Mystery Of Carmel Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFF GGHHIIJJFFF KKLLAAHHMMNNOOPPQRCS AAIIAAIIPPIIPPPPP CCLLLLNNPPAAGGPPAALL AATTUUPPPIIPPIIGGTTT AAPPVVPPPPP IIIIWWWAAPPXXPPYYHHP PZZVVVVPPVVVVPPA2B2V VQRVVVVAAAAOOPPP| The Mission floor was with weeds o'ergrown | A |
| And crumbling and shaky its walls of stone | A |
| Its roof of tiles in tiers and tiers | B |
| Had stood the storms of a hundred years | C |
| An olden weird medieval style | D |
| Clung to the mouldering gloomy pile | D |
| And the rhythmic voice of the breaking waves | E |
| Sang a lonesome dirge in its land of graves | E |
| As I walked in the Mission old and gray | F |
| The Mission Carmel at Monterey | F |
| - | |
| An ancient owl went fluttering by | G |
| Scared from his haunt His mournful cry | G |
| Wakened the echoes till roof and wall | H |
| Caught and re echoed the dismal call | H |
| Again and again till it seemed to me | I |
| Some Jesuit soul in mockery | I |
| Stripped of rosary gown and cowl | J |
| Haunted the place in this dreary owl | J |
| Surely I shivered with fright that day | F |
| Alone in the Mission old and gray | F |
| The Mission Carmel at Monterey | F |
| - | |
| Near the chapel vault was a dungeon grim | K |
| And they say that many a chanted hymn | K |
| Has rung a knell on the moldy air | L |
| For luckless errant prisoned there | L |
| As kneeling monk and pious nun | A |
| Sang orison at set of sun | A |
| A single window dark and small | H |
| Showed opening in the heavy wall | H |
| Nor other entrance seemed attained | M |
| That erst had human footstep gained | M |
| I paused before the uncanny place | N |
| And peered me into its darksome space | N |
| Had it of secret aught to tell | O |
| That locked up darkness kept it well | O |
| I turned and lo by my side there stood | P |
| A being of strangest naturehood | P |
| Startled I glanced him o'er and o'er | Q |
| Wondering I noted him not before | R |
| His form was stooped with the weight of years | C |
| And on his cheek was a trace of tears | S |
| Over all his face a shade of pain | A |
| That deepened and vanished and came again | A |
| Fixed he his woeful eyes on me | I |
| Through my very soul they seemed to see | I |
| And lightly he laid his hand on mine | A |
| His hand was cold as the vestal shrine | A |
| 'Tis haunted he said haunted and he | I |
| Who dares at night noon go with me | I |
| To this cursed place by phantoms trod | P |
| Must fear not devil man nor God | P |
| Tell me the story I cried tell me | I |
| And frightened was I at my bravery | I |
| A curious smile his thin lips curved | P |
| That well had my bravery unnerved | P |
| And this is the story he told that day | P |
| To me in the Mission old and gray | P |
| The Mission Carmel at Monterey | P |
| - | |
| Each midnight since have seventy years | C |
| Begun their cycle around the spheres | C |
| Two faces have looked from that window there | L |
| One is a woman's young and fair | L |
| With tender eyes and floating hair | L |
| Love and regret and dumb despair | L |
| Are told in each tint of the fair sweet face | N |
| The other is crowned with a courtly grace | N |
| Gazing with all a lover's pride | P |
| On the beautiful woman by his side | P |
| Anon a change flits o'er his mien | A |
| And baffled rage in his glance is seen | A |
| Paler they grow as the hours go by | G |
| With the pallor that comes with the summons to die | G |
| Slowly fading and shrinking away | P |
| Clutched in the grasp of a gaunt decay | P |
| Till the herald of morn on the sky is thrown | A |
| Then a shriek a curse and a dying moan | A |
| Comes from that death black window there | L |
| A mocking laugh rings out on the air | L |
| From that darkful place in the nascent dawn | A |
| And the faces that looked from the window are gone | A |
| Seventy years when the Spanish flag | T |
| Floated above yon beetling crag | T |
| And this dearthful mission place was rife | U |
| With the panoply of busy life | U |
| Hard by where yon canyon deep and wide | P |
| Sweeps it adown the mountain side | P |
| A cavalier dwelt with his beautiful bride | P |
| Oft to the priestal shrive went she | I |
| As often stealthily followed he | I |
| The padre Sanson absolved and blessed | P |
| The penitent and the sin distressed | P |
| Nor ever before won devotee | I |
| So wondrous a reverence as he | I |
| A night when the winds played wild and high | G |
| And the ocean rocked it to the sky | G |
| An earthquake trembled the shore along | T |
| Hushing on lip of praise its song | T |
| And jarred to its center this Mission strong | T |
| When the morning broke with a summer sun | A |
| The earth was at rest the storm was done | A |
| Still the Mission tower'd in its stately pride | P |
| Still the cottage smiled by the canyon side | P |
| But never the priest was there to bless | V |
| And the cottage roof was tenantless | V |
| Vainly they sought for the padre dead | P |
| For the cottage dwellers amazed they said | P |
| 'Twas a miracle but since that day | P |
| There's a ghost in the Mission old and gray | P |
| The Mission Carmel of Monterey | P |
| - | |
| A sequel there is to that tale said he | I |
| Of the way and the truth I hold the key | I |
| Show me the way I cried Show me | I |
| To the depth of this curious mystery | I |
| He waved me to follow my heart stood still | W |
| Under the ban of a mightier will | W |
| Than mine A terror of icy chill | W |
| O'er shivered my being from hand to brain | A |
| Freezing the blood in each pulsing vein | A |
| As I followed this most mysterious guide | P |
| Through the solid floor at the chancel side | P |
| Into a passage whose stifling breath | X |
| Reeked with the pestilence of death | X |
| Down through a subterranean vault | P |
| Over broken steps with never a halt | P |
| Till we stood in the midst of a spacious room | Y |
| A charnel house in its shroud of gloom | Y |
| Only a window narrow and small | H |
| Left in the build of the heavy wall | H |
| Through which the flickering sunbeams died | P |
| Showed passway to the world outside | P |
| Slowly my eyes to the darkness grew | Z |
| And I saw in the gloom or rather knew | Z |
| That my feet had touched two skeleton forms | V |
| One closely clasped in the other's arms | V |
| Recoiling I shuddered and turned my face | V |
| From the fleshless mockery of embrace | V |
| Again o'er a heap of rubbish and rust | P |
| I stumbled and caught in the moth and dust | P |
| What hardly a sense of my soul believes | V |
| A mold stained package of parchment leaves | V |
| A hideous bat flapped into my face | V |
| O'ercome with horror I fled the place | V |
| And stood again with my curious guide | P |
| On the solid floor at the chancel's side | P |
| But lo in a moment the age bowed seer | A2 |
| Was a darkly frowning cavalier | B2 |
| Gazing no longer in woeful trance | V |
| Vengeance blazed in his every glance | V |
| Then a mocking laugh rang the Mission o'er | Q |
| And I stood alone by the chapel door | R |
| And save for the mold stained parchment leaves | V |
| I had thought it the vision that night mare weaves | V |
| Hardly a sense of my soul believes | V |
| Yet I held in my hand the parchment leaves | V |
| Careful I noted them one by one | A |
| Each was a letter in rhyming run | A |
| Written over and over in tenderest strain | A |
| By fingers that never will write again | A |
| I strung them together a tale to tell | O |
| And named it The Mystery of Carmel | O |
| And these are the letters I found that day | P |
| In the mission ruin old and gray | P |
| The Mission Carmel of Monterey | P |
Madge Morris Wagner
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