A Vision Of Legal Shadows Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD CECE FCCC GHGH GHGC GCGC CICI CCCC CCCJ CGCG GCGC GGGG CGCG CGKG KHKH GLGL GGGG CMGM| A case at chambers left for my opinion | A |
| Had taxed my brain until the noon of night | B |
| I read old law and loathed the long dominion | A |
| Of fiction over right | B |
| - | |
| I had consulted Coke and Cruise and Chitty | C |
| The works where ancient learning reigns supreme | D |
| Until exhausted nature moved with pity | C |
| Sent me a bookman's dream | D |
| - | |
| Six figures all gigantic as Gargantua | C |
| Floated before my eyes and all the six | E |
| Were shades like those that once the bard of Mantua | C |
| Saw by the shore of Styx | E |
| - | |
| The first was one with countenance imperious | F |
| His toga dim with centuries of dust | C |
| My name quoth he is Aulus and Agerius B | C |
| My voice is hoarse with rust | C |
| - | |
| Yet once I played my part in law proceedings | G |
| And writers wrote of one they never saw | H |
| I gave their point to formul and pleadings | G |
| I lived but in the law | H |
| - | |
| The second had a countenance perfidious | G |
| What wonder Pr tors launched their formul | H |
| In vain against Numerius Negidius | G |
| And not a whit cared he | C |
| - | |
| With voice of high contempt he greeted Aulus | G |
| In interdicts thou wast mine enemy | C |
| Once passed no day that students did not call us | G |
| As parties me and thee | C |
| - | |
| On paper I was plaintiff or defendant | C |
| On paper thou wast evermore the same | I |
| We lived apart a life that was transcendant | C |
| For it was but a name | I |
| - | |
| I hate thee Aulus hate thee low he muttered | C |
| It was by thee that I was always tricked | C |
| My unsubstantial bread I ate unbuttered | C |
| In dread of interdict | C |
| - | |
| And yet 'twas but the sentiment I hated | C |
| Like thee I ne'er was drunk e'en vi or clam C | C |
| With wine that was no wine my thirst was sated | C |
| Like thee I was a sham | J |
| - | |
| Two country hinds in 'broidered smocks next followed | C |
| Each trundled him a cart wheel by the spokes | G |
| Oblivion now their names hath well nigh swallowed | C |
| For they were Stiles and Nokes | G |
| - | |
| They spake no word for speech to them was grievous | G |
| With bovine eyes they supplicated me | C |
| We wot not what ye will but prithee leave us | G |
| Unlettered folk are we | C |
| - | |
| Go said I simple ones and break your fallows | G |
| Crush autumn apples in the cider press | G |
| Law gaffer Stiles thy humble name still hallows | G |
| Contracted to J S | G |
| - | |
| Another pair of later time succeeded | C |
| With buckles on their shoes and silken hose | G |
| A garb that told it was to them who heeded | C |
| John Doe's and Richard Roe's | G |
| - | |
| Ah me I was a casual ejector D | C |
| In the brave days of old I heard one say | G |
| I knew Elizabeth the Lord Protector | K |
| I spake with yesterday | G |
| - | |
| To whom in contradiction snarled the other | K |
| There was no living blood our veins to fill | H |
| Both you and I were nought but shadows brother | K |
| And we are shadows still | H |
| - | |
| Room for a lady room as at Megiddo | G |
| The hosts made way for passage of the king | L |
| For from the darkness crept there forth a widow | G |
| In weeds and wedding ring | L |
| - | |
| I am the widow I whereof the singers | G |
| Of Scotland sang their cruel words so smote | G |
| My tender heart that ofttimes itched my fingers | G |
| To take them by the throat | G |
| - | |
| He scoffed at me dour bachelor of Glasgow E | C |
| If I existed not for him the knave | M |
| 'Twas all his fault who let some bonnie lass go | G |
| Unwedded to her grave | M |
James Williams
(1)
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