Son Of The Evening Star, The Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACDEBFABGDABEEAGEH EEIAEABIIEAIBBICEEDI IIEIIIJAGKIEDDHEAFEH IDBLHIBMEAIIIKGIIAAA DGIMBBNOMEBIEGIGEPQN GNHEEIGEDEEIEBBBEBPI ARADAIEIEDEEESBIIBIE LIGILEEEIBHBEBBBDEIM IEITTIEGGAAIEIIEIBRB SIKIIFIIEIFEEIEIEPEE EIDBBEIBIEABBHIBBIUB IMVEBAILEFILNEDMCan it be the sun descending | A |
O'er the level plain of water | B |
Or the Red Swan floating flying | A |
Wounded by the magic arrow | C |
Staining all the waves with crimson | D |
With the crimson of its life blood | E |
Filling all the air with splendor | B |
With the splendor of its plumage | F |
Yes it is the sun descending | A |
Sinking down into the water | B |
All the sky is stained with purple | G |
All the water flushed with crimson | D |
No it is the Red Swan floating | A |
Diving down beneath the water | B |
To the sky its wings are lifted | E |
With its blood the waves are reddened | E |
Over it the Star of Evening | A |
Melts and trembles through the purple | G |
Hangs suspended in the twilight | E |
No it is a bead of wampum | H |
On the robes of the Great Spirit | E |
As he passes through the twilight | E |
Walks in silence through the heavens | I |
This with joy beheld Iagoo | A |
And he said in haste Behold it | E |
See the sacred Star of Evening | A |
You shall hear a tale of wonder | B |
Hear the story of Osseo | I |
Son of the Evening Star Osseo | I |
Once in days no more remembered | E |
Ages nearer the beginning | A |
When the heavens were closer to us | I |
And the Gods were more familiar | B |
In the North land lived a hunter | B |
With ten young and comely daughters | I |
Tall and lithe as wands of willow | C |
Only Oweenee the youngest | E |
She the wilful and the wayward | E |
She the silent dreamy maiden | D |
Was the fairest of the sisters | I |
All these women married warriors | I |
Married brave and haughty husbands | I |
Only Oweenee the youngest | E |
Laughed and flouted all her lovers | I |
All her young and handsome suitors | I |
And then married old Osseo | I |
Old Osseo poor and ugly | J |
Broken with age and weak with coughing | A |
Always coughing like a squirrel | G |
Ah but beautiful within him | K |
Was the spirit of Osseo | I |
From the Evening Star descended | E |
Star of Evening Star of Woman | D |
Star of tenderness and passion | D |
All its fire was in his bosom | H |
All its beauty in his spirit | E |
All its mystery in his being | A |
All its splendor in his language | F |
And her lovers the rejected | E |
Handsome men with belts of wampum | H |
Handsome men with paint and feathers | I |
Pointed at her in derision | D |
Followed her with jest and laughter | B |
But she said 'I care not for you | L |
Care not for your belts of wampum | H |
Care not for your paint and feathers | I |
Care not for your jests and laughter | B |
I am happy with Osseo ' | M |
'Once to some great feast invited | E |
Through the damp and dusk of evening | A |
Walked together the ten sisters | I |
Walked together with their husbands | I |
Slowly followed old Osseo | I |
With fair Oweenee beside him | K |
All the others chatted gayly | G |
These two only walked in silence | I |
At the western sky Osseo | I |
Gazed intent as if imploring | A |
Often stopped and gazed imploring | A |
At the trembling Star of Evening | A |
At the tender Star of Woman | D |
And they heard him murmur softly | G |
'Ah showain nemeshin Nosa | I |
Pity pity me my father ' | M |
'Listen ' said the eldest sister | B |
'He is praying to his father | B |
What a pity that the old man | N |
Does not stumble in the pathway | O |
Does not break his neck by falling ' | M |
And they laughed till all the forest | E |
Rang with their unseemly laughter | B |
On their pathway through the woodlands | I |
Lay an oak by storms uprooted | E |
Lay the great trunk of an oak tree | G |
Buried half in leaves and mosses | I |
Mouldering crumbling huge and hollow | G |
And Osseo when he saw it | E |
Gave a shout a cry of anguish | P |
Leaped into its yawning cavern | Q |
At one end went in an old man | N |
Wasted wrinkled old and ugly | G |
From the other came a young man | N |
Tall and straight and strong and handsome | H |
Thus Osseo was transfigured | E |
Thus restored to youth and beauty | E |
But alas for good Osseo | I |
And for Oweenee the faithful | G |
Strangely too was she transfigured | E |
Changed into a weak old woman | D |
With a staff she tottered onward | E |
Wasted wrinkled old and ugly | E |
And the sisters and their husbands | I |
Laughed until the echoing forest | E |
Rang with their unseemly laughter | B |
But Osseo turned not from her | B |
Walked with slower step beside her | B |
Took her hand as brown and withered | E |
As an oak leaf is in Winter | B |
Called her sweetheart Nenemoosha | P |
Soothed her with soft words of kindness | I |
Till they reached the lodge of feasting | A |
Till they sat down in the wigwam | R |
Sacred to the Star of Evening | A |
To the tender Star of Woman | D |
Wrapt in visions lost in dreaming | A |
At the banquet sat Osseo | I |
All were merry all were happy | E |
All were joyous but Osseo | I |
Neither food nor drink he tasted | E |
Neither did he speak nor listen | D |
But as one bewildered sat he | E |
Looking dreamily and sadly | E |
First at Oweenee then upward | E |
At the gleaming sky above them | S |
Then a voice was heard a whisper | B |
Coming from the starry distance | I |
Coming from the empty vastness | I |
Low and musical and tender | B |
And the voice said 'O Osseo | I |
O my son my best beloved | E |
Broken are the spells that bound you | L |
All the charms of the magicians | I |
All the magic powers of evil | G |
Come to me ascend Osseo | I |
'Taste the food that stands before you | L |
It is blessed and enchanted | E |
It has magic virtues in it | E |
It will change you to a spirit | E |
All your bowls and all your kettles | I |
Shall be wood and clay no longer | B |
But the bowls be changed to wampum | H |
And the kettles shall be silver | B |
They shall shine like shells of scarlet | E |
Like the fire shall gleam and glimmer | B |
'And the women shall no longer | B |
Bear the dreary doom of labor | B |
But be changed to birds and glisten | D |
With the beauty of the starlight | E |
Painted with the dusky splendors | I |
Of the skies and clouds of evening ' | M |
What Osseo heard as whispers | I |
What as words he comprehended | E |
Was but music to the others | I |
Music as of birds afar off | T |
Of the whippoorwill afar off | T |
Of the lonely Wawonaissa | I |
Singing in the darksome forest | E |
Then the lodge began to tremble | G |
Straight began to shake and tremble | G |
And they felt it rising rising | A |
Slowly through the air ascending | A |
From the darkness of the tree tops | I |
Forth into the dewy starlight | E |
Till it passed the topmost branches | I |
And behold the wooden dishes | I |
All were changed to shells of scarlet | E |
And behold the earthen kettles | I |
All were changed to bowls of silver | B |
And the roof poles of the wigwam | R |
Were as glittering rods of silver | B |
And the roof of bark upon them | S |
As the shining shards of beetles | I |
Then Osseo gazed around him | K |
And he saw the nine fair sisters | I |
All the sisters and their husbands | I |
Changed to birds of various plumage | F |
Some were jays and some were magpies | I |
Others thrushes others blackbirds | I |
And they hopped and sang and twittered | E |
Perked and fluttered all their feathers | I |
Strutted in their shining plumage | F |
And their tails like fans unfolded | E |
Only Oweenee the youngest | E |
Was not changed but sat in silence | I |
Wasted wrinkled old and ugly | E |
Looking sadly at the others | I |
Till Osseo gazing upward | E |
Gave another cry of anguish | P |
Such a cry as he had uttered | E |
By the oak tree in the forest | E |
Then returned her youth and beauty | E |
And her soiled and tattered garments | I |
Were transformed to robes of ermine | D |
And her staff became a feather | B |
Yes a shining silver feather | B |
And again the wigwam trembled | E |
Swayed and rushed through airy currents | I |
Through transparent cloud and vapor | B |
And amid celestial splendors | I |
On the Evening Star alighted | E |
As a snow flake falls on snow flake | A |
As a leaf drops on a river | B |
As the thistledown on water | B |
Forth with cheerful words of welcome | H |
Came the father of Osseo | I |
He with radiant locks of silver | B |
He with eyes serene and tender | B |
And he said My son Osseo | I |
Hang the cage of birds you bring there | U |
Hang the cage with rods of silver | B |
And the birds with glistening feathers | I |
At the doorway of my wigwam ' | M |
At the door he hung the bird cage | V |
And they entered in and gladly | E |
Listened to Osseo's father | B |
Ruler of the Star of Evening | A |
As he said O my Osseo | I |
I have had compassion on you | L |
Given you back your youth and beauty | E |
Into birds of various plumage | F |
Changed your sisters and their husbands | I |
Changed them thus because they mocked you | L |
In the figure of the old man | N |
In that aspect sad and wrinkled | E |
Could not see your heart of passion | D |
Could not see y | M |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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