Christmas At Sea Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIDD JJKK LLMM BBCC NNOO PPQQ BBRR| The sheets were frozen hard and they cut the naked hand | A |
| The decks were like a slide where a seaman scarce could stand | A |
| The wind was a nor'wester blowing squally off the sea | B |
| And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a lee | B |
| - | |
| They heard the surf a roaring before the break of day | C |
| But 'twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay | C |
| We tumbled every hand on deck instanter with a shout | D |
| And we gave her the maintops'l and stood by to go about | D |
| - | |
| All day we tacked and tacked between the South Head and the North | E |
| All day we hauled the frozen sheets and got no further forth | E |
| All day as cold as charity in bitter pain and dread | F |
| For very life and nature we tacked from head to head | F |
| - | |
| We gave the South a wider berth for there the tide race roared | G |
| But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard | G |
| So's we saw the cliffs and houses and the breakers running high | H |
| And the coastguard in his garden with his glass against his eye | H |
| - | |
| The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam | I |
| The good red fires were burning bright in every 'longshore home | I |
| The windows sparkled clear and the chimneys volleyed out | D |
| And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about | D |
| - | |
| The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer | J |
| For it's just that I should tell you how of all days in the year | J |
| This day of our adversity was blessed Christmas morn | K |
| And the house above the coastguard's was the house where I was born | K |
| - | |
| O well I saw the pleasant room the pleasant faces there | L |
| My mother's silver spectacles my father's silver hair | L |
| And well I saw the firelight like a flight of homely elves | M |
| Go dancing round the china plates that stand upon the shelves | M |
| - | |
| And well I knew the talk they had the talk that was of me | B |
| Of the shadow on the household and the son that went to sea | B |
| And O the wicked fool I seemed in every kind of way | C |
| To be here and hauling frozen ropes on blessed Christmas Day | C |
| - | |
| They lit the high sea light and the dark began to fall | N |
| All hands to loose topgallant sails I heard the captain call | N |
| By the Lord she'll never stand it our first mate Jackson cried | O |
| It's the one way or the other Mr Jackson he replied | O |
| - | |
| She staggered to her bearings but the sails were new and good | P |
| And the ship smelt up to windward just as though she understood | P |
| As the winter's day was ending in the entry of the night | Q |
| We cleared the weary headland and passed below the light | Q |
| - | |
| And they heaved a mighty breath every soul on board but me | B |
| As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea | B |
| But all that I could think of in the darkness and the cold | R |
| Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old | R |
Robert Louis Stevenson
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