King Billy's Skull. Poem Rhyme Scheme

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THE scene is the Southern Hemisphere	A
The time oh any time of the year	A
Will do as well as another say June	B
Put it down likewise as the full of the moon	B
And midnight to boot when churchyards they say	C
Yawn in a most unmannerly way	C
And restless ghosts in winding sheets	D
Go forth and gibber about the streets	D
And rehearse old crimes that were better hid	E
In the darkness beneath the coffin lid	E
Observe that I merely say on dit	E
But though it never happened to me	F
To encounter either in doors or out	E
A posthumous gentleman walking about	E
In regulation sepulchral guise	G
Or in shirt Crimean or otherwise	G
Or in hat and boots and usual wear	H
Or save for a cloud unbecomingly bare	H
Or in gaseous form with the stars shining through him	I
Beckoning me to interview him	I
On mission of solemnest import bound	E
Or merely a constitutional round	E
Beginning at twelve as books declare	H
And ending at first sniff of morning air	H
Though all such things you will understand	E
Have reached me only at second hand	E
Or third or fourth as the case may be	F
Yet there really did occur to me	F
Something which I perforce must call	J
Ultra super natural	K
In fact trans ultra super preter	H
Natural suits both truth and metre	H
There is an Island I won't say where	H
For some yet live who mightn't care	H
To have the address too widely known	L
Suffice it to say South Temperate Zone	L
In that same Isle thus precisely set down	M
There's a certain township and also a town	M
For to ears colonial I need not state	E
That the two do not always homologate	E
And in that same town there's a certain street	E
And in that same street the locals to complete	E
There's a certain Surgery trim and neat	E
Kept by well perhaps it were rash	N
To call him other than Doctor Dash	N
At midnight then in the month of June	B
And don't forget the full of the moon	B
I sat in that Surgery writhing with pain	O
Having waited fully two hours in vain	O
For Doctor Dash who I understood	E
Was engaged in the questionable good	E
Of adding one to the sum of woe	P
That includes all creatures here below	P
Especially those whose particular dolour	H
As mine was then is a rotten molar	H
Have you noted that midnight's final stroke	Q
Has a way of solemnizing folk	Q
Though goodness knows in my special case	R
With a cheek that was quite a three quarter face	R
There needed no solemnizing power	H
No eerie vibration of midnight hour	H
Chilling through heart and thrilling through limb	I
To put me en rapport with all things grim	I
With all things dreary and dismal and dim	I
The whole Night side of Nature see Crow not Jim	I
Hardly was tolled the day's decease	S
From the ormolu clock on the mantelpiece	S
When a running fire of perplexing knocks	S
Seemed to proceed from a rosewood box	S
That stood on a table whereon were laid	E
The horrible tools of the surgical trade	E
Somewhat slowly the notes began	T
With minims and then into crotchets ran	T
From crotchets to quavers then faster they grew	H
Galloping galloping thirty two	H
Beats to the semibreve doubling once more	H
To a semibreve split into sixty four	H
Till failing to follow so rapid a rate	E
I gave in at a hundred and twenty eight	E
I was scared I confess but the wish to know	P
Was stronger than terror of ghostly foe	P
And stealthily stealthily nearing the knocks	S
I pressed my ear on the rosewood box	S
And fancied I could discern beneath	U
The peculiar rattle of chattering teeth	U
Which as need hardly be said or penned	E
Set each particular hair on end	E
Froze all my young blood in a moment of time	V
And curdled my bile and my chyle and my chyme	V
But though terror undoubtedly gained the day	E
Yet curiosity too had its way	E
And the first had no sooner sung out Avaunt	E
When the second cried Stay what the deuce do you want	E
Often as I have told the tale	W
This particular part is so 'like a whale '	X
That I always feel an apology due	E
For insisting upon it as perfectly true	E
This is what followed a grinding noise	S
