Midsummer Idylls. Canto Iii. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCCDCDE A FGFGGHIHH A FJFJJCJCC K LDLDDMDMM L CFCFFNFNN K OPOPPQPQQ K RLRLLCLCC K SCSCCTCUV P KPKPPTPTT P KCKCCGCGG P TCTCCPCPP P WPWWWPWPP P PCCCCCCCC K XYXYYPYPP K ZCZCCWCPC K A2ZA2ZZB2ZPP K WGWGGZGZZ K C2ZC2ZZCZCC P CD2CD2D2CD2CC P PWPWWE2WE2E2 P F2KF2KKGWGG P PCPCCG2CG2G2 P PCPCCWCWW K CPCPPCPCC K KPKPPCPCC K WZWZZCZCC K KWKWWWWWW K ZCZCCKCKK K CWCWWKWKK K CCCCCWCWW K KPKPPE2PE2E2 K KCKCCZCZZ K KKKKKH2KKK K KWKWWKWKK K WWWWWCWCC K CI2CIICICC K CCCCCHCHH K CKCKKCKKK K ZKZKKCKCC I J2KJ2KCIKII I CWCWWZWZZ I KK2KL2K2A2K2A2A2 I IKIKKCKCC K KKKKKKKKK K CKCKKCKCC K CCCCCKCKK K CWCWWKWKK K KIKIIWIWW K ZWZWWHWHH I ZM2ZM2M2KM2KK I PWPWWA2WA2A2I | A |
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I take my goosequill for some recreation | B |
I'll have a pleasurable time to night | C |
A little change without the perturbation | B |
Of nitro glycerine and dynamite | C |
Just now I'm somewhat weary of the sight | C |
Of dark disclosures in the morning news | D |
Which tell of crimes now daily brought to light | C |
Of troublesome investigated clues | D |
And horrifying details of the murderer's noose | E |
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II | A |
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These are the days when each successive paper | F |
Unfolds a tale which can but make it sell | G |
More usually the latest Irish caper | F |
And vendors should indeed be doing well | G |
When columns upon columns as they tell | G |
Of blood red things of horror and of shame | H |
Resemble much a penny horrible | I |
And which in fact they are except in name | H |
Altho' of course proprietors are not to blame | H |
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III | A |
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Who would not wear the ermine robe of Power | F |
Who would not have the majesty of kings | J |
When tremble thrones and courts and nations cower | F |
And strange alarms await all royal things | J |
When arm d horsemen guard their wanderings | J |
And palaces are silenced with affright | C |
When morn discovers with her gleaming wings | J |
The dark and direful mysteries of the night | C |
And men alternate weep and shudder at the sight | C |
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IV | K |
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Of such things as I've said I'm getting weary | L |
Such themes I leave to those who such like choose | D |
Some people's prospects must be somewhat dreary | L |
I shouldn't care to step within their shoes | D |
However time I can't afford to lose | D |
I merely say I'm wanting something new | M |
At least my little self I must amuse | D |
If I my reader can't enliven you | M |
So take my pen and ink determined what to do | M |
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V | L |
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I will proceed with that which I have writ | C |
And tell what came of Dora and her lover | F |
And let me ask you now I think of it | C |
To pardon faults if such you should discover | F |
I mean not that I'm anxious you should cover | F |
The follies incidental to my case | N |
We must essay to understand each other | F |
And look each other boldly in the face | N |
If in each other's sympathy we seek a place | N |
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VI | K |
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Their days had hurried past as doth a dream | O |
This is the favourite simile with us | P |
And taking all together it would seem | O |
The dream had not implied an incubus | P |
For my part I am somewhat dubious | P |
If days like those before they all had known | Q |
Tho' Dora's state had been precarious | P |
For some three weeks or more I that must own | Q |
But she'd recovered now Oh how those days had flown | Q |
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VII | K |
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Yes as I say their time ere then was up | R |
The harvest in yet still they seemed to tarry | L |
They'd quaffed the measure of their sparkling cup | R |
They'd done their tithe of mischief like Old Harry | L |
And so the days went on with dilly dally | L |
The Pater seemed unable to decide | C |
At which their expectations seemed to rally | L |
They hoped he'd stay another month beside | C |
While in this doubtful state the days did onward glide | C |
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VIII | K |
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And as for Rowland there he might be seen | S |
Beside his cherished Dora day by day | C |
For regularly as a new machine | S |
Across to Elleston Farm he bent his way | C |
There as the daylight softly stole away | C |
Would they together sing some little air | T |
She in the gloaming hour would sit and play | C |
Some little movement that he liked to hear | U |
Which circumstances made it doubly trebly dear | V |
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IX | P |
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And there they sat while he leaf after leaf | K |
O'erturned her music as her bosom rose | P |
With words of fondness ah so low and brief | K |
That tender softness only woman knows | P |
While even o'er them wound that still repose | P |
That hush of spirit and that soul of prayer | T |
That something which is only known to those | P |
Who love and are beloved who inly share | T |
That sacred bliss with which no other can compare | T |
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X | P |
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They sang of love while in each other's eye | K |
