Evangeline: Part The Second. Ii. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEADFGGDGAGHEGDEA GGADEDGDGIGGEAAGDJGE GGKECELAA DAKHEHGGGGEGGEEA JMGGDGGGAEDEEADNHLED K GAGADGDGAEGGGDAGDDGD A EHGDGEDOEGGE ADE| IT was the month of May Far down the Beautiful River | A |
| Past the Ohio shore and past the mouth of the Wabash | B |
| Into the golden stream of the broad and swift Mississippi | C |
| Floated a cumbrous boat that was rowed by Acadian boatmen | D |
| It was a band of exiles a raft as it were from the shipwrecked | E |
| Nation scattered along the coast now floating together | A |
| Bound by the bonds of a common belief and a common misfortune | D |
| Men and women and children who guided by hope or by hearsay | F |
| Sought for their kith and their kin among the few acred farmers | G |
| On the Acadian coast and the prairies of fair Opelousas | G |
| With them Evangeline went and her guide the Father Felician | D |
| Onward o'er sunken sands through a wilderness somber with forests | G |
| Day after day they glided adown the turbulent river | A |
| Night after night by their blazing fires encamped on its borders | G |
| Now through rushing chutes among green islands where plumelike | H |
| Cotton trees nodded their shadowy crests they swept with the current | E |
| Then emerged into broad lagoons where silvery sand bars | G |
| Lay in the stream and along the wimpling waves of their margin | D |
| Shining with snow white plumes large flocks of pelicans waded | E |
| Level the landscape grew and along the shores of the river | A |
| Shaded by china trees in the midst of luxuriant gardens | G |
| Stood the houses of planters with negro cabins and dove cots | G |
| They were approaching the region where reigns perpetual summer | A |
| Where through the Golden Coast and groves of orange and citron | D |
| Sweeps with majestic curve the river away to the eastward | E |
| They too swerved from their course and entering the Bayou of Plaquemine | D |
| Soon were lost in a maze of sluggish and devious waters | G |
| Which like a network of steel extended in every direction | D |
| Over their heads the towering and tenebrous boughs of the cypress | G |
| Met in a dusky arch and trailing mosses in mid air | I |
| Waved like banners that hang on the walls of ancient cathedrals | G |
| Deathlike the silence seemed and unbroken save by the herons | G |
| Home to their roosts in the cedar trees returning at sunset | E |
| Or by the owl as he greeted the moon with demoniac laughter | A |
| Lovely the moonlight was as it glanced and gleamed on the water | A |
| Gleamed on the columns of cypress and cedar sustaining the arches | G |
| Down through whose broken vaults it fell as through chinks in a ruin | D |
| Dreamlike and indistinct and strange were all things around them | J |
| And o'er their spirits there came a feeling of wonder and sadness | G |
| Strange forebodings of ill unseen and that cannot be compassed | E |
| As at the tramp of a horse's hoof on the turf of the prairies | G |
| Far in advance are closed the leaves of the shrinking mimosa | G |
| So at the hoof beats of fate with sad forebodings of evil | K |
| Shrinks and closes the heart ere the stroke of doom has attained it | E |
| But Evangeline's heart was sustained by a vision that faintly | C |
| Floated before her eyes and beckoned her on through the moonlight | E |
| It was the thought of her brain that assumed the shape of a phantom | L |
| Through those shadowy aisles had Gabriel wandered before her | A |
| And every stroke of the oar now brought him nearer and nearer | A |
| - | |
| Then in his place at the prow of the boat rose one of the oarsmen | D |
| And as a signal sound if others like them peradventure | A |
| Sailed on those gloomy and midnight streams blew a blast on his bugle | K |
| Wild through the dark colonnades and corridors leafy the blast rang | H |
| Breaking the seal of silence and giving tongues to the forest | E |
| Soundless above them the banners of moss just stirred to the music | H |
| Multitudinous echoes awoke and died in the distance | G |
| Over the watery floor and beneath the reverberant branches | G |
| But not a voice replied no answer came from the darkness | G |
| And when the echoes had ceased like a sense of pain was the silence | G |
| Then Evangeline slept but the boatmen rowed through the midnight | E |
| Silent at times then singing familiar Canadian boat songs | G |
| Such as they sang of old on their own Acadian rivers | G |
