Eclogue Iii: The Funeral Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOHPQRS TEUVWXRUWMMIYZUMA2B2 C2IFD2E2UF2MF2F2G2H2 F2EF2F2F2U UI2F2I2I2J2The coffin as I past across the lane | A |
Came sudden on my view It was not here | B |
A sight of every day as in the streets | C |
Of the great city and we paus'd and ask'd | D |
Who to the grave was going It was one | E |
A village girl they told us who had borne | F |
An eighteen months strange illness and had pined | G |
With such slow wasting that the hour of death | H |
Came welcome to her We pursued our way | I |
To the house of mirth and with that idle talk | J |
That passes o'er the mind and is forgot | K |
We wore away the time But it was eve | L |
When homewardly I went and in the air | M |
Was that cool freshness that discolouring shade | N |
That makes the eye turn inward Then I heard | O |
Over the vale the heavy toll of death | H |
Sound slow it made me think upon the dead | P |
I questioned more and learnt her sorrowful tale | Q |
She bore unhusbanded a mother's name | R |
And he who should have cherished her far off | S |
Sail'd on the seas self exil'd from his home | T |
For he was poor Left thus a wretched one | E |
Scorn made a mock of her and evil tongues | U |
Were busy with her name She had one ill | V |
Heavier neglect forgetfulness from him | W |
Whom she had loved so dearly Once he wrote | X |
But only once that drop of comfort came | R |
To mingle with her cup of wretchedness | U |
And when his parents had some tidings from him | W |
There was no mention of poor Hannah there | M |
Or 'twas the cold enquiry bitterer | M |
Than silence So she pined and pined away | I |
And for herself and baby toil'd and toil'd | Y |
Nor did she even on her death bed rest | Z |
From labour knitting with her outstretch'd arms | U |
Till she sunk with very weakness Her old mother | M |
Omitted no kind office and she work'd | A2 |
Hard and with hardest working barely earn'd | B2 |
Enough to make life struggle and prolong | C2 |
The pains of grief and sickness Thus she lay | I |
On the sick bed of poverty so worn | F |
With her long suffering and that painful thought | D2 |
That at her heart lay rankling and so weak | E2 |
That she could make no effort to express | U |
Affection for her infant and the child | F2 |
Whose lisping love perhaps had solaced her | M |
With a strange infantine ingratitude | F2 |
Shunn'd her as one indifferent She was past | F2 |
That anguish for she felt her hour draw on | G2 |
And 'twas her only comfoft now to think | H2 |
Upon the grave Poor girl her mother said | F2 |
Thou hast suffered much aye mother there is none | E |
Can tell what I have suffered she replied | F2 |
But I shall soon be where the weary rest | F2 |
And she did rest her soon for it pleased God | F2 |
To take her to his mercy | U |
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Footnote It is proper to remark that the story related in this | U |
Eclogue is strictly true I met the funeral and learnt the | I2 |
circumstances in a village in Hampshire The indifference of the child | F2 |
was mentioned to me indeed no addition whatever has been made to the | I2 |
story I should have thought it wrong to have weakened the effect of a | I2 |
faithful narrative by adding any thing | J2 |
Robert Southey
(1)
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