Beamed that rich fulness of the throbbing breast | C |
While on their lips there hung the deep drawn sigh | K |
Which told the form it deemed the loveliest | C |
Ah in those evening moments both were blest | C |
They read each other's bosom oh how well | G |
And each to each their paradise confessed | C |
That paradise that lovers love to tell | G |
Which round and round each bosom twined its fairy spell | G |
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XI | P |
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Now sunset fell upon her gilded hair | T |
And tinged her brow with an angelic light | C |
As tho' a heaven born being lingered there | T |
And Beauty shamed were weeping at the sight | C |
Then out they strolled to meet the starlit night | C |
He breathed Love's message on to rosy lips | P |
While each partook that holy calm delight | C |
Those sweetnesses alone a lover sips | P |
And which all other earthly sweetnesses eclipse | P |
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XII | P |
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Oh Love Oh Woman What are ye that shine | W |
Man's ruling planet o'er this tossing sea | P |
Who are the sculptors of his lot condign | W |
Who form the page of each man's destiny | W |
Oh Love the greatest of the great of thee | W |
Have said thou sacrificest all to bless | P |
That in thee is a gloom and are not we | W |
Designed for thee and born but to caress | P |
And those they know thee not who can thy joys express | P |
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XIII | P |
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Disguise can't long hide love 'tis even so | P |
We'll shake hands over that at any rate | C |
Let me refer to our friend Rochefoucauld | C |
He knows a lot concerning Love and Hate | C |
But still we wont these paths perambulate | C |
What others say I merely here repeat | C |
So as my story I can illustrate | C |
And hand you my authority complete | C |
To give my own experience would be indiscreet | C |
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XIV | K |
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Considering I'm but a youngster still | X |
That is to say I'm only just of age | Y |
And I as you will say should leave it till | X |
I'm past my salad days and can look sage | Y |
Till o'er Life's road I've passed another stage | Y |
And learned to smoke the pipe of common sense | P |
Which you will gather from the present page | Y |
I havn't learnt to yet at all events | P |
Of which the present folly is a consequence | P |
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XV | K |
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But I was saying something about Dora | Z |
But cannot recollect precisely what | C |
Ah yes I now remember her adorer | Z |
And all about his most delightful lot | C |
That he had popped the question on the spot | C |
As I'd have done myself had I been he | W |
Yes no mistake about it like a shot | C |
While chatting in the arbor vis a vis | P |
Enjoying love like sweet nonsensicality | C |
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XVI | K |
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'Twas often that they did together sing | A2 |
And somehow music's fuel to the fire | Z |
The thirsty flame of Love and to it cling | A2 |
Those sadnesses which speak the heart's desire | Z |
There's in it that which doth the soul inspire | Z |
You'll recollect the words of Mirabeau | B2 |
The very last he spoke Let me expire | Z |
To the delicious sounds of music so | P |
He gave a last long sigh and left this world of woe | P |
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XVII | K |
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The greatest deeds this world has ever known | W |
Were wrought beneath Euterpe's mystic spell | G |
When War's deep thunders boom and nations groan | W |
And rolling thunders tales of terror tell | G |
Then then the heart rebounds within its cell | G |
As th' charger halts to sniff the gory fray | Z |
And with the fiery mettle nought can quell | G |
Bounds o'er the dead and dying on his way | Z |
To plunge amid the foe and meet the dreadful day | Z |
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XVIII | K |
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Give me the sound of martial music while | C2 |
Ten times ten thousand close in clash of war | Z |
And dashing o'er the red and mangled pile | C2 |
Each man determines Now or nevermore | Z |
While unsheathed sabres flash and cannons roar | Z |
And Fury blindfold hisses in its hate | C |
While Valour's shouts resound from shore to shore | Z |
And nations strive their sons to vindicate | C |
And sovereigns bow the knee to t' inexorable Fate | C |
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XIX | P |
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Give me the note which did the true born pride | C |
That pride of will in all its strength awake | D2 |
Inflamed the hearts that for it sank and died | C |
Those British hearts that burned for Glory's sake | D2 |
That song which bids insurgent nations shake | D2 |
Unto their deep foundations and the world | C |
From orient to occident to quake | D2 |
While battle's blood red banner is unfurled | C |
And haughty thrones are to their own destruction hurled | C |
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XX | P |
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Give me the notes that hush the raging seas | P |
That urge the horseman and his charger on | W |
Make foes disarm and fall upon their knees | P |
And garlands fade where Victory once had shone | W |
And vigorous Youth to glitter as the sun | W |
And frenzied Prowess with her tossing plume | E2 |
