Roan Stallion Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFGHIJKLMBNOHPQ RPRSTUVWAADJXPYPZPPP UUPAA2PPRAA2 B2JC2D2PE2EDPD2VVF2G 2A2PIDVPA2PVH2A2PJVI 2PA2JVA VVPPPAJ2PPVVD2RPA2JV K2PD2L2A2M2DJPPPPD2P APJ2D2PA2J PA2G2PAPDPA2RN2PDAJA 2O2P2AA2A2PA2PDDPAA2 Q2RC2A2A2R2A2A2A2A2A PL2PThe dog barked then the woman stood in the doorway and hearing | A |
iron strike stone down the steep road | B |
Covered her head with a black shawl and entered the light rain | C |
she stood at the turn of the road | B |
A nobly formed woman erect and strong as a new tower the | D |
features stolid and dark | E |
But sculptured into a strong grace straight nose with a high bridge | F |
firm and wide eyes full chin | G |
Red lips she was only a fourth part Indian a Scottish sailor had | H |
planted her in young native earth | I |
Spanish and Indian twenty one years before He had named her | J |
California when she was born | K |
That was her name and had gone north | L |
She heard the hooves and | M |
wheels come nearer up the steep road | B |
The buckskin mare leaning against the breastpiece plodded into | N |
sight round the wet bank | O |
The pale face of the driver followed the burnt out eyes they had | H |
fortune in them He sat twisted | P |
On the seat of the old buggy leading a second horse by a long | Q |
halter a roan a big one | R |
That stepped daintily by the swell of the neck a stallion 'What | P |
have you got Johnny ' 'Maskerel's stallion | R |
Mine now I won him last night I had very good luck ' He was | S |
quite drunk 'They bring their mares up here now | T |
I keep this fellow I got money besides but I'll not show you ' | U |
'Did you buy something Johnny | V |
For our Christine Christmas comes in two days Johnny ' 'By | W |
God forgot ' he answered laughing | A |
'Don't tell Christine it's Christmas after while I get her something | A |
maybe ' But California | D |
'I shared your luck when you lost you lost me once Johnny remember | J |
Tom Dell had me two nights | X |
Here in the house other times we've gone hungry now that | P |
you've won Christine will have her Christmas | Y |
We share your luck Johnny You give me money I go down to | P |
Monterey to morrow | Z |
Buy presents for Christine come back in the evening Next day | P |
Christmas ' 'You have wet ride ' he answered | P |
Giggling 'Here money Five dollar ten twelve dollar You | P |
buy two bottles of rye whiskey for Johnny ' | U |
A right I go to morrow ' | U |
He was an outcast Hollander not | P |
old but shriveled with bad living | A |
The child Christine inherited from his race blue eyes from his | A2 |
life a wizened forehead she watched | P |
From the house door her father lurch out of the buggy and lead | P |
with due respect the stallion | R |
To the new corral the strong one leaving the wearily breathing | A |
buckskin mare to his wife to unharness | A2 |
- | |
Storm in the night the rain on the thin shakes of the roof like | B2 |
the ocean on rock streamed battering once thunder | J |
Walked down the narrow canyon into Carmel valley and wore | C2 |
away westward Christine was wakeful | D2 |
With fears and wonders her father lay too deep for storm to | P |
touch him | E2 |
Dawn comes late in the year's dark | E |
Later into the crack of a canyon under redwoods and California | D |
slipped from bed | P |
An hour before it the buckskin would be tired there was a little | D2 |
barley and why should Johnny | V |
Feed all the barley to his stallion That is what he would do She | V |
tip toed out of the room | F2 |
Leaving her clothes he'd waken if she waited to put them on | G2 |
and passed from the door of the house | A2 |
Into the dark of the rain the big black drops were cold through | P |
the thin shift but the wet earth | I |
Pleasant under her naked feet There was a pleasant smell in the | D |
stable and moving softly | V |
Touching things gently with the supple bend of the unclothed | P |
body was pleasant She found a box | A2 |
Filled it with sweet dry barley and took it down to the old | P |
corral The little mare sighed deeply | V |
At the rail in the wet darkness and California returning between | H2 |
two redwoods up to the house | A2 |
Heard the happy jaws grinding the grain Johnny could mind | P |
the pigs and chickens Christine called to her | J |
When she entered the house but slept again under her hand She | V |
laid the wet night dress on a chair back | I2 |
And stole into the bedroom to get her clothes A plank creaked | P |
and he wakened She stood motionless | A2 |
Hearing him stir in the bed When he was quiet she stooped after | J |
