Tennants Anster Fair Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBAACCBBDD BBEEFG A HDHDIBIIBIJDJD A KKLLAMAMKKKNN A OOAPAPBQBQRBRBBBBB A AASSTTBBBBUUBBUNUN A VVKAKABWBWULXL A EYEYAAAABABABBJJKKBB ZZAAUUAA A BBA2A2DTB2AB2ABBB B2 C2NC2AEEAAD2D2YE2NN B2 KDKDAQAQF2F2FFG2BH2B QI2J2J2BGBGBK2BK2BB A HHBB2BB2L2L2OOBB B2 BBBBUBUB B2 B2B2BBM2| I | A |
| - | |
| 'TIS the middle watch of a summer's night | B |
| The earth is dark but the heavens are bright | B |
| Nought is seen in the vault on high | A |
| But the moon and the stars and the cloudless sky | A |
| And the flood which rolls its milky hue | C |
| A river of light on the welkin blue | C |
| The moon looks down on old Cronest | B |
| She mellows the shades on his shaggy breast | B |
| And seems his huge gray form to throw | D |
| In a sliver cone on the wave below | D |
| - | |
| His sides are broken by spots of shade | B |
| By the walnut bough and the cedar made | B |
| And through their clustering branches dark | E |
| Glimmers and dies the fire fly's spark | E |
| Like starry twinkles that momently break | F |
| Through the rifts of the gathering tempest's rack | G |
| - | |
| II | A |
| - | |
| The stars are on the moving stream | H |
| And fling as its ripples gently flow | D |
| A burnished length of wavy beam | H |
| In an eel like spiral line below | D |
| The winds are whist and the owl is still | I |
| The bat in the shelvy rock is hid | B |
| And nought is heard on the lonely hill | I |
| But the cricket's chirp and the answer shrill | I |
| Of the gauze winged katy did | B |
| And the plaint of the wailing whip poor will | I |
| Who moans unseen and ceaseless sings | J |
| Ever a note of wail and wo | D |
| Till morning spreads her rosy wings | J |
| And earth and sky in her glances glow | D |
| - | |
| III | A |
| - | |
| 'Tis the hour of fairy ban and spell | K |
| The wood tick has kept the minutes well | K |
| He has counted them all with click and stroke | L |
| Deep in the heart of the mountain oak | L |
| And he has awakened the sentry elve | A |
| Who sleeps with him in the haunted tree | M |
| To bid him ring the hour of twelve | A |
| And call the fays to their revelry | M |
| Twelve small strokes on his tinkling bell | K |
| 'Twas made of the white snail's pearly shell | K |
| Midnight comes and all is well | K |
| Hither hither wing your way | N |
| 'Tis the dawn of the fairy day | N |
| - | |
| IV | A |
| - | |
| They come from beds of lichen green | O |
| They creep from the mullen's velvet screen | O |
| Some on the backs of beetles fly | A |
| From the silver tops of moon touched trees | P |
| Where they swung in their cobweb hammocks high | A |
| And rock'd about in the evening breeze | P |
| Some from the hum bird's downy nest | B |
| They had driven him out by elfin power | Q |
| And pillowed on plumes of his rainbow breast | B |
| Had slumbered there till the charmed hour | Q |
| Some had lain in the scoop of the rock | R |
| With glittering ising stars inlaid | B |
| And some had opened the four o'clock | R |
| And stole within its purple shade | B |
| And now they throng the moonlight glade | B |
| Above below on every side | B |
| Their little minim forms arrayed | B |
| In the tricksy pomp of fairy pride | B |
| - | |
| V | A |
| - | |
| They come not now to print the lea | A |
| In freak and dance around the tree | A |
| Or at the mushroom board to sup | S |
| And drink the dew from the buttercup | S |
| A scene of sorrow waits them now | T |
| For an Ouphe has broken his vestal vow | T |
| He has loved an earthly maid | B |
| And left for her his woodland shade | B |
| He has lain upon her lip of dew | B |
| And sunned him in her eye of blue | B |
| Fann'd her cheek with his wing of air | U |
| Played in the ringlets of her hair | U |
| And nestling on her snowy breast | B |
| Forgot the lily king's behest | B |
| For this the shadowy tribes of air | U |
| To the elfin court must haste away | N |
| And now they stand expectant there | U |
| To hear the doom of the Culprit Fay | N |
| - | |
| VI | A |
| - | |
| The throne was reared upon the grass | V |
| Of spice wood and of sassafras | V |
| On pillars of mottled tortoise shell | K |
| Hung the burnished canopy | A |
| And o'er it gorgeous curtains fell | K |
| Of the tulip's crimson drapery | A |
| The monarch sat on his judgment seat | B |
| On his brow the crown imperial shone | W |
| The prisoner Fay was at his feet | B |
| And his peers were ranged around the throne | W |
| He waved his sceptre in the air | U |
| He looked around and calmly spoke | L |
| His brow was grave and his eye severe | X |
| But his voice in a softened accent broke | L |
| - | |
| VII | A |
| - | |
| Fairy Fairy list and mark | E |
| Thou hast broke thine elfin chain | Y |
| Thy flame wood lamp is quenched and dark | E |
| And thy wings are dyed with a deadly stain | Y |
| Thou hast sullied thine elfin purity | A |