From off the gore drenched field that she has won | W |
To bear the trophies of a nation's doom | E2 |
While millions weep above an ignominious tomb | E2 |
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XXI | P |
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There lies the stalwart form in Death's last sleep | F2 |
There rest the foamy lip the bloodshot eye | K |
The noble brow o'er which some heart doth weep | F2 |
Whose only elegy the buried sigh | K |
There kneels the friend and comrade who would die | K |
Beside the form he loved alas so well | G |
Now in his last expiring agony | W |
When every breath is as a funeral knell | G |
And the soul bleeds with thoughts that Friendship cannot tell | G |
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XXII | P |
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The last long clasp the hushed and trembling kiss | P |
The mother weeping at her beauty's side | C |
And Death's last look and stiffening clutch is this | P |
Is this the outcome of a nation's pride | C |
There lie the clammy corpses far and wide | C |
And locks bedabbled and the princely cheek | G2 |
Son father brother husband side by side | C |
Oh such a tale of horror who can speak | G2 |
Together heaped the dead and dying strong and weak | G2 |
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XXIII | P |
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But to our text my friends as parsons say | P |
This is soliloquy I quite neglect | C |
My tale from which I've wandered far away | P |
But what from such as I can you expect | C |
I wished your kind attention to direct | C |
Some stanzas back I think 'twas eight or nine | W |
To Music's wondrous power you'll recollect | C |
But somehow left my subject line by line | W |
To which no doubt you'll say I should myself confine | W |
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XXIV | K |
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I am no minstrel and I'd have you know it | C |
Altho' that is the title of these pages | P |
Nor do I yet pretend to be a poet | C |
Those things that should be kept in wire cages | P |
That move to Colney Hatch by easy stages | P |
And keep good company upon the road | C |
Consisting of some dozen or two sages | P |
Who like our tins of dynamite explode | C |
And really are most dangerous things to be abroad | C |
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XXV | K |
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Now Pater surely something had in view | K |
Beyond his time he stayed so many days | P |
Of this his daughters evidently knew | K |
And all their expectations were ablaze | P |
But their excitement soon became a craze | P |
Since he had made a grand resolve in short | C |
He had and be it spoken to his praise | P |
The villa furnished with its meadows bought | C |
With much rejoicing this intelligence was fraught | C |
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XXVI | K |
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Arrangements had been made The early train | W |
He took to town to settle matters there | Z |
Intending shortly to return again | W |
If all his town arrangements turned out fair | Z |
He'd travelled up on three occasions ere | Z |
His wife's idea had met with his consent | C |
No doubt about some business affair | Z |
O'er which in town a day or two he'd spent | C |
Now for the self same reason there he pitched his tent | C |
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XXVII | K |
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He did not tarry long but home did fly | K |
His daughters went to meet him at the station | W |
And at the news they were in spirits high | K |
As was apparent by their conversation | W |
He was of course the very consummation | W |
Of all that was delicious and divine | W |
A home at Elleston pleased their contemplation | W |
And as the sun each countenance did shine | W |
The very cocks and hens beamed with a look benign | W |
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XXVIII | K |
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The London residence was given o'er | Z |
The furniture that was not sold was sent | C |
As it had been arranged it should before | Z |
To Elleston and much labour too they spent | C |
In fixing all things to their hearts' content | C |
And cook of course was busy down there too | K |
While Pater often up to London went | C |
He had as you may guess a lot to do | K |
And had his City business also to pursue | K |
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XXIX | K |
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So all was settled that he should divide | C |
The time the City and his home between | W |
For farm indeed he could and well for wide | C |
His earlier experience had been | W |
The farm tho' small was large enough I ween | W |
In fact it was a nice convenient size | K |
A prettier little spot was never seen | W |
Than Elleston Farm I'm sure by human eyes | K |
And all seemed very happy in the enterprise | K |
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XXX | K |
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Some weeks elapsed e'er everything was straight | C |
The shorter days were slowly coming round | C |
And all things told the year was getting late | C |
And evening mists fell heavy to the ground | C |
The distant woods were getting seared and browned | C |
And Autumn seemed abandoning her reign | W |
While leaf by leaf fell with a rustling sound | C |
That elegy of all the spreading plain | W |
And Winter with his glistering crown was near again | W |
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XXXI | K |
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The groves were still save when the startled breeze | K |
