Evangeline: Part The First. V. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDEFCE GHIJKLMCNOCPNQRC STP UCVCWXV VYZA2WB2C KCCC2D2VE2CGD2RF2TNC KNNNLLLN LLLCG2KDVCCCWLLCNLH2 CTNN LCH2VJH2VVKNH2 H2G2 NF2H2NI2H2VNN CTCDH2CVA2H2| FOUR times the sun had risen and set and now on the fifth day | A |
| Cheerily called the cock to the sleeping maids of the farm house | B |
| Soon o'er the yellow fields in silent and mournful procession | C |
| Came from the neighboring hamlets and farms the Acadian women | C |
| Driving in ponderous wains their household goods to the sea shore | D |
| Pausing and looking back to gaze once more on their dwellings | E |
| Ere they were shut from sight by the winding road and the woodland | F |
| Close at their sides their children ran and urged on the oxen | C |
| While in their little hands they clasped some fragments of playthings | E |
| - | |
| Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth they hurried and there on the sea beach | G |
| Piled in confusion lay the household goods of the peasants | H |
| All day long between theshore and the ships did the boats ply | I |
| All day long the wains came laboring down from the village | J |
| Late in the afternoon when the sun was near to his setting | K |
| Echoed far o'er the fields came the roll of drums from the churchyard | L |
| Thither the women and children thronged On a sudden the church doors | M |
| Opened and forth came the guard and marching in gloomy procession | C |
| Followed the long imprisoned but patient Acadian farmers | N |
| Even as pilgrims who journey afar from their homes and their country | O |
| Sing as they go and in singing forget they are weary and wayworn | C |
| So with songs on their lips the Acadian peasants descended | P |
| Down from the church to the shore amid their wives and their daughters | N |
| Foremost the young men came and raising together their voices | Q |
| Sang they with tremulous lips a chant of the Catholic Missions | R |
| 'Sacred heart of the Saviour O inexhaustible fountain | C |
| Fill our hearts this day with strength and submission and patience ' | - |
| Then the old men as they marched and the women that stood by the wayside | S |
| Joined in the sacred psalm and the birds in the sunshine above them | T |
| Mingled their notes therewith like voices of spirits departed | P |
| - | |
| Half way down to the shore Evangeline waited in silence | U |
| Not overcome with grief but strong in the hour of affliction | C |
| Calmly and sadly she waited until the procession approached her | V |
| And she beheld the face of Gabriel pale with emotion | C |
| Tears then filled her eyes and eagerly running to meet him | W |
| Clasped she his hands and laid her head on his shoulder and whispered | X |
| 'Gabriel be of good cheer for if we love one another | V |
| Nothing in truth can harm us whatever mischances may happen ' | - |
| Smiling she spake these words then suddenly paused for her father | V |
| Saw she slowly advancing Alas how changed was his aspect | Y |
| Gone was the glow from his cheek and the fire from his eye and his footstep | Z |
| Heavier seemed with the weight of the heavy heart in his bosom | A2 |
| But with a smile and a sigh she clasped his neck and embraced him | W |
| Speaking words of endearment where words of comfort availed not | B2 |
| Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth moved on that mournful procession | C |
| - | |
| There disorder prevailed and the tumult and stir of embarking | K |
| Busily plied the freighted boats and in the confusion | C |
| Wives were torn from their husbands and mothers too late saw their children | C |
| Left on the land extending their arms with wildest entreaties | C2 |
| So unto separate ships were Basil and Gabriel carried | D2 |
| While in despair on the shore Evangeline stood with her father | V |
| Half the task was not done when the sun went down and the twilight | E2 |
| Deepened and darkened around and in haste the refluent ocean | C |
| Fled away from the shore and left the line of the sand beach | G |
| Covered with waifs of the tide with kelp and the slippery sea weed | D2 |
| Farther back in the midst of the household goods and the wagons | R |
| Like to a gypsy camp or a leaguer after a battle | F2 |
| All escape cut off by the sea and the sentinels near them | T |
| Lay encamped for the night the houseless Acadian farmers | N |
| Back to its nethermost caves retreated the bellowing ocean | C |
| Dragging adown the beach the rattling pebbles and leaving | K |
