An Old Tale Re-told Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Madison Julius Cawein

An Old Tale Re-told Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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From the terrace here where the hills indent	A
You can see the uttermost battlement	B
Of the castle there the Cliffords' home	C
Where the seasons go and the seasons come	D
And never a footstep else doth fall	E
Save the prowling fox's the ancient hall	E
Echoes no voice save the owlet's call	E
Its turret chambers are homes for the bat	F
And its courts are tangled and wild to see	G
And where in the cellar was once the rat	F
The viper and toad move stealthily	E
Long years have passed since the place was burned	H
And he sailed to the wars in France and earned	H
The name that he bears of the bold and true	I
On his tomb Long years since my lord Sir Hugh	I
Lived and I was his favorite page	J
And the thing then happened and he of an age	J
When a man will love and be loved again	K
Or hie to the wars or a monastery	G
Or toil till he conquer his heart's sore pain	L
Or drink and forget it and finally bury	G
	-
I was his page And often we fared	M
Through the Clare demesnes in autumn hawking	N
If the Baron had known how they would have glared	M
'Neath their bushy brows those eyes of mocking	N
That last of the Strongbows Richard I mean	O
And growling some six of his henchmen lean	O
To mount and after this Clifford and hang	P
With his crop eared page to the nearest oak	Q
How he would have cursed us while he spoke	Q
For Clare and Clifford had ever a fang	P
In the other's side And I hear the clang	P
Of his rage in the hall when the hawker told	R
If he told how we met on the autumn wold	R
His daughter sweet Clara of Clare the day	S
Her hooded tiercel its brails did burst	T
And trailing its jesses came flying our way	S
An untrained haggard the falconer cursed	T
While he tried to secure as the eyas flew	I
Slant low and heavily over us Hugh	I
Who saw it coming and had just then cast	U
His peregrine hawk at a heron quarry	G
In his saddle rising so as it passed	U
By the jesses caught and to her did carry	G
Where she stood near the wood Her face flushed rose	V
With the glad of the meeting No two foes	V
Her eyes and my Lord's I swear who saw	W
'Twas love from the start And I heard him speak	X
Some words then he knelt and the sombre shaw	W
With the rust of the autumn waste and bleak	X
Grew spring with her smile as the hawk she took	Y
On her lily wrist where it pruned and shook	Y
Its ragged wings Then I saw him seize	Z
The hand that she reached to him long and white	A2
As she smilingly bade him rise from his knees	Z
	-
When he kissed its fingers her eyes grew bright	A2
But her cheeks grew pallid when lashing through	I
The woodland there with a face a flare	B2
With the sting of the wind and his gipsy hair	B2
Flying the falconer came and two	I
Or three of the people of Castle Clare	B2
And the leaves of the autumn made a frame	C2
For the picture there in the morning's flame	C2
	-
What was said in that moment I do not know	D2
That moment of meeting between those lovers	E2
But whatever it was 't was whispered low	D2
And soft as a leaf that swings and hovers	E2
A twinkling gold when the leaves are yellow	D2
And her face with the joy was still aglow	D2
When down through the wood that burly fellow	D2
Came with his frown and made a pause	F2
In the pulse of their words My lord Sir Hugh	I
Stood with the soil on his knee No cause	G2
Had he but his hanger he partly drew	I
Then clapped it sharp in its sheath again	K
And bowed to my Lady and strode away	S
And mounting his horse with a swinging rein	L
Rode with a song in his heart all day	S
	-
He loved and was loved I knew for look	Y
All other sports for the chase he forsook	Y
And strange that he never went to hawk	H2
Or hunt but Clara would meet him there	B2
In the Strongbow forest I know the rock	I2
With its fern filled moss by the bramble lair	B2
Were oft and again he met by chance	J2
