Basil Moss Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST UVWIXYZ A2B2C2D2E2F2G2H2LI2J 2HH2K2L2M2N2O2P2Q2R2 VS2NT2U2QV2ULW2X2Y2Z 2A2 A3H2B3X2B2C3D3E3X2E3 U2F3X2X2G3E3X2X2H3E3 X2X2X2E3F3 X2X2X2I3J3F3X2E3UX2X 2K3X2L3X2M3N3X2E3G3X 2E3E3O3P3M2X2G2E3E3 X2Q3E3X2R3G2X2WX2E3N 3ZE3S3X2E3E3R3X2P2T3 E3X2X2X2E3R3X2X2E3E3 E3U3WD3P2E3I2 X2E3N3UD2X2C3X2M3E3X 2Q3SING mountain wind thy strong superior song | A |
Thy haughty alpine anthem over tracts | B |
Whose passes and whose swift rock straitened streams | C |
Catch mighty life and voice from thee and make | D |
A lordly harmony on sea chafed heights | E |
Sing mountain wind and take thine ancient tone | F |
The grand austere imperial utterance | G |
Which drives my soul before it back to days | H |
In one dark hour of which when Storm rode high | I |
Past broken hills and when the polar gale | J |
Roared round the Otway with the bitter breath | K |
That speaks for ever of the White South Land | L |
Alone with God and Silence in the cold | M |
I heard the touching tale of Basil Moss | N |
A story shining with a woman s love | O |
And who that knows that love can ever doubt | P |
How dear divine sublime a thing it is | Q |
For while the tale of Basil Moss was one | R |
Not blackened with those stark satanic sins | S |
Which call for superhuman sacrifice | T |
Still from the records of the world s sad life | U |
This great sweet gladdening fact at length we ve learned | V |
There s not a depth to which a man can fall | W |
No slough of crime in which such one can lie | I |
Stoned with the scorn and curses of his kind | X |
But that some tender woman can be found | Y |
To love and shield him still | Z |
- | |
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What was the fate | A2 |
Of Basil Moss who thirty years ago | B2 |
A brave high minded but impetuous youth | C2 |
Left happy homesteads in the sweetest isle | D2 |
That wears the sober light of Northern suns | E2 |
What happened him the man who crossed far fierce | F2 |
Sea circles of the hoarse Atlantic who | G2 |
Without a friend to help him in the world | H2 |
Commenced his battle in this fair young land | L |
A Levite in the Temple Beautiful | I2 |
Of Art who struggled hard but found that here | J2 |
Both Bard and Painter learn by bitter ways | H |
That they are aliens in the working world | H2 |
And that all Heaven s templed clouds at morn | K2 |
And sunset do not weigh one loaf of bread | L2 |
This was his tale For years he kept himself | M2 |
Erect and looked his troubles in the face | N2 |
And grappled them and being helped at last | O2 |
By one who found she loved him who became | P2 |
The patient sharer of his lot austere | Q2 |
He beat them bravely back but like the heads | R2 |
Of Lerna s fabled hydra they returned | V |
From day to day in numbers multiplied | S2 |
And so it came to pass that Basil Moss | N |
Who was though brave no mental Hercules | T2 |
Who hid beneath a calmness forced the keen | U2 |
Heart breaking sensibility which is | Q |
The awful wild specific curse that clings | V2 |
Forever to the Poet s twofold life | U |
Gave way at last but not before the hand | L |
Of sickness fell upon him not before | W2 |
The drooping form and sad averted eyes | X2 |
Of hectic Hope that figure far and faint | Y2 |
Had given all his later thoughts a tongue | Z2 |
It is too late too late | A2 |
- | |
- | |
There is no need | A3 |
To tell the elders of the English world | H2 |
What followed this From step to step the man | B3 |
Now fairly gripped by fierce Intemperance | X2 |
Descended in the social scale and though | B2 |
He struggled hard at times to break away | C3 |
And take the old free dauntless stand again | D3 |
He came to be as helpless as a child | E3 |
And Darkness settled on the face of things | X2 |
And Hope fell dead and Will was paralysed | E3 |
Yet sometimes in the gloomy breaks between | U2 |
Each fit of madness issuing from his sin | F3 |
He used to wander through familiar woods | X2 |
With God s glad breezes blowing in his face | X2 |
And try to feel as he was wont to feel | G3 |
In other years but never could he find | E3 |
Again his old enthusiastic sense | X2 |
Of Beauty never could he exorcize | X2 |
The evil spell which seemed to shackle down | H3 |
The fine keen subtle faculty that used | E3 |
