English Eclogues Ii - The Grandmother's Tale Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD EFGH AI HJKLJM AFFN HOEPQ EH HR ES HPHFTFUJVWF EWOH HTXYZA2HNB2C2O AO HD2ERE2F2G2H2I2J2 EI2 HK2ZL2FM2N2O2FP2Q2R2 ES2FFFT2HU2V2W2X2 AY2 EZ2 HA3B3C3D3C3A2E3F3G3O 2FH3HE3H2OI3FJ3C2T2K 3 EL3 HZ2RM3A2N3O3U2P3JANE | A |
Harry I'm tired of playing We'll draw round | B |
The fire and Grandmamma perhaps will tell us | C |
One of her stories | D |
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HARRY | E |
Aye dear Grandmamma | F |
A pretty story something dismal now | G |
A bloody murder | H |
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JANE | A |
Or about a ghost | I |
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GRANDMOTHER | H |
Nay nay I should but frighten you You know | J |
The other night when I was telling you | K |
About the light in the church yard how you trembled | L |
Because the screech owl hooted at the window | J |
And would not go to bed | M |
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JANE | A |
Why Grandmamma | F |
You said yourself you did not like to hear him | F |
Pray now we wo'nt be frightened | N |
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GRANDMOTHER | H |
Well well children | O |
But you've heard all my stories Let me see | E |
Did I never tell you how the smuggler murdered | P |
The woman down at Pill | Q |
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HARRY | E |
No never never | H |
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GRANDMOTHER | H |
Not how he cut her head off in the stable | R |
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HARRY | E |
Oh now do tell us that | S |
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GRANDMOTHER | H |
You must have heard | P |
Your Mother children often tell of her | H |
She used to weed in the garden here and worm | F |
Your uncle's dogs and serve the house with coal | T |
And glad enough she was in winter time | F |
To drive her asses here it was cold work | U |
To follow the slow beasts thro' sleet and snow | J |
And here she found a comfortable meal | V |
And a brave fire to thaw her for poor Moll | W |
Was always welcome | F |
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HARRY | E |
Oh 'twas blear eyed Moll | W |
The collier woman a great ugly woman | O |
I've heard of her | H |
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GRANDMOTHER | H |
Ugly enough poor soul | T |
At ten yards distance you could hardly tell | X |
If it were man or woman for her voice | Y |
Was rough as our old mastiff's and she wore | Z |
A man's old coat and hat and then her face | A2 |
There was a merry story told of her | H |
How when the press gang came to take her husband | N |
As they were both in bed she heard them coming | B2 |
Drest John up in her night cap and herself | C2 |
Put on his clothes and went before the Captain | O |
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JANE | A |
And so they prest a woman | O |
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GRANDMOTHER | H |
'Twas a trick | D2 |
She dearly loved to tell and all the country | E |
Soon knew the jest for she was used to travel | R |
For miles around All weathers and all hours | E2 |
She crossed the hill as hardy as her beasts | F2 |
Bearing the wind and rain and winter frosts | G2 |
And if she did not reach her home at night | H2 |
She laid her down in the stable with her asses | I2 |
And slept as sound as they did | J2 |
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HARRY | E |
With her asses | I2 |
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GRANDMOTHER | H |
Yes and she loved her beasts For tho' poor wretch | K2 |
She was a terrible reprobate and swore | Z |
Like any trooper she was always good | L2 |
To the dumb creatures never loaded them | F |
Beyond their strength and rather I believe | M2 |
Would stint herself than let the poor beasts want | N2 |
Because she said they could not ask for food | O2 |
I never saw her stick fall heavier on them | F |
Than just with its own weight She little thought | P2 |
This tender heartedness would be her death | Q2 |
There was a fellow who had oftentimes | R2 |
As if he took delight in cruelty | E |
Ill used her Asses He was one who lived | S2 |
By smuggling and for she had often met him | F |
Crossing the down at night she threatened him | F |
If he tormented them again to inform | F |
Of his unlawful ways Well so it was | T2 |
'Twas what they both were born to he provoked her | H |
She laid an information and one morn | U2 |
They found her in the stable her throat cut | V2 |
From ear to ear 'till the head only hung | W2 |
Just by a bit of skin | X2 |
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JANE | A |
Oh dear oh dear | Y2 |
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HARRY | E |
I hope they hung the man | Z2 |
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GRANDMOTHER | H |
They took him up | A3 |
There was no proof no one had seen the deed | B3 |
And he was set at liberty But God | C3 |
Whoss eye beholdeth all things he had seen | D3 |
The murder and the murderer knew that God | C3 |
Was witness to his crime He fled the place | A2 |
But nowhere could he fly the avenging hand | E3 |
Of heaven but nowhere could the murderer rest | F3 |
A guilty conscience haunted him by day | G3 |
By night in company in solitude | O2 |
Restless and wretched did he bear upon him | F |
The weight of blood her cries were in his ears | H3 |
Her stifled groans as when he knelt upon her | H |
Always he heard always he saw her stand | E3 |
Before his eyes even in the dead of night | H2 |
Distinctly seen as tho' in the broad sun | O |
She stood beside the murderer's bed and yawn'd | I3 |
Her ghastly wound till life itself became | F |
A punishment at last he could not bear | J3 |
And he confess'd it all and gave himself | C2 |
To death so terrible he said it was | T2 |
To have a guilty conscience | K3 |
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HARRY | E |
Was he hung then | L3 |
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GRANDMOTHER | H |
Hung and anatomized Poor wretched man | Z2 |
Your uncles went to see him on his trial | R |
He was so pale so thin so hollow eyed | M3 |
And such a horror in his meagre face | A2 |
They said he look'd like one who never slept | N3 |
He begg'd the prayers of all who saw his end | O3 |
And met his death with fears that well might warn | U2 |
From guilt tho' not without a hope in Christ | P3 |
Robert Southey
(1)
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