Ponchontas Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B C D E F| Years ago when life was too violent for any to live very old the Spirit invented a ruse to give great age to Man | A |
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| Late one fall Ponchontas was keeping a slow fire to smoke his strips of salmon It occurred to him that by stoking the flames gently with bits of chips the fire would burn not only smoother but more evenly | B |
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| Ponchontas held the block firmly and brought his axe to play on the extended limb Suddenly his grip faltered and the blade struck flesh drawing blood Panicky he thrashed about the sand scattering it into the face of the fire Quite by accident you see as his foot only convulsed the pain his bleeding arm felt One by one the blood fell in drops then trickles rivulets until a veritable torrent seemed loosed Ponchontas screamed till the woods listened The spirit that governs the pulp of the wood and the sap to rise took pity on Ponchontas It curdled the sap to thick resins in the chopped wood and the gummy resin fell to the forest floor As it lay so glutenous the Earth Mother was also quickened to show sympathy This she did by touching the marrow of the hurting wood By a thick chain of being Ponchontas felt his skin harden The painful throb soon began to leave the wound and the scar healed Immediately he was on his knees imploring the spirits He begged what small favour he might return The reply was instantaneous | C |
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| Liberate three husks in your crib | D |
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| Then with much saying and thoughts multiplying forth within his head he gave word to the council of Voices Once dispatched the three ears lost their kernels giving old women to this day their namesake of beady eyes The abandoned husks became their withered forms and sacks of corn were found to be old bags The empty rinds became harridans' cancelled lives Tares in the fruit were seen as the trials and vicissitudes of this life wormholes as their tears So in an act of mercy old women and crones were born saving future generations the misery of living too old | E |
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| To this day an old woman often has a husky voice and an ear for medicine | F |
Paul Cameron Brown
(1)
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