Like a sad smile which comes then fades away | P |
Swept faintly o'er the amber of the trees | K |
And Nature's wheels moved slow and Life was gray | P |
Sadly and surely like the darkening day | P |
Came dreary tokens of th' impending gloom | E2 |
Fainter and fainter waned the solar ray | P |
And all was heavy as the slumbering tomb | E2 |
Far thro' the hazy air did th' distant woodlands loom | E2 |
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XXXII | K |
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The lonesome lingering rose was drenched with dew | K |
With hanging head aggrieving for its mate | C |
It wept above the ground on which it grew | K |
With smiles all past and life disconsolate | C |
There was the flower that clambered o'er the gate | C |
Shrunk like the furrows of an old man's tear | Z |
Each leaf had fallen at the touch of fate | C |
And sunk to die upon its autumn bier | Z |
And every breeze was sighing for the death dealt year | Z |
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XXXIII | K |
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Be still O heart for Death steps noiseless nigh | K |
Hist to the dirges o'er the sleeping sea | K |
Dim funeral trains pass melancholy by | K |
And monotone their mournful minstrelsy | K |
It is the grave that opes by Heav'n's decree | K |
And steeps each thing in its sepulchral breath | H2 |
The self same grave that soon must yawn for thee | K |
The grave wherein all darkness slumbereth | K |
While all around is fastened in the fangs of Death | K |
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XXXIV | K |
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The garments of the arbour fell to earth | K |
The arbour was deserted and the lawn | W |
Knew no repast of eve no song of mirth | K |
No noonday lounge for summer days were gone | W |
The villa of its mantle all was shorn | W |
No blinking puppy stretched upon the grass | K |
Enjoying sleepily the sunny morn | W |
No sportive kitten frolicked there alas | K |
No gaudy tinted butterfly that way did pass | K |
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XXXV | K |
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When strolling through the dew bespangled lane | W |
We pause and thoughtful gaze upon the scene | W |
Within there speaks a something as of pain | W |
Some sort of still lament for what hath been | W |
A few short days ago and festoons green | W |
Clustered upon the bank in deepened shade | C |
With graceful negligence while close between | W |
The thorny twigs the autumn flowers played | C |
And the broad leaves swung lazily beside the glade | C |
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XXXVI | K |
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Now all was silence like a palace hushed | C |
Or hush of a deserted banquet hall | I2 |
Where wine so lately like a fountain gushed | C |
And Grandeur stalked with mein imperial | I |
Where death like stillness doth the breast appal | I |
Where revelry is changed to slumber sound | C |
And echoes only answer to the call | I |
Save when along the corridors resound | C |
Departing footfalls while in mystery all is bound | C |
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XXXVII | K |
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Like some strange chamber dimly lighted vast | C |
Where but an hour ago did Splendour tread | C |
Where royal feet swept on and Beauty passed | C |
Where now the chaplet lies forsaken dead | C |
Where Pleasure's palsied and the music fled | C |
Where peers the painted figure from the frame | H |
With dusky mantle and with hanging head | C |
As tho' it felt the pang of inward shame | H |
For an imperial ancient line and tarnished name | H |
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XXXVIII | K |
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Yes autumn sped away and with it passed | C |
Its ruddy rich delights and winds blew high | K |
And shriveled Winter limping came at last | C |
And leaden clouds flew o'er the dreary sky | K |
Yet still our cheerful heroines did defy | K |
As all of them accustomed were to do | C |
The weather's threatening inclemency | K |
And long their old enjoyments did pursue | K |
They walked as they had done the happy summer through | K |
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XXXIX | K |
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Now Rowland and his brothers' home lay near | Z |
Across the fields it was a farmhouse too | K |
No parents had they and from year to year | Z |
They'd given their bailiff orders what to do | K |
There side by side in harmony they grew | K |
Their days were pleasant and their income kind | C |
And each his occupation did pursue | K |
With happy smiles and a contented mind | C |
And hitherto to home their joys had been confined | C |
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XL | I |
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But now abroad did Rowland daily roam | J2 |
And of him little did his brothers see | K |
He knew no pleasure in the gates of home | J2 |
But pensive strolled beside the surging sea | K |
Delighting in its vast sublimity | C |
And in the thunders of its mighty roll | I |
While all his love flowed forth in poesy | K |
That love that fed the fountain of the soul | I |
In her his youthful hopes were folded like a scroll | I |
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XLI | I |
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The scene is changed and years have onward sped | C |
Dora and Rowland had been long since one | W |
She'd wept above her parents lying dead | C |
She whose sole murmur was Thy will be done | W |
