The Dreamer Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABACACDEDEFF GHHI JKJLMNMNOPQPRSRSTT UJIJ VWVWNXNXPYPYZA2ZA2B2 B2 HJIJ C2WD2WMHMHE2F2E2F2JJ FVFVI EG2EG2NH2NH2I2J2K2J2 AIAI

The lone man gazed and gazed upon his goldA
His sweat his blood the wage of weary daysB
But now how sweet how doubly sweet to holdA
All gay and gleamy to the campfire blazeB
The evening sky was sinister and coldA
The willows shivered wanly lay the snowC
The uncommiserating land so oldA
So worn so grey so niggard in its woeC
Peered through its ragged shroud The lone man sighedD
Poured back the gaudy dust into its pokeE
Gazed at the seething river listless eyedD
Loaded his corn cob pipe as if to smokeE
Then crushed with weariness and hardship creptF
Into his ragged robe and swiftly sleptF
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Hour after hour went by a shadow slippedG
From vasts of shadow to the camp fire flameH
Gripping a rifle with a deadly aimH
A gaunt and hairy man with wolfish eyesI
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The sleeper dreamed and lo this was his dreamJ
He rode a streaming horse across a moorK
Sudden 'mid pit black night a lightning gleamJ
Showed him a way side inn forlorn and poorL
A sullen host unbarred the creaking doorM
And led him to a dim and dreary roomN
Wherein he sat and poked the fire a roarM
So that weird shadows jigged athwart the gloomN
He ordered wine 'Od's blood but he was tiredO
What matter Charles was crushed and George was KingP
His party high in power how he aspiredQ
Red guineas packed his purse too tight to ringP
The fire light gleamed upon his silken hoseR
His silver buckles and his powdered wigS
What ho more wine He drank he slowly roseR
What made the shadows dance that madcap jigS
He clutched the candle steered his way to bedT
And in a trice was sleeping like the deadT
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Across the room there crept so shadow softU
His sullen host with naked knife a gleamJ
A gaunt and hairy man with wolfish eyesI
And as he lay the sleeper dreamed a dreamJ
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'Twas in a ruder land a wilder dayV
A rival princeling sat upon his throneW
Within a dungeon dark and foul he layV
With chains that bit and festered to the boneW
They haled him harshly to a vaulted roomN
Where One gazed on him with malignant eyeX
And in that devil face he read his doomN
Knowing that ere the dawn light he must dieX
Well he was sorrow glutted let them bringP
Their prize assassins to the bloody workY
His kingdom lost yet would he die a KingP
Fearless and proud as when he faced the TurkY
Ah God the glory of that great CrusadeZ
The bannered pomp the gleam the splendid urgeA2
The crash of reeking combat blade to bladeZ
The reeling ranks blood avid and a surgeA2
For long he thought then feeling o'er him creepB2
Vast weariness he fell into a sleepB2
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The cell door opened soft the headsman cameH
Within his hand a mighty axe a gleamJ
A gaunt and hairy man with wolfish eyesI
And as he lay the sleeper dreamed a dreamJ
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'Twas in a land unkempt of life's red dawnC2
Where in his sanded cave he dwelt aloneW
Sleeping by day or sometimes worked uponD2
His flint head arrows and his knives of stoneW
By night stole forth and slew the savage boarM
So that he loomed a hunter of loud fameH
And many a skin of wolf and wild cat woreM
And counted many a flint head to his nameH
Wherefore he walked the envy of the bandE2
Hated and feared but matchless in his skillF2
Till lo one night deep in that shaggy landE2
He tracked a yearling bear and made his killF2
Then over worn he rested by a streamJ
And sank into a sleep too deep for dreamJ
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Hunting his food a rival caveman creptF
Through those dark woods and marked him where he layV
Cowered and crawled upon him as he sleptF
Poising a mighty stone aloft to slayV
A gaunt and hairy man with wolfish eyesI
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The great stone crashed The Dreamer shrieked and wokeE
And saw fear blinded in his dripping cellG2
A gaunt and hairy man who with one strokeE
Swung a great ax of steel that flashed and fellG2
So that he woke amid his bedroom gloomN
And saw hair poised a naked thirsting knifeH2
A gaunt and hairy man with eyes of doomN
And then the blade plunged down to drink his lifeH2
So that he woke wrenched back his robe and lookedI2
And saw beside his dying fire upstartJ2
A gaunt and hairy man with finger crookedK2
A rifle rang a bullet searched his heartJ2
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The morning sky was sinister and coldA
Grotesque the Dreamer sprawled and did not riseI
For long and long there gazed upon some goldA
A gaunt and hairy man with wolfish eyesI

Robert Service



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