The Landlord's Tale - The Wayside Inn - Part Third Poem Rhyme Scheme

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THE RHYME OF SIR CHRISTOPHER	A
	-
It was Sir Christopher Gardiner	A
Knight of the Holy Sepulchre	A
From Merry England over the sea	B
Who stepped upon this continent	C
As if his august presence lent	D
A glory to the colony	B
	-
You should have seen him in the street	E
Of the little Boston of Winthrop's time	F
His rapier dangling at his feet	E
Doublet and hose and boots complete	E
Prince Rupert hat with ostrich plume	G
Gloves that exhaled a faint perfume	G
Luxuriant curls and air sublime	F
And superior manners now obsolete	E
	-
He had a way of saying things	H
That made one think of courts and kings	H
And lords and ladies of high degree	B
So that not having been at court	I
Seemed something very little short	I
Of treason or lese majesty	B
Such an accomplished knight was he	B
	-
His dwelling was just beyond the town	J
At what he called his country seat	E
For careless of Fortune's smile or frown	J
And weary grown of the world and its ways	K
He wished to pass the rest of his days	K
In a private life and a calm retreat	E
	-
But a double life was the life he led	L
And while professing to be in search	M
Of a godly course and willing he said	L
Nay anxious to join the Puritan church	M
He made of all this but small account	N
And passed his idle hours instead	L
With roystering Morton of Merry Mount	N
That pettifogger from Furnival's Inn	O
Lord of misrule and riot and sin	O
Who looked on the wine when it was red	L
	-
This country seat was little more	A
Than a cabin of log's but in front of the door	A
A modest flower bed thickly sown	P
With sweet alyssum and columbine	Q
Made those who saw it at once divine	Q
The touch of some other hand than his own	P
And first it was whispered and then it was known	P
That he in secret was harboring there	A
A little lady with golden hair	A
Whom he called his cousin but whom he had wed	L
In the Italian manner as men said	L
And great was the scandal everywhere	A
	-
But worse than this was the vague surmise	R
Though none could vouch for it or aver	A
That the Knight of the Holy Sepulchre	A
Was only a Papist in disguise	R
And the more to imbitter their bitter lives	S
And the more to trouble the public mind	T
Came letters from England from two other wives	U
Whom he had carelessly left behind	T
Both of them letters of such a kind	T
As made the governor hold his breath	V
The one imploring him straight to send	W
The husband home that he might amend	W
The other asking his instant death	V
As the only way to make an end	W
	-
The wary governor deemed it right	X
When all this wickedness was revealed	Y
To send his warrant signed and sealed	Y
And take the body of the knight	X
Armed with this mighty instrument	C
The marshal mounting his gallant steed	Z
Rode forth from town at the top of his speed	Z
And followed by all his bailiffs bold	A2
As if on high achievement bent	D
To storm some castle or stronghold	A2
Challenge the warders on the wall	B2
And seize in his ancestral hall	B2
A robber baron grim and old	A2
	-
But when though all the dust and heat	E
He came to Sir Christopher's country seat	E
No knight he found nor warder there	A
But the little lady with golden hair	A
Who was gathering in the bright sunshine	Q
The sweet alyssum and columbine	Q
While gallant Sir Christopher all so gay	C2
Being forewarned through the postern gate	D2
Of his castle wall had tripped away	C2
And was keeping a little holiday	C2
In the forests that bounded his estate	D2
	-
Then as a trusty squire and true	A
The marshal searched the castle through	A
Not crediting what the lady said	L
Searched from cellar to garret in vain	E2
And finding no knight came out again	F2
And arrested the golden damsel instead	L
And bore her in triumph into the town	J
While from her eyes the tears rolled down	J
On the sweet alyssum and columbine	Q
That she held in her fingers white and fine	Q
	-
The governor's heart was moved to see	B
So fair a creature caught within	O
The snares of Satan and of sin	O
And he read her a little homily	B
On the folly and wickedness of the lives	S
Of women half cousins and half wives	U
But seeing that naught his words availed	G2
He sent her away in a ship that sailed	G2
For Merry England over the sea	B
To the other two wives in the old countree	A
To search her further since he had failed	G2
To come at the heart of the mystery	A
	-
Meanwhile Sir Christopher wandered away	C2
Through pathless woods for a month and a day	C2
Shooting pigeons and sleeping at night	X
With the noble savage who took delight	X
In his feathered hat and his velvet vest	H2
His gun and his rapier and the rest	H2
But as soon as the noble savage heard	I2
That a bounty was offered for this gay bird	I2
He wanted to slay him out of hand	J2
And bring in his beautiful scalp for a show	K2
Like the glossy head of a kite or crow	K2
Until he was made to understand	J2
They wanted the bird alive not dead	L
Then he followed him whithersoever he fled	L
Through forest and field and hunted him down	J
And brought him prisoner into the town	J
	-
Alas it was a rueful sight	X
To see this melancholy knight	X
In such a dismal and hapless case	L2
His hat deformed by stain and dent	D
His plumage broken his doublet rent	D
His beard and flowing locks forlorn	M2
Matted dishevelled and unshorn	M2
His boots with dust and mire besprent	D
But dignified in his disgrace	L2
And wearing an unblushing face	L2
And thus before the magistrate	D
He stood to hear the doom of fate	D
In vain he strove with wonted ease	N2
To modify and extenuate	D
His evil deeds in church and state	D
For gone was now his power to please	N2
And his pompous words had no more weight	D
Than feathers flying in the breeze	N2
	-
With suavity equal to his own	M2
The governor lent a patient ear	A
To the speech evasive and highflown	M2
In which he endeavored to make clear	A
That colonial laws were too severe	A
When applied to a gallant cavalier	A
A gentleman born and so well known	M2
And accustomed to move in a higher sphere	A
	-
All this the Puritan governor heard	D
And deigned in answer never a word	D
But in summary manner shipped away	C2
In a vessel that sailed from Salem bay	C2
This splendid and famous cavalier	A
With his Rupert hat and his popery	A
To Merry England over the sea	A
As being unmeet to inhabit here	A
	-
Thus endeth the Rhyme of Sir Christopher	A
Knight of the Holy Sepulchre	A
The first who furnished this barren land	D
With apples of Sodom and ropes of sand	D

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Landlord's Tale - The Wayside Inn - Part Third Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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