Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 2. Prelude Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBAACCDDCEEFFE GGGHHGG GGIJJKKIIGLMNGA OGGOPPGQQRRSSGGSTTGU UU VVWTGWGX YYZA2B2A2B2ZC2B2D2B2 D2 E2E2GHE2HGF2F2G G2G2G2GG2G2GAH2AAH2 G2I2AI2G2G2 J2G2G2J2QJ2CCQG2G2G2 G2CCG2G2G2 GGG2G2G2K2G2L2G2L2K2A cold uninterrupted rain | A |
That washed each southern window pane | A |
And made a river of the road | B |
A sea of mist that overflowed | B |
The house the barns the gilded vane | A |
And drowned the upland and the plain | A |
Through which the oak trees broad and high | C |
Like phantom ships went drifting by | C |
And hidden behind a watery screen | D |
The sun unseen or only seen | D |
As a faint pallor in the sky | C |
Thus cold and colorless and gray | E |
The morn of that autumnal day | E |
As if reluctant to begin | F |
Dawned on the silent Sudbury Inn | F |
And all the guests that in it lay | E |
- | |
Full late they slept They did not hear | G |
The challenge of Sir Chanticleer | G |
Who on the empty threshing floor | G |
Disdainful of the rain outside | H |
Was strutting with a martial stride | H |
As if upon his thigh he wore | G |
The famous broadsword of the Squire | G |
And said 'Behold me and admire ' | - |
- | |
Only the Poet seemed to hear | G |
In drowse or dream more near and near | G |
Across the border land of sleep | I |
The blowing of a blithesome horn | J |
That laughed the dismal day to scorn | J |
A splash of hoofs and rush of wheels | K |
Through sand and mire like stranding keels | K |
As from the road with sudden sweep | I |
The Mail drove up the little steep | I |
And stopped beside the tavern door | G |
A moment stopped and then again | L |
With crack of whip and bark of dog | M |
Plunged forward through the sea of fog | N |
And all was silent as before | G |
All silent save the dripping rain | A |
- | |
Then one by one the guests came down | O |
And greeted with a smile the Squire | G |
Who sat before the parlor fire | G |
Reading the paper fresh from town | O |
First the Sicilian like a bird | P |
Before his form appeared was heard | P |
Whistling and singing down the stair | G |
Then came the Student with a look | Q |
As placid as a meadow brook | Q |
The Theologian still perplexed | R |
With thoughts of this world and the next | R |
The Poet then as one who seems | S |
Walking in visions and in dreams | S |
Then the Musician like a fair | G |
Hyperion from whose golden hair | G |
The radiance of the morning streams | S |
And last the aromatic Jew | T |
Of Alicant who as he threw | T |
The door wide open on the air | G |
Breathed round about him a perfume | U |
Of damask roses in full bloom | U |
Making a garden of the room | U |
- | |
The breakfast ended each pursued | V |
The promptings of his various mood | V |
Beside the fire in silence smoked | W |
The taciturn impassive Jew | T |
Lost in a pleasant revery | G |
While by his gravity provoked | W |
His portrait the Sicilian drew | G |
And wrote beneath it 'Edrehi | X |
At the Red Horse in Sudbury ' | - |
- | |
By far the busiest of them all | Y |
The Theologian in the hall | Y |
Was feeding robins in a cage | Z |
Two corpulent and lazy birds | A2 |
Vagrants and pilferers at best | B2 |
If one might trust the hostler's words | A2 |
Chief instrument of their arrest | B2 |
Two poets of the Golden Age | Z |
Heirs of a boundless heritage | C2 |
Of fields and orchards east and west | B2 |
And sunshine of long summer days | D2 |
Though outlawed now and dispossessed | B2 |
Such was the Theologian's phrase | D2 |
- | |
Meanwhile the Student held discourse | E2 |
With the Musician on the source | E2 |
Of all the legendary lore | G |
Among the nations scattered wide | H |
Like silt and seaweed by the force | E2 |
And fluctuation of the tide | H |
The tale repeated o'er and o'er | G |
With change of place and change of name | F2 |
Disguised transformed and yet the same | F2 |
We've heard a hundred times before | G |
- | |
The Poet at the window mused | G2 |
And saw as in a dream confused | G2 |
The countenance of the Sun discrowned | G2 |
And haggard with a pale despair | G |
And saw the cloud rack trail and drift | G2 |
Before it and the trees uplift | G2 |
Their leafless branches and the air | G |
Filled with the arrows of the rain | A |
And heard amid the mist below | H2 |
Like voices of distress and pain | A |
That haunt the thoughts of men insane | A |
The fateful cawings of the crow | H2 |
- | |
Then down the road with mud besprent | G2 |
And drenched with rain from head to hoof | I2 |
The rain drops dripping from his mane | A |
And tail as from a pent house roof | I2 |
A jaded horse his head down bent | G2 |
Passed slowly limping as he went | G2 |
- | |
The young Sicilian who had grown | J2 |
Impatient longer to abide | G2 |
A prisoner greatly mortified | G2 |
To see completely overthrown | J2 |
His plans for angling in the brook | Q |
And leaning o'er the bridge of stone | J2 |
To watch the speckled trout glide by | C |
And float through the inverted sky | C |
Still round and round the baited hook | Q |
Now paced the room with rapid stride | G2 |
And pausing at the Poet's side | G2 |
Looked forth and saw the wretched steed | G2 |
And said 'Alas for human greed | G2 |
That with cold hand and stony eye | C |
Thus turns an old friend out to die | C |
Or beg his food from gate to gate | G2 |
This brings a tale into my mind | G2 |
Which if you are not disinclined | G2 |
To listen I will now relate ' | - |
- | |
All gave assent all wished to hear | G |
Not without many a jest and jeer | G |
The story of a spavined steed | G2 |
And even the Student with the rest | G2 |
Put in his pleasant little jest | G2 |
Out of Malherbe that Pegasus | K2 |
Is but a horse that with all speed | G2 |
Bears poets to the hospital | L2 |
While the Sicilian self possessed | G2 |
After a moment's interval | L2 |
Began his simple story thus | K2 |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 2. Interlude Vi. Poem
Daybreak. (birds Of Passage. Flight The First) Poem>>
Write your comment about Tales Of A Wayside Inn : Part 2. Prelude poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Best Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow