The Witch's Daughter Poem Rhyme Scheme

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John Greenleaf Whittier

The Witch's Daughter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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It was the pleasant harvest time	A
When cellar bins are closely stowed	B
And garrets bend beneath their load	B
	-
And the old swallow haunted barns	C
Brown gabled long and full of seams	D
Through which the moted sunlight streams	D
	-
And winds blow freshly in to shake	E
The red plumes of the roosted cocks	F
And the loose hay mow's scented locks	F
	-
Are filled with summer's ripened stores	G
Its odorous grass and barley sheaves	H
From their low scaffolds to their eaves	H
	-
On Esek Harden's oaken floor	I
With many an autmn threshing worn	J
Lay the heaped ears of unhusked corn	J
	-
And thither came young men and maids	K
Beneath a moon that large and low	L
Lit that sweet eve of long ago	L
	-
They took their places some by chance	M
And others by a merry voice	N
Or sweet smile guided to their choice	N
	-
How pleasantly the rising moon	O
Between the shadow of the mows	P
Looked on them through the great elm boughs	P
	-
On sturdy boyhood sun embrowned	B
On girlhood with its solid curves	Q
Of healthful strength and painless nerves	Q
	-
And jests went round and laughs that made	B
The house dog answer with his howl	R
And kept astir the barn yard fowl	R
	-
And quaint old songs their fathers sung	S
In Derby dales and Yorkshire moors	T
Ere Norman William trod their shores	G
	-
And tales whose merry license shook	U
The fat sides of the Saxon thane	V
Forgetful of the hovering Dane	V
	-
Rude plays to Celt and Cimbri known	W
The charms and riddles that beguiled	B
On Oxus banks the young world s child	B
	-
That primal picture speech wherein	X
Have youth and maid the story told	B
So new in each so dateless old	B
	-
Recalling pastoral Ruth in her	Y
Who waited blushing and demure	Z
The red ear s kiss of forfeiture	Y
	-
But still the sweetest voice was mute	B
That river valley ever heard	B
From lips of maid or throat of bird	B
	-
For Mabel Martin sat apart	B
And let the hay mow s shadow fall	A2
Upon the loveliest face of all	A2
	-
She sat apart as one forbid	B
Who knew that none would condescend	B
To own the Witch wife s child a friend	B
	-
The seasons scarce had gone their round	B
Since curious thousands thronged to see	B2
Her mother at the gallows tree	B2
	-
And mocked the prison palsied limbs	C2
That faltered on the fatal stairs	D2
And wan lip trembling with its prayers	D2
	-
Few questioned of the sorrowing child	B
Or when they saw the mother die	B
Dreamed of the daughter s agony	B2
	-
They went up to their homes that day	B
As men and Christians justified	B
God willed it and the wretch had died	B
	-
Dear God and Father of us all	A2
Forgive our faith in cruel lies	E2
Forgive the blindness that denies	E2
	-
Forgive thy creature when he takes	F2
For the all perfect love Thou art	B
Some grim creation of his heart	B
	-
Cast down our idols overturn	G2
Our bloody altars let us see	B2
Thyself in Thy humanity	B2
	-
Poor Mabel from her mother s grave	H2
Crept to her desolate hearth stone	W
And wrestled with her fate alone	W
	-
With love and anger and despair	I2
The phantoms of disordered sense	J2
The awful doubts of Providence	K2
	-
The school boys jeered her as they passed	B
And when she sought the house of prayer	I2
Her mother's curse pursued her there	I2
	-
And still o'er many a neighboring door	I
She saw the horseshoe's curved charm	L2
To guard against her mother's harm	L2
	-
That mother poor and sick and lame	M2
Who daily by the old arm chair	I2
Folded her withered hands in prayer	I2
	-
Who turned in Salem's dreary jail	N2
Her worn old Bible o'er and o'er	Y
When her dim eyes could read no more	I
	-
Sore tried and pained the poor girl kept	B
Her faith and trusted that her way	B
So dark would somewhere meet the day	B
	-
And still her weary wheel went round	B
Day after day with no relief	O2
Small leisure have the poor for grief	O2
	-
So in the shadow Mabel sits	P2
Untouched by mirth she sees and hears	Q2
Her smile is sadder than her tears	D2
	-
But cruel eyes have found her out	B