Shall I say the daughter of Clare as fair	B2
Of face as a queen in an old romance	J2
Who waits with her sweet face pale her hair	B2
Night deep and eyes dove gray with dreams	K2
By the fountain side where the statue gleams	K2
And the moonbeam lolls in the lily white	A2
For the knightly lover who comes at night	A2
	-
Heigho they ceased those meetings I wot	A2
Betrayed to the Baron by some of his crew	I
Of menials who followed and saw and knew	I
For she loved too well to have once forgot	A2
The time and the place of their trysting true	I
Why and when would ask Sir Hugh	I
In the labored letters he used to lock	I2
The lovers' post in a coigne of that rock	I2
She used to answer but now did not	A2
But nearing Yule love got them again	K
A twilight tryst through frowardness sure	L2
They met And that day was gray with rain	L
Or snow and the wind did ever endure	L2
A long bleak moaning thorough the wood	A2
That chapped i' the cheek and smarted the blood	A2
And a brook in the forest went throb and throb	M2
And over it all was the wild beast sob	M2
Of the rushing boughs like a thing pursued	A2
And then it was that he learned how she	G
God's blood how it makes my old limbs quiver	N2
To think what a miserable tyrant he	G
The Baron Richard aye and ever	N2
To his daughter was forsooth must wed	A2
With an eastern earl a Lovell to whom	O2
Would God o' his mercy had struck him dead	A2
Clara of Clare when only a child	A2
With a face like a flower that blooms in the wild	A2
Of the hills and a soul like its soft perfume	O2
Was given to seal or strengthen some ties	P2
Of power and wealth say bartered then	K
Like the merest chattel With tearful eyes	P2
And trembling lips she spoke and when	K
Her lover the Clifford had learned and heard	A2
He'd have had her flee with him then 'sdeath	Q2
In spite of them all Let her speak the word	A2
They would fly together the Baron's men	K
Might follow and if and he touched his sword	A2
It should answer But she while she seemed to stay	A2
With a hand on her bosom her heart's quick breath	Q2
Replied to his heat They would take and slay	A2
Thee who art life of me No not thus	R2
Shall we fly there's another way for us	R2
A way that is sure an only way	A2
I have thought it out this many a day	A2
The words that she spoke how well I remember	N2
As well as the mood o' that day of December	N2
That bullied and blustered and seemed in league	S2
Like a spiteful shrew with the wind and snow	D2
To drown the words of their sweet intrigue	S2
With the boom of the boughs tossed to and fro	D2
Her last words these By curfew sure	L2
On Christmas eve at the postern door	T2
	-
And we were there with a led horse too	I
Armed for a journey I hardly knew	I
Whither but why you well can guess	U2
For often he whispered a certain name	C2
The talisman of his happiness	R2
That warmed his blood like a yule log's flame	C2
While we waited there till its owner came	C2
We saw how the castle's baronial girth	Q2
Like a giant's loosed for reveling more	T2
Shone and we heard the wassail and mirth	Q2
Where the mistletoe hung in the hearth's red roar	T2
And the holly brightened the weaponed wall	E
Of ancient oak in the banqueting hall	E
And the spits I trow by the scullions turned	A2
O'er the snoring logs rich steamed and burned	A2
While the whole wild boar and the deer were roasted	A2
And the half of an ox and the roe buck haunches	R2
While tuns of ale that the cellars boasted	A2
And casks of sack were broached for paunches	R2
Of vassals who reveled in stable and hall	E
The song of the minstrel the yeomen's quarrel	E
O'er the dice and the drink and the huntsman's bawl	E
In the baying kennels its hounds a snarl	E
O'er the bones of the banquet now loud now low	D2
We could hear where we crouched in the drifting snow	D2
	-
Was she long did she come By the postern we	G
Like shadows waited My lord Sir Hugh	I
Spoke pointing a tower That casement see	G
When a stealthy light in its slit burns blue	I
And signals thrice slowly thus 't is she	G