| And through the night were heard the mysterious sounds of the desert | E |
| Far off indistinct as of wave or wind in the forest | E |
| Mixed with the whoop of the crane and the roar of the grim alligator | A |
| - | |
| Thus ere another noon they emerged from the shades and before them | J |
| Lay in the golden sun the lakes of the Atchafalaya | M |
| Water lilies in myriads rocked on the slight undulations | G |
| Made by the passing oars and resplendent in beauty the lotus | G |
| Lifted her golden crown above the heads of the boatmen | D |
| Faint was the air with the odorous breath of magnolia blossoms | G |
| And with the heat of noon and numberless sylvan islands | G |
| Fragrant and thickly embowered with blossoming hedges of roses | G |
| Near to whose shores they glided along invited to slumber | A |
| Soon by the fairest of these their weary oars were suspended | E |
| Under the boughs of Wachita willows that grew by the margin | D |
| Safely their boat was moored and scattered about on the greensward | E |
| Tired with their midnight toil the weary travellers slumbered | E |
| Over them vast and high extended the cope of a cedar | A |
| Swinging from its great arms the trumpet flower and the grape vine | D |
| Hung their ladder of ropes aloft like the ladder of Jacob | N |
| On whose pendulous stairs the angels ascending descending | H |
| Were the swift humming birds that flitted from blossom to blossom | L |
| Such was the vision Evangeline saw as she slumbered beneath it | E |
| Filled was her heart with love and the dawn of an opening heaven | D |
| Lighted her soul in sleep with the glory of regions celestial | K |
| - | |
| Nearer and ever nearer among the numberless islands | G |
| Darted a light swift boat that sped away o'er the water | A |
| Urged on its course by the sinewy arms of hunters and trappers | G |
| Northward its prow was turned to the land of the bison and beaver | A |
| At the helm sat a youth with countenance thoughtful and care worn | D |
| Dark and neglected locks overshadowed his brow and a sadness | G |
| Somewhat beyond his years on his face was legibly written | D |
| Gabriel was it who weary with waiting unhappy and restless | G |
| Sought in the Western wilds oblivion of self and of sorrow | A |
| Swiftly they glided along close under the lee of the island | E |
| But by the opposite bank and behind a screen of palmettos | G |
| So that they saw not the boat where it lay concealed in the willows | G |
| And undisturbed by the dash of their oars and unseen were the sleepers | G |
| Angel of God was there none to awaken the slumbering maiden | D |
| Swiftly they glided away like the shade of a cloud on the prairie | A |
| After the sound of their oars on the tholes had died in the distance | G |
| As from a magic trance the sleepers awoke and the maiden | D |
| Said with a sigh to the friendly priest 'O Father Felician | D |
| Something says in my heart that near me Gabriel wanders | G |
| Is it a foolish dream an idle and vague superstition | D |
| Or has an angel passed and revealed the truth to my spirit ' | - |
| Then with a blush she added 'Alas for my credulous fancy | A |
| Unto ears like thine such words as these have no meaning ' | - |
| But made answer the reverend man and he smiled as he answered | E |
| 'Daughter thy words are not idle nor are they to me without meaning | H |
| Feeling is deep and still and the word that floats on the surface | G |
| Is as the tossing buoy that betrays where the anchor is hidden | D |
| Therefore trust to thy heart and to what the world calls illusions | G |
| Gabriel truly is near thee for not far away to the southward | E |
| On the banks of the T che are the towns of St Maur and St Martin | D |
| There the long wandering bride shall be given again to her bridegroom | O |
| There the long absent pastor regain his flock and his sheepfold | E |
| Beautiful is the land with its prairies and forests of fruit trees | G |
| Under the feet a garden of flowers and the bluest of heavens | G |
| Bending above and resting its dome on the walls of the forest | E |
| They who dwell there have named it the Eden of Louisiana ' | - |
| - | |
| With these words of cheer they arose and continued their journey | A |
| Softly the evening came The sun from the western horizon | D |
| Like a magician extended his golde | E |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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