The Midnight Axe Poem Rhyme Scheme

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James Brunton Stephens

The Midnight Axe Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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I	A
The red day sank as the Sergeant rode	B
Through the woods grown dim and brown	C
One farewell flush on his carbine glowed	B
And the veil of the dusk drew down	C
	-
No sound of life save the hoof beats broke	D
The hush of the lonely place	E
Or the short sharp words that the Sergeant spoke	D
When his good horse slackened pace	E
	-
Or hungrily caught at the ti tree shoots	F
Or in tangled brushwood tripped	G
Faltered amid disrupted roots	F
Or on porphyry outcrop slipped	G
The woods closed in through the vaulted dark	H
No ray of starlight shone	I
But still o'er the crashing litter of bark	H
Trooper and steed tore on	J
	-
Night in the bush and the bearings lost	K
But the Sergeant took no heed	L
For Fate that morn his will had crossed	K
And his wrath was hot indeed	L
	-
The captured prey that his hands had gripped	G
Ere the dawn in his lone bush lair	M
The bonds from his pinioned wrists had slipped	G
And was gone he knew not where	M
	-
Therefore the wrath of Sergeant Hume	N
Burned fiercely as on he fared	O
And whither he rode through the perilous gloom	N
He neither knew nor cared	O
	-
But still as the dense brush checked the pace	E
Would drive the sharp spurs in	P
Though the pendent parasites smote his face	E
Or caught him beneath the chin	P
	-
The woodland dipped or upward bent	Q
But he recked not of hollow or hill	R
Till right on the brink of a sheer descent	Q
His trembling horse stood still	R
	-
And when in despite of word and oath	S
He swerved from the darksome edge	T
The unconscious man dismounting loth	U
Set foot on a yielding ledge	T
	-
A sudden strain on a treacherous rein	V
And a clutch at the empty air	M
A cry in the dark with no ear to mark	H
Its accent of despair	M
	-
And the slender stream in the gloom below	W
That in mossy channel ran	X
Was checked a space in its feeble flow	W
By the limbs of a senseless man	X
	-
II	A
A change had passed o'er the face of night	Y
When waking as from a dream	Z
The Sergeant gazed aghast at the sight	Y
Of moonlit cliff and stream	Z
	-
From the shallow wherein his limbs had lain	V
He crawled to higher ground	A2
And numb of heart and dizzy of brain	V
Dreamily gazed around	A2
	-
From aisle to aisle of the solemn wood	B2
A misty radiance spread	C2
And like pillars seen through incense stood	B2
The gaunt boles gray or red	C2
	-
Slow vapours touched with a mystic sheen	D2
Round the sombre branches curled	E2
Or floated the haggard trunks between	D2
Like ghosts in a spectral world	E2
	-
No voice was heard of beast or bird	F2
Nor whirr of insect wing	G2
Nor crepitant bark the silence stirred	F2
Nor dead nor living thing	G2
	-
So still that but for his labouring breath	H2
And the blood on his head and hand	I2
He might have deemed his swoon was death	H2
And this the Silent Land	I2
	-
Anon close by at the water's edge	T
His helmet he espied	I2
Half buried among the reedy sedge	T
	-
And drew it to his side	I2
	-
And ev'n as he dipped it in the brook	J2
And drank as from a cup	K2
Suddenly with affrighted look	J2
The Sergeant started up	K2
	-
For the sound of an axe a single stroke	D
Through the ghostly woods rang clear	L2
And a cold sweat on his forehead broke	D
And he shook in deadly fear	L2
	-
Why should the sound that on lonely tracks	M2
Had gladdened him many a day	I2
Why should the ring of the friendly axe	M2
Bring boding and dismay	I2
	-
And why should his steed down the slope hard by	A
With fierce and frantic stride	I2
Why should his steed with unearthly cry	A
Rush trembling to his side	I2
	-
Strange too and the Sergeant marked it well	N2
Nor doubted he marked aright	I2
When the thunder of hoofs on the silence fell	N2
And the cry rang through the night	I2
	-
A thousand answering echoes woke	D
Reverberant far and wide	I2
But to the unseen woodman's stroke	D
No echo had replied	I2
	-
And while he questioned with his fear	L2
And summoned his pride to aid	I2
A second stroke fell sharp and clear	L2
Nor echo answer made	I2
	-
A third stroke and aloud he cried	I2
