The Poet's Tale - The Wayside Inn - Part First Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Poet's Tale - The Wayside Inn - Part First Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWORTH	A
	-
It was the season when through all the land	B
The merle and mavis build and building sing	C
Those lovely lyrics written by His hand	B
Whom Saxon Caedmon calls the Blitheheart King	C
When on the boughs the purple buds expand	B
The banners of the vanguard of the Spring	C
And rivulets rejoicing rush and leap	D
And wave their fluttering signals from the steep	D
	-
The robin and the bluebird piping loud	E
Filled all the blossoming orchards with their glee	F
The sparrows chirped as if they still were proud	E
Their race in Holy Writ should mentioned be	F
And hungry crows assembled in a crowd	E
Clamored their piteous prayer incessantly	F
Knowing who hears the ravens cry and said	G
Give us O Lord this day our daily bread	G
	-
Across the Sound the birds of passage sailed	H
Speaking some unknown language strange and sweet	I
Of tropic isle remote and passing hailed	H
The village with the cheers of all their fleet	I
Or quarrelling together laughed and railed	H
Like foreign sailors landed in the street	I
Of seaport town and with outlandish noise	J
Of oaths and gibberish frightening girls and boys	J
	-
Thus came the jocund Spring in Killingworth	A
In fabulous day some hundred years ago	K
And thrifty farmers as they tilled the earth	A
Heard with alarm the cawing of the crow	K
That mingled with the universal mirth	A
Cassandra like prognosticating woe	K
They shook their heads and doomed with dreadful words	L
To swift destruction the whole race of birds	L
	-
And a town meeting was convened straightway	K
To set a price upon the guilty heads	M
Of these marauders who in lieu of pay	N
Levied black mail upon the garden beds	M
And cornfields and beheld without dismay	N
The awful scarecrow with his fluttering shreds	M
The skeleton that waited at their feast	O
Whereby their sinful pleasure was increased	O
	-
Then from his house a temple painted white	P
With fluted columns and a roof of red	G
The Squire came forth august and splendid sight	P
Slowly descending with majestic tread	G
Three flights of steps nor looking left nor right	P
Down the long street he walked as one who said	G
A town that boasts inhabitants like me	F
Can have no lack of good society	F
	-
The Parson too appeared a man austere	Q
The instinct of whose nature was to kill	R
The wrath of God he preached from year to year	Q
And read with fervor Edwards on the Will	R
His favorite pastime was to slay the deer	Q
In Summer on some Adirondac hill	R
E'en now while walking down the rural lane	S
He lopped the wayside lilies with his cane	S
	-
From the Academy whose belfry crowned	T
The hill of Science with its vane of brass	U
Came the Preceptor gazing idly round	T
Now at the clouds and now at the green grass	U
And all absorbed in reveries profound	T
Of fair Almira in the upper class	U
Who was as in a sonnet he had said	G
As pure as water and as good as bread	G
	-
And next the Deacon issued from his door	V
In his voluminous neck cloth white as snow	K
A suit of sable bombazine he wore	V
His form was ponderous and his step was slow	K
There never was so wise a man before	V
He seemed the incarnate Well I told you so	K
And to perpetuate his great renown	W
There was a street named after him in town	W
	-
These came together in the new town hall	X
With sundry farmers from the region round	T
The Squirt presided dignified and tall	X
His air impressive and his reasoning sound	T
Ill fared it with the birds both great and small	X
Hardly a friend in all that crowd they found	T
But enemies enough who every one	Y
Charged them with all the crimes beneath the sun	Y
	-
When they had ended from his place apart	Z
Rose the Preceptor to redress the wrong	A2
And trembling like a steed before the start	Z
Looked round bewildered on the expectant throng	A2
Then thought of fair Almira and took heart	Z
To speak out what was in him clear and strong	A2
Alike regardless of their smile or frown	W
And quite determined not to be laughed down	W
	-
Plato anticipating the Reviewers	B2
From his Republic banished without pity	F
The Poets in this little town of yours	C2
You put to death by means of a Committee	F
The ballad singers and the Troubadours	C2
The street musicians of the heavenly city	F
The birds who make sweet music for us all	X
In our dark hours as David did for Saul	X
	-
The thrush that carols at the dawn of day	N
From the green steeples of the piny wood	D2
The oriole in the elm the noisy jay	N
Jargoning like a foreigner at his food	E2
The bluebird balanced on some topmost spray	N
Flooding with melody the neighborhood	D2
Linnet and meadow lark and all the throng	A2
That dwell in nests and have the gift of song	A2
	-
You slay them all and wherefore for the gain	S
Of a scant handful more or less of wheat	I
Or rye or barley or some other grain	S
Scratched up at random by industrious feet	I
Searching for worm or weevil after rain	S
Or a few cherries that are not so sweet	I
As are the songs these uninvited guests	C2
Sing at their feast with comfortable breasts	C2
	-
Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these	C2
Do you ne'er think who made them and who taught	F2
The dialect they speak where melodies	C2
Alone are the interpreters of thought	F2
Whose household words are songs in many keys	C2
Sweeter than instrument of man e'er caught	G2
Whose habitations in the tree tops even	H2
Are half way houses on the road to heaven	Y
	-
Think every morning when the sun peeps through	I2
The dim leaf latticed windows of the grove	J2
How jubilant the happy birds renew	I2
Their old melodious madrigals of love	K2
And when you think of this remember too	I2
'T is always morning somewhere and above	K2
The awakening continent from shore to shore	V
Somewhere the birds are singing evermore	V
	-
