The Warden Of The Cinque Ports Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB BCBC DEDE FGHI FJFJ BFBF DKDK ALAL DMDM DNDN ADAD OOOO| A mist was driving down the British Channel | A |
| The day was just begun | B |
| And through the window panes on floor and panel | A |
| Streamed the red autumn sun | B |
| - | |
| It glanced on flowing flag and rippling pennon | B |
| And the white sails of ships | C |
| And from the frowning rampart the black cannon | B |
| Hailed it with feverish lips | C |
| - | |
| Sandwich and Romney Hastings Hithe and Dover | D |
| Were all alert that day | E |
| To see the French war steamers speeding over | D |
| When the fog cleared away | E |
| - | |
| Sullen and silent and like couchant lions | F |
| Their cannon through the night | G |
| Holding their breath had watched in grim defiance | H |
| The sea coast opposite | I |
| - | |
| And now they roared at drum beat from their stations | F |
| On every citadel | J |
| Each answering each with morning salutations | F |
| That all was well | J |
| - | |
| And down the coast all taking up the burden | B |
| Replied the distant forts | F |
| As if to summon from his sleep the Warden | B |
| And Lord of the Cinque Ports | F |
| - | |
| Him shall no sunshine from the fields of azure | D |
| No drum beat from the wall | K |
| No morning gun from the black fort's embrasure | D |
| Awaken with its call | K |
| - | |
| No more surveying with an eye impartial | A |
| The long line of the coast | L |
| Shall the gaunt figure of the old Field Marshal | A |
| Be seen upon his post | L |
| - | |
| For in the night unseen a single warrior | D |
| In sombre harness mailed | M |
| Dreaded of man and surnamed the Destroyer | D |
| The rampart wall has scaled | M |
| - | |
| He passed into the chamber of the sleeper | D |
| The dark and silent room | N |
| And as he entered darker grew and deeper | D |
| The silence and the gloom | N |
| - | |
| He did not pause to parley or dissemble | A |
| But smote the Warden hoar | D |
| Ah what a blow that made all England tremble | A |
| And groan from shore to shore | D |
| - | |
| Meanwhile without the surly cannon waited | O |
| The sun rose bright o'erhead | O |
| Nothing in Nature's aspect intimated | O |
| That a great man was dead | O |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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