That Night When I Came To The Grange Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABBABB CDDCDD EFFEFF AFFAFF GHHIHH JKKJJJ JJJJJJ IAAIAA ALLALL JJJJJJ JJJJJJ MIIMII ANNANN OIIOII GAAGAA PJJPJJ JA JAA JAAJAA NQQNQQ RSTRTS JUUJUU AAAAAA VGGVGG WJJWJJ JAAJAA XNNXNN JJJJJJ IJJIJJ JBBJBB

The trees took on fantastic shapesA
That night when I came to the grangeB
The very bushes seemed to changeB
This seemed a hag's head that an ape'sA
The road itself seemed darkly strangeB
That night when I came to the grangeB
-
The storm had passed but still the nightC
Cloaked with deep clouds its true intentD
And moody on its way now wentD
With muttered thunder and the lightC
Torch like of lightning that was spentD
Flickering the mask of its intentD
-
Like some hurt thing that bleeds to deathE
Yet never moves nor heaves a sighF
Some last drops shuddered from the skyF
The darkness seemed to hold its breathE
To see the sullen tempest dieF
That never moved nor heaved a sighF
-
Within my path among the weedsA
The glow worm like an evil eyeF
Glared malice and the boughs on highF
Flung curses at me menaced deedsA
Of darkness if I passed them byF
They and the glow worm's glaring eyeF
-
The night wind rose and raved at meG
Hung in the tree beside the gateH
The gate that snarled its iron hateH
Above the gravel grindinglyI
And set its teeth to make me waitH
Beside the one tree near the gateH
-
The next thing that I knew a batJ
Out of the rainy midnight sweptK
An evil blow and then there creptK
Malignant with its head held flatJ
A hiss before me as I steptJ
A fang that from the midnight sweptJ
-
I drew my dagger then the bladeJ
That never failed me in my needJ
'Twere well to be prepared indeedJ
Who knew what waited there what shadeJ
Or substance banded to impedeJ
My entrance of which there was needJ
-
The blade at least was tangibleI
Among the shadows I must faceA
Its touch was real and in caseA
Hate waylaid me would serve me wellI
I needed something in that placeA
Among the shadows I must faceA
-
The dead thorn took me by surpriseA
A hag like thing with twisted clutchL
From o'er the wall I felt it touchL
My brow with talons at my eyesA
It seemed to wave a knotted crutchL
A hag like thing with twisted clutchL
-
A hound kept howling in the nightJ
He and the wind were all I heardJ
The wind that maundered some dark wordJ
Of wrong that nothing would make rightJ
To every rain dropp that it stirredJ
The hound and wind were all I heardJ
-
The grange was silent as the deadJ
I looked at the dark face of itJ
Nowhere was any candle litJ
It looked like some huge nightmare headJ
With death's head eyes I paused a bitJ
To study the dark face of itJ
-
And then I rang and knocked I gaveM
The great oak door loud blow on blowI
No servant answered wild belowI
The echoes clanged as in a caveM
The evil mansion seemed to knowI
Who struck the door with blow on blowI
-
Silence no chink of light to sayA
That he and his were living thereN
That sinful man with snow white hairN
That creature I had come to slayA
That wretched thing who did not dareN
Reveal that he was hiding thereN
-
I broke my dagger on the doorO
Yet woke but echoes in the hallI
Then set my hands unto the wallI
And clomb the ivy as beforeO
In boyhood to a window tallI
That was my room's once in that hallI
-
At last I stood again where heG
That vile man with the sneering faceA
That fiend that foul spot on our raceA
Had sworn none of our familyG
Should ever stand again the placeA
Was dark as his own devil's faceA
-
I stood and felt as if some crimeP
Closed in on me hedged me aroundJ
It clutched at me from closets boundJ
Its arms around me time on timeP
I turned and grasped but nothing foundJ
Only the blackness all aroundJ
-
The darkness took me by the throatJ
I could not hear but felt it hissA
'Take this you hound and this and this '-
Then all at once afar remoteJ
I heard a door clang Murder isA
More cautious yet whose was that hissA
-
Oh for a light The blackness jeeredJ
And mouthed at me its sullen faceA
Was as a mask on all the placeA
From which two sinister sockets leeredJ
A death's head that my eyes could traceA
That stared me sullen in the faceA
-
Then silence packed the hall and stairN
And crammed the rooms from attic downQ
Since that far door had clanged its frownQ
Upon the darkness everywhereN
Had settled like a graveyard gownQ
It clothed the house from attic downQ
-
And then I heard a groan and oneR
Long sigh then silence Who was nearS
Was it the darkness at my earT
That mocked me with a deed undoneR
Or was it he who waited hereT
To kill me when I had drawn nearS
-
I drew my sword then stood and staredJ
Into the night that was a maskU
To all the house that made my taskU
A hopeless one Ah had it baredJ
Its teeth at me what more to askU
My sword had gone through teeth and maskU
-
It was not fair to me my causeA
The villain darkness bound my eyesA
Why even the moon refused to riseA
It might have helped me in that pauseA
Before I groped the room whose sizeA
Seemed monstrous to my night bound eyesA
-
What was it that I stumbled onV
God for a light that I might seeG
There something sat that stared at meG
Some loathsome twisted thing the spawnV
Of hell and midnight Was it heG
God for a light that I might seeG
-
And then the moon thank Heaven the moonW
Broke through the clouds a face chalk whiteJ
Now then at last I had a lightJ
And then I saw the thing seemed hewnW
From marble at the moment's sightJ
Bathed in the full moon's wistful whiteJ
-
He sat or rather crouched there deadJ
Her dagger in his heart that girl'sA
His open eyes as white as pearlsA
Malignant staring overheadJ
One hand clutched full of torn out curlsA
Her dagger in his heart that girl'sA
-
I knew the blade Why I had seenX
The thing stuck in her gipsy hairN
Worn as they wear them over thereN
In Spain its gold hilt crusted greenX
With jade like gems of cruel glareN
She wore it in her gipsy hairN
-
She called it her'green wasp ' and smiledJ
As if of some such deed she dreamedJ
And yet to me she always seemedJ
A child a little timid childJ
Who at a mouse has often screamedJ
And yet of deeds like this she dreamedJ
-
Where was she now Some pond or poolI
Would yield her body up some dayJ
Poor little waif that'd gone astrayJ
And I oh God how great a foolI
To know so long and yet delayJ
Some pond would yield her up some dayJ
-
The world was phantomed with the mistJ
That night when I came from the grangeB
So she had stabbed him It was strangeB
Who would have thought that she who kiss'dJ
Would kill him too Well women changeB
Their curse is on the lonely grangeB

Madison Julius Cawein



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