn again and three or four	H
Looked idly at him from the roof but One	I
A Child within suffused with sudden shame	D2
Thrust forth a hand and called to him by name	D2
	-
Thus the coach vanished from his sight but he	O
Limped back with bitter pleasure in his pain	I
He was not all forgotten could it be	O
And yet the knowledge made the memory vain	I
And then he felt a pressure in his throat	L
So for that night forgot to milk his goat	L
	-
What then might come of silent misery	O
What new resolvings then might intervene	I
I know not Only with the morning sky	P
The goat stood tethered on the Dragon green	I
And those who wondering questioned thereupon	I
Found the hut empty for the man was gone	I