A friction of bones that grew to a voice	S
And I heard these words on my honour I did	E
'Hi Cooey You fella Open 'm lid '	X
Trembling all over from foot to head	E
'How shall I open it Spirit ' I said	E
'Lies there oh lies there no key about	E
For how can I open the coffer without '	X
A kind of an audible ossified grin	Y
A gnashing of laughter came from within	Y
And little by little I understood	E
'You fella new chum You no good	E
White fella crawler you no go	P
Key in 'm lock my word 'tis so '	X
It was so indeed I opened and lo	P
An afrit A goblin A bottle imp No	P
Simply a Human Skull enshrined	E
In rosewood padded and velvet lined	E
A low type of skull as one could see	S
From the brutish depression where forehead should be	S
Yet surely precious in some degree	S
To judge from the case not to mention the key	S
And the lock by a well known patentee	E
All was still for three minutes at least	E
Knocks and voices alike had ceased	E
There lay the skull as silent and dumb	V
As Lot's wife's salted cranium	V
Had it been all a gross mistake	Z
In the frenzy begotten of molar ache	Z
Was the whole affair but a fancy freak	A2
Forged in the heat of a throbbing cheek	A2
Was it all but rather than wait the event	E
I determined to make the experiment	E
So summoning courage a query to frame	V
I boldly inquired 'You there what name '	X
Which to supply explanation due	E
Is the Lingua Nigra for 'Who are you '	X
This is what followed a grinding noise	S
A friction of bones that grew to a voice	S
And a slight elevation I certainly saw	S
Of the skull as if raised on the under jaw	S
And this time beyond the chance of mistake	Z
My senses about me and wide awake	Z
No victim of frenzy no fancy's gull	K
I heard the words 'Me King Billy's Skull '	X
Alas poor Billy I knew him well	B2
In his full corporeal personnel	B2
But a man might give his own father the go by	C2
Were there only his brain pan left to know by	C2
And this was Billy the last of his race	S
That sightless mask was his regal face	S
How oft from the cavity within	Y
Those fangs now set in ghastly grin	Y
Had I seen the curling smoke proceed	E
Of the eleemosynary weed	E
A cavity even now displayed	E
Through a gap for his pipe expressly made	E
Here where the Kingly glance shot through	E
Two eyeless sockets appal the view	E
And where flourished the fibre of Cocoa nut	E
Is an utterly towless occiput	E
But scant was the time to moralize	S
For soon a light in the place of the eyes	S
A wild looking diabolical spark	D2
Like the eye of an angry cat in the dark	D2
Came and went and went and came	V
The spirit of Billy perhaps aflame	V
And deeming it such 'What would you pray '	X
I asked in a stammering tremulous way	E
'What is your will oh William say	E
William rex dei gratia '	X
This is what followed a grinding noise	S
A friction of bones that grew to a voice	S
'You take me out go long o'street	E
You come place where three road meet	E
S'pos'n keep middle till come to bridge	E2
Cross over creek an' go up ridge	E2
Up on 'im top lie down hollow tree	S
Lift up big sheet o' bark you see	S
Bones of brother belongin' to me	S
Take 'im up head put mine fella down	M
You fetch 'im brother head back to town	M
Put 'im in box lock 'im up like o' here	H
Dash no do me my oath No fear '	X
What COULD it all mean Three days ago	P
I had seen this monarch in earth laid low	P
How had his fleshless skull returned	E
From the grave where I saw him so 'quietly inurned '	X
And what upon earth was the drift of the dark	D2
Allusion to Dash in his closing remark	D2
And what could import a mission so strange	F2
This visit to death this mysterious exchange	F2
And wherefore of all men should I be selected	E
To pending an answer I did as directed	E
And in less than an hour the exchange was effected	E
King Billy supplanted the box closed once more	H
And myself fleeing forth from the surgery door	H
Time and the hour as Shakespeare says	S
Run through the very roughest of da	E

James Brunton Stephens

King Billy's Skull. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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