Heather Ale: A Galloway Legend Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBBCCAC CDEDBCFC BGHGICAC CCICBJAJ IKBKHLAL ABEBMNBN AOMOAPCP CHCHIQCQ ARABSTCT SUSUBBAB VCWCAJXJ| From the bonny bells of heather | A |
| They brewed a drink long syne | B |
| Was sweeter far than honey | B |
| Was stronger far than wine | B |
| They brewed it and they drank it | C |
| And lay in a blessed swound | C |
| For days and days together | A |
| In their dwellings underground | C |
| - | |
| There rose a king in Scotland | C |
| A fell man to his foes | D |
| He smote the Picts in battle | E |
| He hunted them like roes | D |
| Over miles of the red mountain | B |
| He hunted as they fled | C |
| And strewed the dwarfish bodies | F |
| Of the dying and the dead | C |
| - | |
| Summer came in the country | B |
| Red was the heather bell | G |
| But the manner of the brewing | H |
| Was none alive to tell | G |
| In graves that were like children s | I |
| On many a mountain head | C |
| The Brewsters of the Heather | A |
| Lay numbered with the dead | C |
| - | |
| The king in the red moorland | C |
| Rode on a summer s day | C |
| And the bees hummed and the curlews | I |
| Cried beside the way | C |
| The king rode and was angry | B |
| Black was his brow and pale | J |
| To rule in a land of heather | A |
| And lack the Heather Ale | J |
| - | |
| It fortuned that his vassals | I |
| Riding free on the heath | K |
| Came on a stone that was fallen | B |
| And vermin hid beneath | K |
| Rudely plucked from their hiding | H |
| Never a word they spoke | L |
| A son and his aged father | A |
| Last of the dwarfish folk | L |
| - | |
| The king sat high on his charger | A |
| He looked on the little men | B |
| And the dwarfish and swarthy couple | E |
| Looked at the king again | B |
| Down by the shore he had them | M |
| And there on the giddy brink | N |
| I will give you life ye vermin | B |
| For the secret of the drink | N |
| - | |
| There stood the son and father | A |
| And they looked high and low | O |
| The heather was red around them | M |
| The sea rumbled below | O |
| And up and spoke the father | A |
| Shrill was his voice to hear | P |
| I have a word in private | C |
| A word for the royal ear | P |
| - | |
| Life is dear to the aged | C |
| And honor a little thing | H |
| I would gladly sell the secret | C |
| Quoth the Pict to the King | H |
| His voice was small as a sparrow s | I |
| And shrill and wonderful clear | Q |
| I would gladly sell my secret | C |
| Only my son I fear | Q |
| - | |
| For life is a little matter | A |
| And death is nought to the young | R |
| And I dare not sell my honor | A |
| Under the eye of my son | B |
| Take him O king and bind him | S |
| And cast him far in the deep | T |
| And it s I will tell the secret | C |
| That I have sworn to keep | T |
| - | |
| They took the son and bound him | S |
| Neck and heels in a thong | U |
| And a lad took him and swung him | S |
| And flung him far and strong | U |
| And the sea swallowed his body | B |
| Like that of a child of ten | B |
| And there on the cliff stood the father | A |
| Last of the dwarfish men | B |
| - | |
| True was the word I told you | V |
| Only my son I feared | C |
| For I doubt the sapling courage | W |
| That goes without the beard | C |
| But now in vain is the torture | A |
| Fire shall never avail | J |
| Here dies in my bosom | X |
| The secret of Heather Ale | J |
Robert Louis Stevenson
(1)
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About Heather Ale: A Galloway Legend
Heather Ale: A Galloway Legend is a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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