And close to his breast his gaberdine drew	I
For the wind it whipped and the snow beat through	I
Did she come We had waited an hour or twain	L
When the taper flashed in the central pane	L
And flourished three times and vanished so	D2
And under the arch of the postern's portal	E
Holding the horses we stood in the snow	D2
Stiff with the cold Ah me immortal	E
Minutes we waited breath bated and listened	A2
Shivering there in the hiss of the gale	E
The parapets whistled the angles glistened	A2
And the night around seemed one black wail	E
Of death whose ominous presence over	N2
The stormy battlements seemed to hover	N2
Said my lord Sir Hugh to himself he spoke	Q
She feels for the spring in the sliding panel	E
'Neath the arras hid in the carven oak	Q
It opens The stair like a well's dark channel	E
Yawns and the draught makes her taper slope	V2
Wrapped deep in her mantle she stoops now puts	R2
One foot on the stair now a listening pause	R2
As nearer and nearer the mad search draws	R2
Of the thwarted castle No smallest hope	V2
That they find her now that the panel shuts	R2
If the wind that howls like a tortured thing	N
Would throttle itself with itself then I	W2
Might hear how her hurrying footsteps ring	N
Down the hollow there 't is her fingers try	W2
The postern's bolts that the rust makes cling	N
But ever some whim of the storm that shook	Y
A clanging ring or a creaking hook	Y
In buttress or wall And we waited numb	D
With the cold till dawn but she did not come	D
	-
I must tell you why and have done 'T is said	A2
On the brink of the marriage she fled the side	A2
Of the guests and the bridegroom there she fled	A2
With a mischievous laugh I'll hide I'll hide	A2
Seek and be sure that you find so led	A2
A long search after her but defied	A2
All search for a score and ten long years	R2
	-
Well the laughter of Yule was turned to tears	R2
For them and for us We saw the glare	B2
Of torches that hurried from chamber to stair	B2
And we heard the castle re echo her name	C2
But neither to them nor to us she came	C2
And that was the last of Clara of Clare	B2
	-
That winter it was a month thereafter	N2
That the home of the Cliffords roof and rafter	N2
Burned I could swear 't was the Strongbow's doing	N
Were I sure that he knew of the Clifford's wooing	N
His daughter and so by the Rood and Cross	R2
Had burned Hugh's home to avenge his loss	R2
So over the channel to France with his King	N
The Black Prince sailed to the wars to deaden	X2
The ache of the mystery Hugh that spring	N
And fell at Poitiers for his loss made leaden	X2
His heart and his life was a weary sadness	R2
So he flung it away in a moment's madness	R2
And the Baron died And the bridegroom well	E
Unlucky was he in truth to tell	E
Of him there is nothing The Baron died	A2
The last of the Strongbows he gramercy	G
And the Clare estate with its wealth and pride	A2
Devolved to the Bloets Walter and Percy	G
	-
And years went by And it happened that they	A2
Ransacked the old castle and so one day	A2
In a lonesome tower uprummaged a chest	A2
From Flanders of ebon and wildly carved	A2
All over with things a sinister crest	A2
And evil faces distorted and starved	A2
Fast locked with a spring which they forced and lo	D2
When they opened it Death like a lady dressed	A2
Grinned up at their terror but no not so	D2
A skeleton jeweled and laced and wreathed	A2
With flowers of dust and a miniver	N2
Around it clasped that the ruin sheathed	A2
Of a once rich raiment of silk and fur	N2
	-
I'd have given my life to hear him tell	E
The courtly Clifford how this befell	E
He'd have known how it was For you see in groping	N
For the secret spring of that panel hoping	N
And fearing as nearer and nearer drew	N2
The search of retainers why out she blew	N2
The tell tale taper and seeing this chest	A2
Would hide her a minute in it mayhap	V2
Till the hurry had passed but the death lock pressed	A2
By the lid's great weight closed fast with a snap	V2
Ere her heart was aware of the fiendish trap	V2