| Inland and far up the shore the stranded boats of the sailors | N |
| Then as the night descended the herds returned from their pastures | N |
| Sweet was the moist still air with the odor of milk from their udders | N |
| Lowing they waited and long at the well known bars of the farm yard | L |
| Waited and looked in vain for the voice and the hand of the milkmaid | L |
| Silence reigned in the streets from the church no Angelus sounded | L |
| Rose no smoke from the roofs and gleamed no lights from the windows | N |
| - | |
| But on the shores meanwhile the evening fires had been kindled | L |
| Built of the drift wood thrown on the sands from wrecks in the tempest | L |
| Round them shapes of gloom and sorrowful faces were gathered | L |
| Voices of women were heard and of men and the crying of children | C |
| Onward from fire to fire as from hearth to hearth in his parish | G2 |
| Wandered the faithful priest consoling and blessing and cheering | K |
| Like unto shipwrecked Paul on Melita's desolate sea shore | D |
| Thus he approached the place where Evangeline sat with her father | V |
| And in the flickering light beheld the face of the old man | C |
| Haggard and hollow and wan and without either thought or emotion | C |
| E'en as the face of a clock from which the hands have been taken | C |
| Vainly Evangeline strove with words and caresses to cheer him | W |
| Vainly offered him food yet he moved not he looked not he spake not | L |
| But with a vacant stare ever gazed at the flickering fire light | L |
| 'Benedicite ' murmured the priest in tones of compassion | C |
| More he fain would have said but his heart was full and his accents | N |
| Faltered and paused on his lips as the feet of a child on a threshold | L |
| Hushed by the scene he beholds and the awful presence of sorrow | H2 |
| Silently therefore he laid his hand on the head of the maiden | C |
| Raising his eyes full of tears to the silent stars that above them | T |
| Moved on their way unperturbed by the wrongs and sorrows of mortals | N |
| Then sat he down at her side and they wept together in silence | N |
| - | |
| Suddenly rose from the south a light as in autumn the blood red | L |
| Moon climbs the crystal walls of heaven and o'er the horizon | C |
| Titan like stretches its hundred hands upon mountain and meadow | H2 |
| Seizing the rocks and the rivers and piling huge shadows together | V |
| Broader and ever broader it gleamed on the roofs of the village | J |
| Gleamed on the sky and the sea and the ships that lay in the roadstead | H2 |
| Columns of shining smoke uprose and flashes of flame were | V |
| Thrust through their folds and withdrawn like the quivering hands of a martyr | V |
| Then as the wind seized the gleeds and the burning thatch and uplifting | K |
| Whirled them aloft through the air at once from a hundred house tops | N |
| Started the sheeted smoke with flashes of flame intermingled | H2 |
| - | |
| These things beheld in dismay the crowd on the shore and on shipboard | H2 |
| Speechless at first they stood then cried aloud in their anguish | G2 |
| 'We shall behold no more our homes in the village of Grand Pr ' | - |
| Loud on a sudden the cocks began to crow in the farm yards | N |
| Thinking the day had dawned and anon the lowing of cattle | F2 |
| Came on the evening breeze by the barking of dogs interrupted | H2 |
| Then rose a sound of dread such as startles the sleeping encampments | N |
| Far in the western prairies or forests that skirt the Nebraska | I2 |
| When the wild horses affrighted sweep by with the speed of the whirlwind | H2 |
| Or the loud bellowing herds of buffaloes rush to the river | V |
| Such was the sound that arose on the night as the herds and the horses | N |
| Broke through their folds and fences and madly rushed o'er the meadows | N |
| - | |
| Overwhelmed with the sight yet speechless the priest and the maiden | C |
| Gazed on the scene of terror that reddened and widened before them | T |
| And as they turned at length to speak to their silent companion | C |
| Lo from his seat he had fallen and stretched abroad on the sea shore | D |
| Motionless lay his form from which the soul had departed | H2 |
| Slowly the priest uplifted the lifeless head and the maiden | C |
| Knelt at her father's side and wailed aloud in her terror | V |
| Then in a swoon she sank and lay with her head on his bosom | A2 |
| T | H2 |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1)
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