Yet life was happy as it had begun | W |
For tears but sweetened what was all so fair | Z |
Their days were golden as the sinking sun | W |
The calm pervading all the soundless air | Z |
And heavenly smiles descended on that happy pair | Z |
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XLII | I |
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Flora and Rose 'twas strange that such should be | K |
Were single still nor on the way to marriage | K2 |
Deeming a wife's responsibility | K |
Perhaps a trifle more than they could manage | L2 |
By no means am I tending to disparage | K2 |
By my last line those who would wear the ring | A2 |
Repeat each phrase and step within their carriage | K2 |
By all means let them do the happy thing | A2 |
Yet such a matter's worthy of considering | A2 |
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XLIII | I |
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At least whate'er the truth may be they tell | I |
And little folks will always have their say | K |
That Rose was once engaged to Lionel | I |
Who swore to love for ever and a day | K |
But matters and they often chance that way | K |
Abruptly turned and took a fitful start | C |
'Twas whispered too but be that as it may | K |
That Rose with pestle and mortar broke his heart | C |
So now it's up for auction in an auction mart | C |
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XLIV | K |
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And also to the best of my belief | K |
To Flora Gilbert fell upon his knees | K |
But somehow matters seemed extremely brief | K |
He rose I fancy somewhat ill at ease | K |
Then cursed his stars and hers for their decrees | K |
I wouldn't swear I'm telling you the truth | K |
And so the clerk and parson lost their fees | K |
Decidedly their stars were most uncouth | K |
For Flora was as gunpowder to Gilbert's youth | K |
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XLV | K |
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So Lionel and Gilbert went abroad | C |
As youngsters do with circumstances thus | K |
They left behind them all that they adored | C |
And said Good morning with no further fuss | K |
Their resignation was miraculous | K |
Indeed what could they be but be resigned | C |
Beyond a tear upon their exodus | K |
A muttered oath or two when so inclined | C |
Which served in some degree to soothe their state of mind | C |
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XLVI | K |
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Rowland and Dora as before I said | C |
Located were three furlongs from the sand | C |
Three furlongs 'twas exactly from the head | C |
Where sweeping views stretched wide on every hand | C |
Far far the eye could reach o'er sea and land | C |
And in the glories of a summer's day | K |
Their children by the ocean breezes fanned | C |
Would gambol long beneath the noontide ray | K |
And with bright laughter wile the long long hours away | K |
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XLVII | K |
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O God could I so feel that young delight | C |
That young delight that knows no thought of pain | W |
Where all is now the ceaseless gloom of night | C |
O give me but my childhood back again | W |
O let me wander o'er that flowery plain | W |
And once more pluck the sweets of other days | K |
Few few of childhood's joys for me remain | W |
And life is bent o'er sterner stonier ways | K |
Whose solitary solace is a backward gaze | K |
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XLVIII | K |
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Still by the sands live Rowland and his wife | K |
And now the old house rings with boyhood's glee | I |
For truly both are getting on in life | K |
Their sturdy youngsters number two or three | I |
So they are quite a happy family | I |
With Rose and Flora and their blithesome fun | W |
With circumstances thus they ought to be | I |
Their lot is good enough for anyone | W |
And now my indulgent readers all my tale is done | W |
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XLIX | K |
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My tale is done 'tis even so I fear | Z |
That very few have borne with me till now | W |
For laurels are exorbitantly dear | Z |
And so I can't expect a laureled brow | W |
Permit me then to make my humble bow | W |
My title page must bid me blush for shame | H |
O reader stay ere you my Muse allow | W |
And add thy pity to the meagre name | H |
Forsooth no solitary laurel can it claim | H |
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L | I |
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I really can't excuse myself and more | Z |
I'm certain that I can't excuse my rhyme | M2 |
But now 'tis simply useless to deplore | Z |
I may do better though another time | M2 |
My tedious numbers are I know a crime | M2 |
An outrage on the world of common sense | K |
'Tis certain I've not yet contrived to climb | M2 |
The literary pole at all events | K |
Or scale Olympus where the Muses pitch their tents | K |
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LI | I |
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My reader 'tis with feelings as of sorrow | P |
I lay aside my paper and my pen | W |
I've half a mind to drown myself to morrow | P |
And will myself to Hell like other men | W |
For writing such a thing of rhyme but then | W |
As someone wrote There's good in everything | A2 |
So we must both have faith you see and when | W |
We meet again I hope that I may sing | A2 |
A song that's much more worthy of the publishing | A2 |
Lennox Amott
(1)
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