The Fakenham Ghost. A Ballad Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB C DEDE FGFG HEHE IJIJ FKFK FLFM DNDO PQPQ RLRM SQTQ UVUV WXWX YIYI YZYZ DADA A2B2A2B2 YXYX DC2DC2 BYA2QThe Lawns were dry in Euston Park | A |
Here Truth inspires my Tale | B |
The lonely footpath still and dark | A |
Led over Hill and Dale | B |
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Footnote This Ballad is founded on a fact The circumstance occurred perhaps long before I was born but is still related by my Mother and some of the oldest inhabitants in that part of the country R B | C |
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Benighted was an ancient Dame | D |
And fearful haste she made | E |
To gain the vale of Fakenham | D |
And hail its Willow shade | E |
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Her footsteps knew no idle stops | F |
But follow'd faster still | G |
And echo'd to the darksome Copse | F |
That whisper'd on the Hill | G |
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Where clam'rous Rooks yet scarcely hush'd | H |
Bespoke a peopled shade | E |
And many a wing the foliage brush'd | H |
And hov'ring circuits made | E |
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The dappled herd of grazing Deer | I |
That sought the Shades by day | J |
Now started from her path with fear | I |
And gave the Stranger way | J |
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Darker it grew and darker fears | F |
Came o'er her troubled mind | K |
When now a short quick step she hears | F |
Come patting close behind | K |
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She turn'd it stopt nought could she see | F |
Upon the gloomy plain | L |
But as she strove the Sprite to flee | F |
She heard the same again | M |
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Now terror seiz'd her quaking frame | D |
For where the path was bare | N |
The trotting Ghost kept on the same | D |
She mutter'd many a pray'r | O |
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Yet once again amidst her fright | P |
She tried what sight could do | Q |
When through the cheating glooms of night | P |
A MONSTER stood in view | Q |
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Regardless of whate'er she felt | R |
It follow'd down the plain | L |
She own'd her sins and down she knelt | R |
And said her pray'rs again | M |
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Then on she sped and Hope grew strong | S |
The white park gate in view | Q |
Which pushing hard so long it swung | T |
That Ghost and all pass'd through | Q |
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Loud fell the gate against the post | U |
Her heart strings like to crack | V |
For much she fear'd the grisly Ghost | U |
Would leap upon her back | V |
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Still on pat pat the Goblin went | W |
As it had done before | X |
Her strength and resolution spent | W |
She fainted at the door | X |
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Out came her Husband much surpris'd | Y |
Out came her Daughter dear | I |
Good natur'd Souls all unadvis'd | Y |
Of what they had to fear | I |
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The Candle's gleam pierc'd through the night | Y |
Some short space o'er the green | Z |
And there the little trotting Sprite | Y |
Distinctly might be seen | Z |
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An Ass's Foal had lost its Dam | D |
Within the spacious Park | A |
And simple as the playful Lamb | D |
Had follow'd in the dark | A |
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No Goblin he no imp of sin | A2 |
No crimes had ever known | B2 |
They took the shaggy stranger in | A2 |
And rear'd him as their own | B2 |
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His little hoofs would rattle round | Y |
Upon the Cottage floor | X |
The Matron learn'd to love the sound | Y |
That frighten'd her before | X |
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A favorite the Ghost became | D |
And 'twas his fate to thrive | C2 |
And long he liv'd and spread his fame | D |
And kept the joke alive | C2 |
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For many a laugh went through the Vale | B |
And some conviction tod | Y |
Each thought some other Goblin | A2 |
Perhaps was just as true | Q |
Robert Bloomfield
(1)
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