Think of your woods and orchards without birds	C2
Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams	C2
As in an idiot's brain remembered words	C2
Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams	C2
Will bleat of flocks or bellowing of herds	C2
Make up for the lost music when your teams	C2
Drag home the stingy harvest and no more	V
The feathered gleaners follow to your door	V
	-
What would you rather see the incessant stir	L2
Of insects in the windrows of the hay	N
And hear the locust and the grasshopper	L2
Their melancholy hurdy gurdies play	N
Is this more pleasant to you than the whir	L2
Of meadow lark and her sweet roundelay	N
Or twitter of little field fares as you take	M2
Your nooning in the shade of bush and brake	M2
	-
You call them thieves and pillagers but know	K
They are the winged wardens of your farms	C2
Who from the cornfields drive the insidious foe	K
And from your harvests keep a hundred harms	C2
Even the blackest of them all the crow	K
Renders good service as your man at arms	C2
Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail	N
And crying havoc on the slug and snail	N
	-
How can I teach your children gentleness	C2
And mercy to the weak and reverence	C2
For Life which in its weakness or excess	C2
Is still a gleam of God's omnipotence	C2
Or Death which seeming darkness is no less	C2
The selfsame light although averted hence	C2
When by your laws your actions and your speech	N2
You contradict the very things I teach	N2
	-
With this he closed and through the audience went	O2
A murmur like the rustle of dead leaves	C2
The farmers laughed and nodded and some bent	O2
Their yellow heads together like their sheaves	C2
Men have no faith in fine spun sentiment	P2
Who put their trust in bullocks and in beeves	C2
The birds were doomed and as the record shows	C2
A bounty offered for the heads of crows	C2
	-
There was another audience out of reach	N2
Who had no voice nor vote in making laws	C2
But in the papers read his little speech	N2
And crowned his modest temples with applause	C2
They made him conscious each one more than each	N2
He still was victor vanquished in their cause	C2
Sweetest of all the applause he won from thee	F
O fair Almira at the Academy	F
	-
And so the dreadful massacre began	Q2
O'er fields and orchards and o'er woodland crests	C2
The ceaseless fusillade of terror ran	Q2
Dead fell the birds with blood stains on their breasts	C2
Or wounded crept away from sight of man	Q2
While the young died of famine in their nests	C2
A slaughter to be told in groans not words	C2
The very St Bartholomew of Birds	C2
	-
The Summer came and all the birds were dead	G
The days were like hot coals the very ground	T
Was burned to ashes in the orchards fed	G
Myriads of caterpillars and around	T
The cultivated fields and garden beds	C2
Hosts of devouring insects crawled and found	T
No foe to check their march till they had made	R2
The land a desert without leaf or shade	R2
	-
Devoured by worms like Herod was the town	W
Because like Herod it had ruthlessly	F
Slaughtered the Innocents From the trees spun down	W
The canker worms upon the passers by	S2
Upon each woman's bonnet shawl and gown	W
Who shook them off with just a little cry	S2
They were the terror of each favorite walk	T2
The endless theme of all the village talk	T2
	-
The farmers grew impatient but a few	I2
Confessed their error and would not complain	S
For after all the best thing one can do	I2
When it is raining is to let it rain	S
Then they repealed the law although they knew	I2
It would not call the dead to life again	U2
As school boys finding their mistake too late	V2
Draw a wet sponge across the accusing slate	V2
	-
That year in Killingworth the Autumn came	W2
Without the light of his majestic look	X2
The wonder of the falling tongues of flame	W2
The illumined pages of his Doom's Day book	X2
A few lost leaves blushed crimson with their shame	W2
And drowned themselves despairing in the brook	X2
While the wild wind went moaning everywhere	L2
Lamenting the dead children of the air	L2
	-
But the next Spring a stranger sight was seen	Y2
A sight that never yet by bard was sung	Z2
As great a wonder as it would have been	H2
If some dumb animal had found a tongue	Z2
A wagon overarched with evergreen	Y2
Upon whose boughs were wicker cages hung	Z2
All full of singing birds came down the street	I
Filling the air with music wild and sweet	I
	-
From all the country round these birds were brought	F2
By order of the town with anxious quest	A3
And loosened from their wicker prisons sought	F2
In woods and fields the places they loved best	A3
Singing loud canticles which many thought	F2
Were satires to the authorities addressed	A3
While others listening in green lanes averred	A3
Such lovely music never had been heard	A3
	-
But blither still and louder carolled they	N
Upon the morrow for they seemed to know	K
It was the fair Almira's wedding day	N
And everywhere around above below	K
When the Preceptor bore his bride away	N
Their songs burst forth in joyous overflow	K
And a new heaven bent over a new earth	A
Amid the sunny farms of Killingworth	A
	-
	-
	-
FINALE	F
	-
The hour was late the fire burned low	K
The Landlord's eyes were closed in sleep	D
And near the story's end a deep	D
Sonorous sound at times was heard	A3
As when the distant bagpipes blow	K
At this all laughed the Landlord stirred	A3
As one awaking from a swound	A3
And gazing anxiously around	A3
Protested that he had not slept	A3
But only shut his eyes and kept	A3
His ears attentive to each word	A3
	-
Then all arose and said Good Night	A3
Alone remained the drowsy Squire	L2
To rake the embers of the fire	L2
And quench the waning parlor light	A3
While from the windows here and there	L2
The scattered lamps a moment gleamed	A3
And the illumined hostel seemed	A3
The constellation of the Bear	L2
Downward athwart the misty air	L2
Sinking and setting toward the sun	Y
Far off the village clock struck one	Y