To see into the heart of loveliness | X2 |
And therefore Basil learned to shun the haunts | X2 |
Where Nature holds her chiefest courts because | X2 |
They forced upon him in the saddest light | E3 |
The fact of what he was and once had been | F3 |
- | |
So fared the drunkard for five awful years | X2 |
The last of which while lighting singing dells | X2 |
With many a flame of flowers found Basil Moss | X2 |
Cooped with his wife in one small wretched room | I3 |
And there one night the man when ill and weak | J3 |
A sufferer from his latest bout of sin | F3 |
Moaned stricken sorely with a fourfold sense | X2 |
Of all the degradation he had brought | E3 |
Upon himself and on his patient wife | U |
And while he wrestled with his strong remorse | X2 |
He looked upon a sweet but pallid face | X2 |
And cried My God is this the trusting girl | K3 |
I swore to love to shield to cherish so | X2 |
But ten years back O what a liar I am | L3 |
She shivering in a thin and faded dress | X2 |
Beside a handful of pale smouldering fire | M3 |
On hearing Basil s words moved on her chair | N3 |
And turning to him blue beseeching eyes | X2 |
And pinched pathetic features faintly said | E3 |
O Basil love now that you seem to feel | G3 |
And understand how much I ve suffered since | X2 |
You first gave way now that you comprehend | E3 |
The bitter heart wear darling that has brought | E3 |
The swift sad silver to this hair of mine | O3 |
Which should have come with Age which came with Pain | P3 |
Do make one more attempt to free yourself | M2 |
From what is slowly killing both of us | X2 |
And if you do the thing I ask of you | G2 |
If you but try this once we may indeed | E3 |
We may be happy yet | E3 |
- | |
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Then Basil Moss | X2 |
Remembering in his marvellous agony | Q3 |
How often he had found her in the dead | E3 |
Of icy nights with uncomplaining eyes | X2 |
A watcher in a cheerless room for him | R3 |
And thinking too that often while he threw | G2 |
His scanty earnings over reeking bars | X2 |
The darling that he really loved through all | W |
Was left without enough to eat then Moss | X2 |
I say sprang to his feet with sinews set | E3 |
And knotted brows and throat that gasped for air | N3 |
And cried aloud My poor poor girl I will | Z |
And so he did and fought this time the fight | E3 |
Out to the bitter end and with the help | S3 |
Of prayers and unremitting tenderness | X2 |
He gained the victory at last but not | E3 |
No not before the agony and sweat | E3 |
Of fierce Gethsemanes had come to him | R3 |
And not before the awful nightly trials | X2 |
When set in mental furnaces of flame | P2 |
With eyes that ached and wooed in vain for sleep | T3 |
He had to fight the devil holding out | E3 |
The cup of Lethe to his fevered lips | X2 |
But still he conquered and the end was this | X2 |
That though he often had to face the eyes | X2 |
Of that bleak Virtue which is not of Christ | E3 |
Because the gracious Lord of Love was one with Him | R3 |
Who blessed the dying thief upon the cross | X2 |
He held his way with no unfaltering steps | X2 |
And gathered hope and light and never missed | E3 |
To do a thing for the sake of good | E3 |
And every day that glided through the world | E3 |
Saw some fine instance of his bright reform | U3 |
And some assurance he would never fall | W |
Into the pits and traps of hell again | D3 |
And thus it came to pass that Basil s name | P2 |
Grew sweet with men and when he died his end | E3 |
Was calm was evening like and beautiful | I2 |
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Here ends the tale of Basil Moss To wives | X2 |
Who suffer as the Painter s darling did | E3 |
I dedicate these lines and hope they ll bear | N3 |
In mind those efforts of her lovely life | U |
Which saved her husband s soul and proved that while | D2 |
A man who sins can entertain remorse | X2 |
He is not wholly lost If such as they | C3 |
But follow her they may be sure of this | X2 |
That Love that sweet authentic messenger | M3 |
From God can never fail while there is left | E3 |
Within the fallen one a single pulse | X2 |
Of what the angels call humanity | Q3 |
Henry Kendall
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