As one who hails his kind	I2
But nought save his own voice multiplied	I2
His straining sense divined	I2
	-
He bound the ends of his broken rein	V
He recked not his carbine gone	O2
He mounted his steed with a groan of pain	V
And tow'rd the sound spurred on	J
	-
For now the blows fell thick and fast	I2
And he noted with added dread	I2
That ever as woods on woods flew past	I2
The sound moved on ahead	I2
	-
But his courage rose with the quickening pace	E
And mocked his boding gloom	N
For fear had no abiding place	E
In the soul of Sergeant Hume	N
	-
III	A
Where the woods thinned out and the sparser trees	P2
Their separate shadows cast	I2
Waxing fainter by slow degrees	P2
The sounds died out at last	I2
	-
The Sergeant paused and peered about	I2
O'er all the stirless scene	D2
Half in amaze and half in doubt	I2
If such a thing had been	P
	-
Nor vainly in search of clue or guide	I2
From trunk to trunk he gazed	I2
For lo the giant stem at his side	I2
By the hand of man was blazed	I2
	-
And again and again he found the sign	Q2
Till after a weary way	I2
Before him asleep in the calm moonshine	Q2
A little clearing lay	I2
	-
And in it a red slab hut that glowed	I2
As 'twere of jasper made	I2
The Sergeant into the clearing rode	I2
And passed through the rude stockade	I2
	-
He bound his horse to the fence and soon	R2
He stood by the open door	S2
With pallid face upturned to the moon	R2
A man slept on the floor	S2
	-
Little he thought to have found him here	T2
By such strange portent led	I2
His sister's son whom for many a year	L2
His own had mourned as dead	I2
	-
Who had chosen the sundering seas to roam	U2
After a youth misspent	I2
And to those who wept in his far off home	U2
Token nor word had sent	I2
	-
The face looked grim and haggard and old	I2
Yet not from the touch of time	V2
Too well the Sergeant knew the mould	I2
	-
And lineaments of crime	V2
	-
And Better he said she should mourn him dead	I2
Than know him changed to this	W2
Yet he kneeled and touched the slumbering head	I2
For her with a gentle kiss	W2
	-
Whereat the eyelids parted wide	I2
But no light in the dull eye gleamed	I2
The man turned slowly on his side	I2
And muttered as one who dreamed	I2
	-
He stared at the Sergeant as in a trance	X2
And the listener's blood ran cold	I2
As he pieced the broken utterance	Y2
That a tale of horror told	I2
	-
For he heard him rave of murder done	Z2
Of an axe and a hollow tree	A3
And Oh God he cried must my sister's son	Z2
Be led to his death by me	A3
	-
He seized him roughly by the arm	B3
He called him by his name	C3
The man leaped up in mazed alarm	B3
And terror shook his frame	C3
	-
Then a sudden knife flashed out from his hip	D3
And they closed in struggle wild	I2
But soon in the Sergeant's iron grip	D3
The man was as a child	I2
	-
IV	E3
A wind had arisen that shook the hut	I2
The moonbeams dimmed apace	E
The lamp was lit the door was shut	I2
And the twain sat face to face	E
	-
In question put and answer flung	F3
A weary space had passed	I2
But the secret of the soul was wrung	F3
From the stubborn lips at last	I2
As one who resistless doom obeyed	I2
The younger told his sin	P
Nor any prayer for mercy made	I2
Nor appeal to the bond of kin	P
The quarrel Oh 'twas an idle thing	G2
	-
Too idle almost to name	C3
He turned up an ace and killed my king	G2
And I lost the curs d game	C3
	-
And he triumphed and jeered and his stinging chaff	E3
By heaven how it maddened me then	G3
And he left me there with a scornful laugh	E3
But he never laughed again	G3
	-
We had long been mates through good and ill	R
Together we owned this land	I2
But his was ever the stronger will	R
And his was the stronger hand	I2
	-
But I would be done with his lordly airs	H3
I was weary of them and him	I3
So I stole upon him unawares	H3
In the forest lone and dim	I3
	-
The ring of his axe had drowned my tread	I2
But a rod from me he stood	I2
When he paused to fix the iron head	I2
That had loosened as he hewed	I2
	-
Then I too made a sudden halt	I2
And watched him as he turned	I2
To a charred stump in whose gaping vault	I2
A fire of branches burned	I2
	-
He had left the axe by the half hewn bole	J3
As whistling he turned away	I2
From my cov	E3