The Wail In The Native Oak Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDD EEFFGGHH IIJJKKLL MMNNEEBB CCOOPPK QQDDRRSS TTUUVVW XXYZA2A2OO| Where the lone creek chafing nightly in the cold and sad moonshine | A |
| Beats beneath the twisted fern roots and the drenched and dripping vine | A |
| Where the gum trees ringed and ragged from the mazy margins rise | B |
| Staring out against the heavens with their languid gaping eyes | B |
| There I listened there I heard it Oh that melancholy sound | C |
| Wandering like a ghostly whisper through the dreaming darkness round | C |
| Wandering like a fearful warning where the withered twilight broke | D |
| Through a mass of mournful tresses drooping down the Native Oak | D |
| - | |
| And I caught a glimpse of sunset fading from a far off wild | E |
| As I sat me down to fancy like a thoughtful wistful child | E |
| Sat me down to fancy what might mean those hollow hopeless tones | F |
| Sooming round the swooning silence dying out in smothered moans | F |
| What might mean that muffled sobbing Did a lonely phantom wail | G |
| Pent amongst those tangled branches barring out the moonlight pale | G |
| Wept it for that gleam of glory wasting from the forest aisles | H |
| For that fainting gleam of glory sad with flickering sickly smiles | H |
| - | |
| In these woodlands I was restless I had seen a light depart | I |
| And an ache for something vanished filled and chilled my longing heart | I |
| And I linked my thoughts together 'All seemed still and dull to day | J |
| But a painful symbol groweth from the shine that pales away | J |
| This may not be idle dreaming if the spirit roams ' I said | K |
| 'This is surely one a wanderer from the ages which have fled | K |
| Who can look beyond the darkness who can see so he may tell | L |
| Where the sunsets all have gone to where the souls that leave us dwell | L |
| - | |
| 'This might be a loving exile full with faded thoughts returned | M |
| Seeking for familiar faces friends for whom he long had yearned | M |
| Here his fathers must have sojourned here his people may have died | N |
| Or perchance to distant forests all were scattered far and wide | N |
| So he moans and so he lingers weeping o'er the wasted wild | E |
| Weeping o'er the desolation like a lost benighted child | E |
| So he moans and so he lingers Hence these fitful fretful sighs | B |
| Deep within the oak tree solemn Hence these weary weary cries | B |
| - | |
| 'Or who knows but that some secret lies beneath yon dismal mound | C |
| Ha a dreary dreadful secret must be buried underground | C |
| Not a ragged blade of verdure not one root of moss is there | O |
| Who hath torn the grasses from it wherefore is that barrow bare | O |
| Darkness shuts the forest round me Here I stand and O my God | P |
| This may be some injured spirit raving round and round the sod | P |
| Hush the tempest how it travels Blood hath here been surely shed | K |
| Hush the thunder how it mutters Oh the unrequited Dead ' | - |
| - | |
| Came a footfall past the water came a wild man through the gloom | Q |
| Down he stooped and faced the current silent as the silent tomb | Q |
| Down he stooped and lapped the ripples not a single word he spoke | D |
| But I whispered 'He can tell me of the Secret in the Oak | D |
| Very thoughtful seems that forehead many legends he may know | R |
| Many tales and old traditions linked to what is here below | R |
| I must ask him rest I cannot though my life upon it hung | S |
| Though these wails are waxing louder I must give my thoughts a tongue | S |
| - | |
| 'Shake that silence from you wild man I have looked into your face | T |
| Hoping I should learn the story there about this fearful place | T |
| Slake your thirst but stay and tell me did your heart with terror beat | U |
| When you stepped across the bare and blasted hillock at your feet | U |
| Hearken to these croons so wretched deep within the dusk boughs pent | V |
| Hold you not some strange tradition coupled with this strange lament | V |
| When your tribe about their camp fires hear that hollow broken cry | W |
| Do they hint of deeds mysterious hidden in the days gone by ' | - |
| - | |
| But he rose like one bewildered shook his head and glided past | X |
| Huddling whispers hurried after hissing in the howling blast | X |
| Now a sheet of lurid splendour swept athwart the mountain spire | Y |
| And a midnight squall came trumping down on zigzag paths of fire | Z |
| Through the tumult dashed a torrent flanking out in foaming streams | A2 |
| Whilst the woodlands groaned and muttered like a monster vexed with dreams | A2 |
| Then I swooned away in horror Oh that shriek which rent the air | O |
| Like the voice of some fell demon harrowed by a mad despair | O |
Henry Kendall
(1)
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