And cruel lips repeat her name	M2
And taunt her with her mother's shame	M2
	-
She answered not with railing words	R2
But drew her apron o'er her face	S2
And sobbing glided from the place	S2
	-
And only pausing at the door	I
Her sad eyes met the troubled gaze	T2
Of one who in her better days	T2
	-
Had been her warm and steady friend	B
Ere yet her mother's doom had made	B
Even Esek Harden half afraid	B
	-
He felt that mute appeal of tears	D2
And starting with an angry frown	U2
Hushed all the wicked murmurs down	U2
	-
'Good neighbors mine ' he sternly said	B
'This passes harmless mirth or jest	B
I brook no insult to my guest	B
	-
'She is indeed her mother's child	B
But God's sweet pity ministers	V2
Unto no whiter soul than hers	V2
	-
'Let Goody Martin rest in peace	W2
I never knew her harm a fly	B
And witch or not God knows not I	B
	-
'I know who swore her life away	B
And as God lives I'd not condemn	X2
An Indian dog on word of them '	-
	-
The broadest lands in all the town	U2
The skill to guide the power to awe	Y2
Were Harden's and his word was law	Z2
	-
None dared withstand him to his face	S2
But one sly maiden spake aside	B
'The little witch is evil eyed	B
	-
'Her mother only killed a cow	A3
Or witched a churn or dairy pan	B3
But she forsooth must charm a man '	-
	-
Poor Mabel in her lonely home	C3
Sat by the window's narrow pane	V
White in the moonlight's silver rain	V
	-
The river on its pebbled rim	D3
Made music such as childhood knew	E3
The door yard tree was whispered through	E3
	-
By voices such as childhood's ear	F3
Had heard in moonlights long ago	L
And through the willow boughs below	L
	-
She saw the rippled waters shine	G3
Beyond in waves of shade and light	B
The hills rolled off into the night	B
	-
She saw and heard but over all	A2
A sense of some transforming spell	H3
The shadow of her sick heart fell	H3
	-
And still across the wooded space	S2
The harvest lights of Harden shone	W
And song and jest and laugh went on	I3
	-
And he so gentle true and strong	J3
Of men the bravest and the best	B
Had he too scorned her with the rest	B
	-
She strove to drown her sense of wrong	J3
And in her old and simple way	B
To teach her bitter heart to pray	B
	-
Poor child the prayer begun in faith	K3
Grew to a low despairing cry	B
Of utter misery 'Let me die	B
	-
'Oh take me from the scornful eyes	E2
And hide me where the cruel speech	L3
And mocking finger may not reach	L3
	-
'I dare not breathe my mother's name	M2
A daughter's right I dare not crave	H2
To weep above her unblest grave	H2
	-
'Let me not live until my heart	B
With few to pity and with none	M3
To love me hardens into stone	W
	-
'O God have mercy on Thy child	B
Whose faith in Thee grows weak and small	A2
And take me ere I lose it all '	-
	-
A shadow on the moonlight fell	H3
And murmuring wind and wave became	M2
A voice whose burden was her name	M2
	-
Had then God heard her Had He sent	B
His angel down In flesh and blood	B
Before her Esek Harden stood	B
	-
He laid his hand upon her arm	L2
'Dear Mabel this no more shall be	B2
Who scoffs at you must scoff at me	B2
	-
'You know rough Esek Harden well	H3
And if he seems no suitor gay	B
And if his hair is touched with gray	B
	-
'The maiden grown shall never find	B
His heart less warm than when she smiled	B
Upon his knees a little child '	-
	-
Her tears of grief were tears of joy	N3
As folded in his strong embrace	S2
She looked in Esek Harden's face	S2
	-
'O truest friend of all'' she said	B
'God bless you for your kindly thought	B
And make me worthy of my lot '	-
	-
He led her through his dewy fields	O3
To where the swinging lanterns glowed	B
And through the doors the huskers showed	B
	-
'Good friends and neighbors ' Esek said	B
'I'm weary of this lonely life	P3
In Mabel see my chosen wife	P3
	-
'She greets you kindly one and all	A2
The past is past and all offence	O3
Falls harmless from her innocence	O3
	-
'Henceforth she stands no more alone	W
You know what Esek Harden is	O3
He brooks no wrong to him or his '	-
	-
Now let the merriest tales be told	B
And let the sweetest songs be sung	S
That ever made the old heart young	S
	-
For now the lost has found a home	C3