The Royal Mails Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFEGGEHIJKJCLMM LNNOFFOPQRRQSQTTUJJJ UVWVWXYWZA2B2A2WA2C2 D2C2E2F2F2E2RRE2C2G2 C2H2I2PJ2PK2ML2M2MRR N2RO2P2P2UQ2Q2UR2US2 S2S2T2S2N2U2V2W2V2X2 X2X2V2Y2Y2Y2Z2LN2KK2 J2J2K2D2A3LA3LA3A3A3 K2A3A3A3J2A3LA3LA3EE D2FM2A3D2A3A3E2For all its flowers and trailing bowers | A |
Its singing birds and streams | B |
This valley's not the blissful spot | C |
The paradise it seems | B |
I don't forget a man I met | D |
Beneath this very tree | E |
The cooing of that cushat dove | F |
Brings back his face to me | E |
The merest lad a sullen sad | G |
Unhappy soul with eyes half mad | G |
Most sorrowful to see | E |
I asked him who he was and what | H |
'Twas his affair he answered that | I |
And had no more to say | J |
'Twas all I'd feared the tale I heard | K |
When he at last gave way | J |
I've not forgot the look he shot | C |
Me through and through with then | L |
'What loathly land is this ' he cried | M |
And cursed it for a countryside | M |
Where devils masque as men | L |
I thought at first his brain was burst | N |
So senselessly he cried and cursed | N |
And spat with rage and hate | O |
He writhed to hear the glossy dove | F |
In song among the boughs above | F |
Beside its gentle mate | O |
His fury passed away at last | P |
And when his reason came | Q |
He told me he was city bred | R |
A page about the Court he said | R |
And coloured up with shame | Q |
It made him wince to own a Prince | S |
Of very famous fame | Q |
'He looked for one with speed and strength | T |
And youth and picked on me at length | T |
And ordered me to stand | U |
Prepared to leave at break of day | J |
With letters naught must long delay | J |
For certain cities far away | J |
Across this lonely land | U |
'He told me all the roads to take | V |
And cautioned me to go | W |
With ears and eyes and wits awake | V |
Alert from top to toe | W |
For spies and thieves wore out most shoes | X |
Upon the roads that I must use | Y |
As he had cause to know | W |
'I took my cloak as morning broke | Z |
And started down the hill | A2 |
With Castle bells and Fare ye wells | B2 |
And bugles sweet and shrill | A2 |
Sir Woodsman though it's months ago | W |
I hear that music still | A2 |
'What matters now or ever how | C2 |
I made the journey here | D2 |
I fed on berries from the bough | C2 |
Abundant everywhere | E2 |
Or if it failed that luscious meat | F2 |
I dug up roots that wild hogs eat | F2 |
And flourished on the fare | E2 |
At night I made a grassy bed | R |
And went to sleep without a dread | R |
And woke without a care | E2 |
'No matter how I managed now | C2 |
It all went well enough | G2 |
Until I saw this spot I vow | C2 |
No man was better off | H2 |
'Last night as I came down this vale | I2 |
In wind and rain full blast | P |
I turned about to hear a shout | J2 |
Ho master whither so fast | P |
'A minute more and half a score | K2 |
Of men were at my side | M |
Plain merchants all they said they were | L2 |
And camping in a thicket near | M2 |
Remain with us ' they cried | M |
' Remain with us our board is spread | R |
With cheer the best Ah stay ' they said | R |
Why go so proudly by ' | N2 |
And there and then my legs were lead | R |
A weary man was I | O2 |
'They stared with wonder that I walked | P2 |
These tangled hills and dales and talked | P2 |
Of better roads at hand | U |
Smooth roads without a hill to climb | Q2 |
A man could walk in half the time | Q2 |
The finest in the land | U |
With more but most of it I lost | R2 |
Or did not understand | U |
' So come ' they cried our tents are tight | S2 |
Our fires are burning warm and bright | S2 |
How shall we let you go to night | S2 |
Without offending heaven | T2 |
Come leave you shall with morning light | S2 |
Strong with the strength of seven ' | N2 |
'True men they seemed for me I dreamed | U2 |
No whit of their design | V2 |
Their mildness would have clapped a hood | W2 |
On sharper eyes than mine | V2 |
Ay me they pressed awhile to rest | X2 |
Persuaded me to be their guest | X2 |
And stole the letters from my breast | X2 |
When I fell down with wine | V2 |
'It all came crowding on my mind | Y2 |
With morning when I woke to find | Y2 |
How blind and blind and utter blind | Y2 |
And blind again I'd been | Z2 |
Both tents and men had vanished then | L |
Were nowhere to be seen ' | N2 |
'Twas word for word a tale I'd heard | K |
Not once or twice before | K2 |
Since first I made an axe ring out | J2 |
Upon the timber hereabout | J2 |
But twenty times and more | K2 |
For many a year we've harboured here | D2 |
A nest of thieves and worse | A3 |
Who watch for these young Castlemen | L |
At night among the gorse | A3 |
It's hard to say if one in ten | L |
Gets by with life and purse | A3 |
I wonder since 'twould serve the Prince | A3 |
To square accounts with these | A3 |
And many a score of footpads more | K2 |
All like as pins or peas | A3 |
Who ply their trades at other glades | A3 |
And plunder whom they please | A3 |
He does not rout the vermin out | J2 |
And hang them to the trees | A3 |
But this poor lad for me I knew | L |
Scarce what to think or say | A3 |
I pitied him I pitied too | L |
Those cities far away | A3 |
I asked him would he stay and be | E |
A woodman in these woods with me | E |
Perhaps he did not hear | D2 |
Perhaps the dove in song above | F |
Beside it mistress dear | M2 |
Was Castle bells and Fare ye wells | A3 |
And hornets in his ear | D2 |
An old grey man in all but years | A3 |
He pulled his cloak about his ears | A3 |
And went I know not where | E2 |
Ralph Hodgson
(1)
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