| In the glance of a mortal maiden's eye | A |
| Thou hast scorned our dread decree | A |
| And thou shouldst pay the forfeit high | A |
| But well I know her sinless mind | B |
| Is pure as the angel forms above | A |
| Gentle and meek and chaste and kind | B |
| Such as a spirit well might love | A |
| Fairy had she spot or taint | B |
| Bitter had been thy punishment | B |
| Tied to the hornet's shardy wings | J |
| Tossed on the pricks of nettles' stings | J |
| Or seven long ages doomed to dwell | K |
| With the lazy worm in the walnut shell | K |
| Or every night to writhe and bleed | B |
| Beneath the tread of the centipede | B |
| Or bound in a cobweb dungeon dim | Z |
| Your jailer a spider huge and grim | Z |
| Amid the carrion bodies to lie | A |
| Of the worm and the bug and the murdered fly | A |
| These it had been your lot to bear | U |
| Had a stain been found on the earthly fair | U |
| Now list and mark our mild decree | A |
| Fairy this your doom must be | A |
| - | |
| VIII | A |
| - | |
| Thou shalt seek the beach of sand | B |
| Where the water bounds the elfin land | B |
| Thou shalt watch the oozy brine | A2 |
| Till the sturgeon leaps in the bright moonshine | A2 |
| Then dart the glistening arch below | D |
| And catch a drop from his silver bow | T |
| The water sprites will wield their arms | B2 |
| And dash around with roar and rave | A |
| And vain are the woodland spirits' charms | B2 |
| They are the imps that rule the wave | A |
| Yet trust thee in thy single might | B |
| If thy heart be pure and thy spirit right | B |
| Thou shalt win the warlock fight | B |
| - | |
| IX | B2 |
| - | |
| If the spray bead gem be won | C2 |
| The stain of thy wing is washed away | N |
| But another errand must be done | C2 |
| Ere thy crime be lost for aye | A |
| Thy flame wood lamp is quenched and dark | E |
| Thou must re illume its spark | E |
| Mount thy steed and spur him high | A |
| To the heaven's blue canopy | A |
| And when thou seest a shooting star | D2 |
| Follow it fast and follow it far | D2 |
| The last faint spark of its burning train | Y |
| Shall light the elfin lamp again | E2 |
| Thou hast heard our sentence Fay | N |
| Hence to the water side away | N |
| - | |
| X | B2 |
| - | |
| The goblin marked his monarch well | K |
| He spake not but he bowed him low | D |
| Then plucked a crimson colen bell | K |
| And turned him round in act to go | D |
| The way is long he cannot fly | A |
| His soiled wing has lost its power | Q |
| And he winds adown the mountain high | A |
| For many a sore and weary hour | Q |
| Through dreary beds of tangled fern | F2 |
| Through groves of nightshade dark and dern | F2 |
| Over the grass and through the brake | F |
| Where toils the ant and sleeps the snake | F |
| Now o'er the violet's azure flush | G2 |
| He skips along in lightsome mood | B |
| And now he thrids the bramble bush | H2 |
| Till its points are dyed in fairy blood | B |
| He has leapt the bog he has pierced the briar | Q |
| He has swum the brook and waded the mire | I2 |
| Till his spirits sank and his limbs grew weak | J2 |
| And the red waxed fainter in his cheek | J2 |
| He had fallen to the ground outright | B |
| For rugged and dim was his onward track | G |
| But there came a spotted toad in sight | B |
| And he laughed as he jumped upon her back | G |
| He bridled her mouth with a silk weed twist | B |
| He lashed her sides with an osier thong | K2 |
| And now through evening's dewy mist | B |
| With leap and spring they bound along | K2 |
| Till the mountain's magic verge is past | B |
| And the beach of sand is reached at last | B |
| - | |
| XI | A |
| - | |
| Soft and pale is the moony beam | H |
| Moveless still the glassy stream | H |
| The wave is clear the beach is bright | B |
| With snowy shells and sparkling stones | B2 |
| The shore surge comes in ripples light | B |
| In murmurings faint and distant moans | B2 |
| And ever afar in the silence deep | L2 |
| Is heard the splash of the sturgeon's leap | L2 |
| And the bend of his graceful bow is seen | O |
| A glittering arch of silver sheen | O |
| Spanning the wave of burnished blue | B |
| And dripping with gems of the river dew | B |
| - | |
| XII | B2 |
| - | |
| The elfin cast a glance around | B |
| As he lighted down from his courser toad | B |
| Then round his breast his wings he wound | B |
| And close to the river's brink he strode | B |
| He sprang on a rock he breathed a prayer | U |
| Above his head his arms he threw | B |
| Then tossed a tiny curve in air | U |
| And headlong plunged in the waters blue | B |
| - | |
| XIII | B2 |
| - | |
| Up sprung the spirits of the waves | B2 |
| From sea silk beds in their coral caves | B2 |
| With snail plate armour snatched in haste | B |
| They speed their way through the liquid waste | B |
| Some are ra | M2 |
Joseph Rodman Drake
(1)
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