The Scholar-gipsy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBCACDDC CEFEGCHIIH CJKJKCLCCL MNOPQMQCCQ RSCSCRACC QCHCHQTUUT VWXWXVYZZY CA2CA2CCB2LLB2 QC2HD2HQSEEA2 E2F2G2H2G2I2SJ2J2S ZK2CK2CK2HSSH CHK2HVCVHHV VL2M2L2M2VN2VVN2 SK2O2K2O2SCP2P2C K2SK2SK2K2SCCS L2Q2CQ2CL2CR2R2C K2CK2CK2K2S2K2K2S2 K2K2CK2CK2SK2Go for they call you shepherd from the hill | A |
Go shepherd and untie the wattled cotes | B |
No longer leave thy wistful flock unfed | C |
Nor let thy bawling fellows rack their throats | B |
Nor the cropp'd herbage shoot another head | C |
But when the fields are still | A |
And the tired men and dogs all gone to rest | C |
And only the white sheep are sometimes seen | D |
Cross and recross the strips of moon blanch'd green | D |
Come shepherd and again begin the quest | C |
- | |
Here where the reaper was at work of late | C |
In this high field's dark corner where he leaves | E |
His coat his basket and his earthen cruse | F |
And in the sun all morning binds the sheaves | E |
Then here at noon comes back his stores to use | G |
Here will I sit and wait | C |
While to my ear from uplands far away | H |
The bleating of the folded flocks is borne | I |
With distant cries of reapers in the corn | I |
All the live murmur of a summer's day | H |
- | |
Screen'd is this nook o'er the high half reap'd field | C |
And here till sun down shepherd will I be | J |
Through the thick corn the scarlet poppies peep | K |
And round green roots and yellowing stalks I see | J |
Pale pink convolvulus in tendrils creep | K |
And air swept lindens yield | C |
Their scent and rustle down their perfumed showers | L |
Of bloom on the bent grass where I am laid | C |
And bower me from the August sun with shade | C |
And the eye travels down to Oxford's towers | L |
- | |
And near me on the grass lies Glanvil's book | M |
Come let me read the oft read tale again | N |
The story of the Oxford scholar poor | O |
Of pregnant parts and quick inventive brain | P |
Who tired of knocking at preferment's door | Q |
One summer morn forsook | M |
His friends and went to learn the gipsy lore | Q |
And roam'd the world with that wild brotherhood | C |
And came as most men deem'd to little good | C |
But came to Oxford and his friends no more | Q |
- | |
But once years after in the country lanes | R |
Two scholars whom at college erst he knew | S |
Met him and of his way of life enquired | C |
Whereat he answer'd that the gipsy crew | S |
His mates had arts to rule as they desired | C |
The workings of men's brains | R |
And they can bind them to what thoughts they will | A |
'And I ' he said 'the secret of their art | C |
When fully learn'd will to the world impart | C |
But it needs heaven sent moments for this skill ' | - |
- | |
This said he left them and return'd no more | Q |
But rumours hung about the country side | C |
That the lost Scholar long was seen to stray | H |
Seen by rare glimpses pensive and tongue tied | C |
In hat of antique shape and cloak of grey | H |
The same the gipsies wore | Q |
Shepherds had met him on the Hurst in spring | T |
At some lone alehouse in the Berkshire moors | U |
On the warm ingle bench the smock frock'd boors | U |
Had found him seated at their entering | T |
- | |
But 'mid their drink and clatter he would fly | V |
And I myself seem half to know thy looks | W |
And put the shepherds wanderer on thy trace | X |
And boys who in lone wheatfields scare the rooks | W |
I ask if thou hast pass'd their quiet place | X |
Or in my boat I lie | V |
Moor'd to the cool bank in the summer heats | Y |
'Mid wide grass meadows which the sunshine fills | Z |
And watch the warm green muffled Cumner hills | Z |
And wonder if thou haunt'st their shy retreats | Y |
- | |
For most I know thou lov'st retired ground | C |
Thee at the ferry Oxford riders blithe | A2 |
Returning home on summer nights have met | C |
Crossing the stripling Thames at Bab lock hithe | A2 |
Trailing in the cool stream thy fingers wet | C |
As the punt's rope chops round | C |
And leaning backward in a pensive dream | B2 |
And fostering in thy lap a heap of flowers | L |
Pluck'd in shy fields and distant Wychwood bowers | L |
And thine eyes resting on the moonlit stream | B2 |
- | |
And then they land and thou art seen no more | Q |
Maidens who from the distant hamlets come | C2 |
To dance around the Fyfield elm in May | H |
Oft through the darkening fields have seen thee roam | D2 |
Or cross a stile into the public way | H |
Oft thou hast given them store | Q |
Of flowers the frail leaf'd white anemony | S |
