The Landlord's Tale - The Wayside Inn - Part Third Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A AABCDB EFEEGGFE HHBIIBB JEJKKE LMLMNLNOOL AAPQQPPAALLA RAARSTUTTVWWVW XYYXCZZA2DA2B2B2A2 EEAAQQC2D2C2C2D2 AALE2F2LJJQQ BOOBSUG2G2BAG2A C2C2XXH2H2I2I2J2K2K2 J2LLJJ XXL2DDM2M2DL2L2DDN2D DN2DN2 M2AM2AAAM2A DDC2C2AAAA AADDTHE RHYME OF SIR CHRISTOPHER | A |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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
(1)
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