The Ballad Of Downal Baun Poem Rhyme Scheme

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The moon cradle's rocking and rocking	A
Where a cloud and a cloud goes by	B
Silently rocking and rocking	A
The moon cradle out in the sky	B
	-
The hound's in his loop by the fire	C
The bond woman spins at the door	D
One rides on a horse through the court yard	E
The sword sheath drops on the floor	D
	-
I	B
MY grandfather Downal Baun	F
Had the dream that comes three times	G
He dreamt it first when a servant boy	H
He lay by the nets and the lines	I
	-
In the house of Fargal More	D
And by Fargal's ash strewn fire	C
When Downal had herded the kine in the waste	J
And had foddered them all in the byre	C
	-
And he dreamt the dream when he lay	K
Under sails that were spread to the main	L
When he took his rest amid dusky seas	M
On the deck of a ship of Spain	L
	-
And the dream came to him beneath	N
The roof he had raised in his pride	O
When beside him there lay and dreamt of her kin	P
His strange and far brought bride	O
	-
He had dreamt three times of the treasure	C
That fills a broken tale	Q
The hoard of the folk who had raised the mounds	R
Who had brewed the Heather Ale	Q
	-
And he knew by the thrice come dream	S
He could win that hoard by right	T
If he drew it out of the lake by a rush	U
Upon Saint Brighid's Night	T
By rushes strung to the yoke of an ox	V
That had never a hair of white	T
	-
II	B
So Downal the silent man	W
Went to many a far off fair	C
And he bought him an ox no man could say	K
Was white by a single hair	C
	-
And he came to the edge of the lake	X
Where no curlew cried overhead	Y
Silent and bare from the shaking reeds	Z
The lake waters spread	Y
	-
And he found it afloat on the current	A2
The yoke that was hard for the brunt	A2
And he took the yoke and he bound it	B2
Upon the ox its front	A2
	-
It was strung with a tie of rushes	C2
He saw the burthened net	D2
By the push of the ox by the pull on the rush	U
Towards the shore the hoard was set'	D2
	-
Gold cups for Downal Baun	F
Sword hilts that Kings' hands wore	C
O the rush string drew the treasure	C
Till the ripples touched the shore	C
	-
Red rings for Downal's bride	D2
With silver for her rein	L
But weight was laid on each mesh of the net	D2
And the lake held its own again	E2
	-
'I will break their strength ' he cried	D2
'Though they put forth all of their might	D2
For to me was given the yoke and the dream	S
And the ox with no hair of white '	-
	-
He whispered 'Labour O Creature '	-
The wide horned head was set	D2
The runnels came from eyes nose and mouth	F2
The thick hide was all sweat	D2
	-
'Forgive me the goad O Creature '	-
It hunched from foreleg to flank	G2
Heaved then the yoke on its forehead	D2
Split and the treasure sank	G2
And Downal was left with the broken yoke	H2
And the silent ox on the bank	G2
	-
He turned the ox to the sedges	C2
He took it and held the yoke up	I2
Then he flung it far back in the waters	C2
Of the dark mountain cup	I2
	-
And he shouted 'Doomsters I know	J2
Till five score years from this night	D2
The treasure is lost and I trow	J2
My ox has the hair of white '	-
	-
He stood by the ox its front	D2
And brute and man were still	K2
Till Downal saw lights burn on the lake	X
And fires within the hill	K2
	-
III	B
He turned a horse was beside him	L2
It was white as his ox was black	M2
Who rode it was a woman	N2
She paced with him down the track	M2
	-
And along a road not straitened	D2
By ridge or tower or wood	D2
And past where the Stones of Morna	O2
Like headless giants stood	D2
	-
And then on the Night of Saint Brighid	D2
The prayer of her vigil he said	D2
When he looked on the white horsed woman	N2
And saw the sign on her head	D2
	-
'The silks that I wear to my elbows	C2
The golden clasps at my side	D2
The silver upon my girdle	P2
I will give them for your bride '	-
'Such gear O Horned Woman	N2
Makes due a pledge I deem '	-
'Nay I will gift you freely	Q2
And you shall tell your dream '	-
	-
'They say that whoever tells not	D2
His dream till he hears the birds	C2
That man will know the prophecies	C2
In long remembered words '	-
	-
'Nay Tell your dream Then this hazel	P2
Distaff your wife will gain '	-
'The thing that comes in silence ' he said	D2
'In silence must remain '	-
	-
'O dream taught man ' said the woman	N2
She stood where the willows grew	C
A woman from the country	Q2
Where the cocks never crew	C
	-
'O dream taught man ' said the woman	N2
She stayed by a running stream	S
'As wise as wise as the man ' she said	D2
'Who never told his dream '	-
	-
Then swift as the flight of the sea pie	B
White woman white horse went away	K
And Downal passed his haggard	D2
And faced the spear of the day	K
	-
And brought his ox to the byre	C
And gave it a measure of straw	C
'A white hair you have ' said Downal	P2
'But my plough you are fit to draw	C
	-
'And for no dream you'll be burthened	K
And for none you will bear the yoke '	-
Then he lifted the latch of his house door	C
And his bride at his coming awoke	H2
And he drank the milk that she gave him	L2
And the bread she made he broke	H2
	-
The ox was his help thereafter	C
When he ploughed the upland and lea	P2
And the growth on the Ridge of the Black Ox	C2
Had a place in men's memory	P2
	-
And my grandfather Downal Baun	F
Henceforth grew in gains where he stood	K
Strong salmon of Lough Oughter	P2
Grey hawk of the shady wood	K
The moon cradle's rocking and rocking	A
Where a cloud and a cloud goes by	B
Silently rocking and rocking	A
The moon cradle out in the sky	B
	-
To morrow well gather the rushes	C2
And plait them beside our fire	P2
And make Saint Brighid's crosses	C2
To hang in the room and the byre	P2

Padraic Colum

The Ballad Of Downal Baun Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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