Dark bluebells drench'd with dews of summer eves | E |
And purple orchises with spotted leaves | E |
But none hath words she can report of thee | A2 |
- | |
And above Godstow Bridge when hay time's here | E2 |
In June and many a scythe in sunshine flames | F2 |
Men who through those wide fields of breezy grass | G2 |
Where black wing'd swallows haunt the glittering Thames | H2 |
To bathe in the abandon'd lasher pass | G2 |
Have often pass'd thee near | I2 |
Sitting upon the river bank o'ergrown | S |
Mark'd thine outlandish garb thy figure spare | J2 |
Thy dark vague eyes and soft abstracted air | J2 |
But when they came from bathing thou wast gone | S |
- | |
At some lone homestead in the Cumner hills | Z |
Where at her open door the housewife darns | K2 |
Thou hast been seen or hanging on a gate | C |
To watch the threshers in the mossy barns | K2 |
Children who early range these slopes and late | C |
For cresses from the rills | K2 |
Have known thee eyeing all an April day | H |
The springing pasture and the feeding kine | S |
And mark'd thee when the stars come out and shine | S |
Through the long dewy grass move slow away | H |
- | |
In autumn on the skirts of Bagley Wood | C |
Where most the gipsies by the turf edged way | H |
Pitch their smoked tents and every bush you see | K2 |
With scarlet patches tagg'd and shreds of grey | H |
Above the forest ground called Thessaly | V |
The blackbird picking food | C |
Sees thee nor stops his meal nor fears at all | V |
So often has he known thee past him stray | H |
Rapt twirling in thy hand a wither'd spray | H |
And waiting for the spark from heaven to fall | V |
- | |
And once in winter on the causeway chill | V |
Where home through flooded fields foot travellers go | L2 |
Have I not pass'd thee on the wooden bridge | M2 |
Wrapt in thy cloak and battling with the snow | L2 |
Thy face tow'rd Hinksey and its wintry ridge | M2 |
And thou has climb'd the hill | V |
And gain'd the white brow of the Cumner range | N2 |
Turn'd once to watch while thick the snowflakes fall | V |
The line of festal light in Christ Church hall | V |
Then sought thy straw in some sequester'd grange | N2 |
- | |
But what I dream Two hundred years are flown | S |
Since first thy story ran through Oxford halls | K2 |
And the grave Glanvil did the tale inscribe | O2 |
That thou wert wander'd from the studious walls | K2 |
To learn strange arts and join a gipsy tribe | O2 |
And thou from earth art gone | S |
Long since and in some quiet churchyard laid | C |
Some country nook where o'er thy unknown grave | P2 |
Tall grasses and white flowering nettles wave | P2 |
Under a dark red fruited yew tree's shade | C |
- | |
No no thou hast not felt the lapse of hours | K2 |
For what wears out the life of mortal men | S |
'Tis that from change to change their being rolls | K2 |
'Tis that repeated shocks again again | S |
Exhaust the energy of strongest souls | K2 |
And numb the elastic powers | K2 |
Till having used our nerves with bliss and teen | S |
And tired upon a thousand schemes our wit | C |
To the just pausing Genius we remit | C |
Our worn out life and are what we have been | S |
- | |
Thou hast not lived why should'st thou perish so | L2 |
Thou hadst one aim one business one desire | Q2 |
Else wert thou long since number'd with the dead | C |
Else hadst thou spent like other men thy fire | Q2 |
The generations of thy peers are fled | C |
And we ourselves shall go | L2 |
But thou possessest an immortal lot | C |
And we imagine thee exempt from age | R2 |
And living as thou liv'st on Glanvil's page | R2 |
Because thou hadst what we alas have not | C |
- | |
For early didst thou leave the world with powers | K2 |
Fresh undiverted to the world without | C |
Firm to their mark not spent on other things | K2 |
Free from the sick fatigue the languid doubt | C |
Which much to have tried in much been baffled brings | K2 |
O life unlike to ours | K2 |
Who fluctuate idly without term or scope | S2 |
Of whom each strives nor knows for what he strives | K2 |
And each half lives a hundred different lives | K2 |
Who wait like thee but not like thee in hope | S2 |
- | |
Thou waitest for the spark from heaven and we | K2 |
Light half believers of our casual creeds | K2 |
Who never deeply felt nor clearly will'd | C |
Whose insight never has borne fruit in deeds | K2 |
Whose vague resolves never have been fulfill'd | C |
For whom each year we see | K2 |
Breeds new beginnings disappointments new | S |
Who hes | K2 |
Matthew Arnold
(1)
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