The Double-headed Snake Of Newbury Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Far away in the twilight time	A
Of every people in every clime	A
Dragons and griffins and monsters dire	B
Born of water and air and fire	C
Or nursed like the Python in the mud	D
And ooze of the old Deucalion flood	D
Crawl and wriggle and foam with rage	E
Through dusk tradition and ballad age	E
So from the childhood of Newbury town	F
And its time of fable the tale comes down	F
Of a terror which haunted bush and brake	G
The Amphisbaena the Double Snake	G
	-
Thou who makest the tale thy mirth	H
Consider that strip of Christian earth	H
On the desolate shore of a sailless sea	I
Full of terror and mystery	I
Half redeemed from the evil hold	J
Of the wood so dreary and dark and old	J
Which drank with its lips of leaves the dew	K
When Time was young and the world was new	K
And wove its shadows with sun and moon	L
Ere the stones of Cheops were squared and hewn	L
Think of the sea's dread monotone	M
Of the mournful wail from the pine wood blown	M
Of the strange vast splendors that lit the North	N
Of the troubled throes of the quaking earth	H
And the dismal tales the Indian told	J
Till the settler's heart at his hearth grew cold	J
And he shrank from the tawny wizard boasts	O
And the hovering shadows seemed full of ghosts	O
And above below and on every side	P
The fear of his creed seemed verified	P
And think if his lot were now thine own	M
To grope with terrors nor named nor known	M
How laxer muscle and weaker nerve	Q
And a feebler faith thy need might serve	Q
And own to thyself the wonder more	R
That the snake had two heads and not a score	R
	-
Whether he lurked in the Oldtown fen	S
Or the gray earth flax of the Devil's Den	S
Or swam in the wooded Artichoke	T
Or coiled by the Northman's Written Rock	U
Nothing on record is left to show	V
Only the fact that be lived we know	V
And left the cast of a double head	W
In the scaly mask which he yearly shed	W
For he carried a head where his tail should be	I
And the two of course could never agree	I
But wriggled about with main and might	X
Now to the left and now to the right	X
Pulling and twisting this way and that	Y
Neither knew what the other was at	Y
	-
A snake with two beads lurking so near	Z
Judge of the wonder guess at the fear	Z
Think what ancient gossips might say	A2
Shaking their heads in their dreary way	A2
Between the meetings on Sabbath day	A2
How urchins searching at day's decline	B2
The Common Pasture for sheep or kine	B2
The terrible double ganger heard	C2
In leafy rustle or whir of bird	C2
Think what a zest it gave to the sport	D2
In berry time of the younger sort	D2
As over pastures blackberry twined	E2
Reuben and Dorothy lagged behind	E2
And closer and closer for fear of harm	A
The maiden clung to her lover's arm	A
And how the spark who was forced to stay	A2
By his sweetheart's fears till the break of day	A2
Thanked the snake for the fond delay	A2
	-
Far and wide the tale was told	J
Like a snowball growing while it rolled	J
The nurse hushed with it the baby's cry	F2
And it served in the worthy minister's eye	F2
To paint the primitive serpent by	F2
Cotton Mather came galloping down	B2
All the way to Newbury town	B2
With his eyes agog and his ears set wide	P
And his marvellous inkhorn at his side	P
Stirring the while in the shallow pool	G2
Of his brains for the lore he learned at school	G2
To garnish the story with here a streak	H2
Of Latin and there another of Greek	H2
And the tales he heard and the notes he took	I2
Behold are they not in his Wonder Book	I2
	-
Stories like dragons are hard to kill	J2
If the snake does not the tale runs still	J2
In Byfield Meadows on Pipestave Hill	J2
And still whenever husband and wife	K2
Publish the shame of their daily strife	K2
And with mad cross purpose tug and strain	B2
At either end of the marriage chain	B2
The gossips say with a knowing shake	G
Of their gray heads 'Look at the Double Snake	G
One in body and two in will	J2
The Amphisbaena is living still '	-

John Greenleaf Whittier

The Double-headed Snake Of Newbury Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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