Henry The Hermit Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGEHEIJEIKEELMN EOPQR ESETEUVEDEEWSESSESXS YE ZSEA2SSEPEEE R| It was a little island where he dwelt | A |
| Or rather a lone rock barren and bleak | B |
| Short scanty herbage spotting with dark spots | C |
| Its gray stone surface Never mariner | D |
| Approach'd that rude and uninviting coast | E |
| Nor ever fisherman his lonely bark | F |
| Anchored beside its shore It was a place | G |
| Befitting well a rigid anchoret | E |
| Dead to the hopes and vanities and joys | H |
| And purposes of life and he had dwelt | E |
| Many long years upon that lonely isle | I |
| For in ripe manhood he abandoned arms | J |
| Honours and friends and country and the world | E |
| And had grown old in solitude That isle | I |
| Some solitary man in other times | K |
| Had made his dwelling place and Henry found | E |
| The little chapel that his toil had built | E |
| Now by the storms unroofed his bed of leaves | L |
| Wind scattered and his grave o'ergrown with grass | M |
| And thistles whose white seeds winged in vain | N |
| Withered on rocks or in the waves were lost | E |
| So he repaired the chapel's ruined roof | O |
| Clear'd the grey lichens from the altar stone | P |
| And underneath a rock that shelter'd him | Q |
| From the sea blasts he built his hermitage | R |
| - | |
| The peasants from the shore would bring him food | E |
| And beg his prayers but human converse else | S |
| He knew not in that utter solitude | E |
| Nor ever visited the haunts of men | T |
| Save when some sinful wretch on a sick bed | E |
| Implored his blessing and his aid in death | U |
| That summons he delayed not to obey | V |
| Tho' the night tempest or autumnal wind | E |
| Maddened the waves and tho' the mariner | D |
| Albeit relying on his saintly load | E |
| Grew pale to see the peril So he lived | E |
| A most austere and self denying man | W |
| Till abstinence and age and watchfulness | S |
| Exhausted him and it was pain at last | E |
| To rise at midnight from his bed of leaves | S |
| And bend his knees in prayer Yet not the less | S |
| Tho' with reluctance of infirmity | E |
| He rose at midnight from his bed of leaves | S |
| And bent his knees in prayer but with more zeal | X |
| More self condemning fervour rais'd his voice | S |
| For pardon for that sin 'till that the sin | Y |
| Repented was a joy like a good deed | E |
| - | |
| One night upon the shore his chapel bell | Z |
| Was heard the air was calm and its far sounds | S |
| Over the water came distinct and loud | E |
| Alarmed at that unusual hour to hear | A2 |
| Its toll irregular a monk arose | S |
| The boatmen bore him willingly across | S |
| For well the hermit Henry was beloved | E |
| He hastened to the chapel on a stone | P |
| Henry was sitting there cold stiff and dead | E |
| The bell rope in his band and at his feet | E |
| The lamp that stream'd a long unsteady light | E |
| - | |
| - | |
| Footnote This story is related in the English Martyrology | R |
Robert Southey
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