her shoes and he said softly | V |
'What are you doing Come back to bed ' 'It's late I'm going | A |
to Monterey I must hitch up ' | - |
'You come to bed first I been away three days I give you money | V |
I take back the money | V |
And what you do in town then ' she sighed sharply and came to | P |
the bed | P |
He reaching his hands from it | P |
Felt the cool curve and firmness of her flank and half rising | A |
caught her by the long wet hair | J2 |
She endured and to hasten the act she feigned desire she had not | P |
for long except in dream felt it | P |
Yesterday's drunkenness made him sluggish and exacting she | V |
saw turning her head sadly | V |
The windows were bright gray with dawn he embraced her still | D2 |
stopping to talk about the stallion | R |
At length she was permitted to put on her clothes Clear daylight | P |
over the steep hills | A2 |
Gray shining cloud over the tops of the redwoods the winter | J |
stream sang loud the wheels of the buggy | V |
Slipped m deep slime ground on washed stones at the road edge | K2 |
Down the hill the wrinkled river smothered the ford | P |
You must keep to the bed of stones she knew the way by willow | D2 |
and alder the buckskin halted mid stream | L2 |
Shuddering the water her own color washing up to the traces | A2 |
but California drawing up | M2 |
Her feet out of the whirl onto the seat of the buggy swung the | D |
whip over the yellow water | J |
And drove to the road | P |
All morning the clouds were racing northward | P |
like a river At noon they thickened | P |
When California faced the southwind home from Monterey it | P |
was heavy with level rainfall | D2 |
She looked seaward from the foot of the valley red rays cried | P |
sunset from a trumpet of streaming | A |
Cloud over Lobos the southwest Occident of the solstice Twilight | P |
came soon but the tired mare | J2 |
Feared the road more than the whip Mile after mile of slow | D2 |
gray twilight | P |
Then quite suddenly darkness | A2 |
'Christine will be asleep It is Christmas Eve The ford That hour | J |
of daylight wasted this morning ' | - |
She could see nothing she let the reins lie on the dashboard and | P |
knew at length by the cramp of the wheels | A2 |
And the pitch down they had reached it Noise of wheels on | G2 |
stones plashing of hooves in water a world | P |
Of sounds no sight the gentle thunder of water the mare snorting | A |
dipping her head one knew | P |
To look for footing in the blackness under the stream The | D |
hushing and creaking of the sea wind | P |
In the passion of invisible willows | A2 |
The mare stood still the woman | R |
shouted to her spared whip | N2 |
For a false leap would lose the track of the ford She stood | P |
'The baby's things ' thought California | D |
'Under the seat the water will come over the floor' and rising | A |
in the midst of the water | J |
She tilted the seat fetched up the doll the painted wooden chickens | A2 |
the woolly bear the book | O2 |
Of many pictures the box of sweets she brought them all from | P2 |
under the seat and stored them trembling | A |
Under her clothes about the breasts under the arms the corners | A2 |
of the cardboard boxes | A2 |
Cut into the soft flesh but with a piece of rope for a girdle and | P |
wound about the shoulders | A2 |
All was made fast The mare stood still as if asleep in the midst | P |
of the water Then California | D |
Reached out a hand over the stream and fingered her rump the | D |
solid wet convexity of it | P |
Shook like the beat of a great heart 'What are you waiting | A |
for ' But the feel of the animal surface | A2 |
Had wakened a dream obscured real danger with a dream of | Q2 |
danger 'What for For the water stallion | R |
To break out of the stream that is what the rump strains for | C2 |
him to come up flinging foam sidewise | A2 |
Fore hooves in air crush me and the rig and curl over his | A2 |
woman ' She flung out with the whip then | R2 |
The mare plunged forward The buggy drifted sidelong was | A2 |
she off ground Swimming No by the splashes | A2 |
The driver a mere prehensile instinct clung to the side irons | A2 |
of the seat and felt the force | A2 |
But not the coldness of the water curling over her knees breaking | A |
up to the waist | P |
Over her body They'd turned The mare had turned up stream | L2 |
and | P |
Robinson Jeffers
(1)
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Charlie Cockey: Well that stinks - the poem here stops partway through!!!
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