Steelhead Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFEGDEEHEIEJKEDL KMNDOEPPEQDEERSBTUVW EXEYEEBZ A2B2BEEDEC2C2DD2E2F2 G2YB H2I2I2 G2EULJ2EEEK2DDL2M2 G2EEYDEN2LO2P2| The sky was cold December blue with great tumbling clouds | A |
| and the little river | B |
| Ran full but clear A bare legged girl | C |
| in a red jersey was wading | D |
| in it holding a five tined | E |
| Hay fork at her head's height suddenly she darted it down like | F |
| a heron's beak and panting hard | E |
| Leaned on the shaft looking down passionately her gipsy lean | G |
| face then stooped and dipping | D |
| One arm to the little breasts she drew up her catch great hammered | E |
| silver steelhead with the tines through it | E |
| And the fingers of her left hand hooked in its | H |
| gills her slender body | E |
| Rocked with its writhing She took it to the near bank | I |
| And was dropping it behind a log when someone said | E |
| Quietly 'I guess I've got you Vina ' Who gasped and looked up | J |
| At a young horseman half hidden in the willow bushes | K |
| She'd been too intent to notice him and said 'My God | E |
| I thought it was the game warden ' 'Worse ' he said smiling | D |
| 'This river's ours | L |
| You can't get near it without crossing our fences | K |
| Besides that you mustn't spear 'em and three four you | M |
| little bitch | N |
| That's the fifth fish ' She answered with her gipsy face 'Take | D |
| half o' them honey I loved the fun ' | O |
| He looked up and down her taper legs red with cold and said | E |
| fiercely 'Your fun | P |
| To kill them and leave them rotting ' 'Honey let me have one | P |
| o' them ' she answered | E |
| 'You take the rest ' He shook his blond head 'You'll have to pay | Q |
| a terrible fine ' She answered laughing | D |
| 'Don't worry you wouldn't tell on me ' He dismounted and | E |
| tied the bridle to a bough saying 'Nobody would | E |
| I know a lovely place deep in the willows full of warm grass | R |
| safe as a house | S |
| Where you can pay it ' Her body seemed to grow narrower | B |
| suddenly both hands at her throat and the cold thighs | T |
| Pressed close together while she stared at his face it was beautiful | U |
| long heavy lidded eyes like a girl's | V |
| 'I can't do that honey I ' she said shivering 'your wife | W |
| would kill me ' He hardened his eyes and said | E |
| 'Let that alone ' 'Oh ' she answered the little red hands came | X |
| down from her breast and faintly | E |
| Reached toward him her head lifting he saw the artery on the | Y |
| lit side of her throat flutter like a bird | E |
| And said 'You'll be sick with cold Vina ' flung off his coat | E |
| And folded her in it with his warmth in it and carried her | B |
| To that island in the willows | Z |
| - | |
| He warmed her bruised feet in | A2 |
| his hands | B2 |
| She paid her fine for spearing fish and another | B |
| For taking more than the legal limit and would willingly | E |
| Have paid a third for trespassing he sighed and said | E |
| 'You'll owe me that I'm afraid somebody might come looking | D |
| for me | E |
| Or my colt break his bridle ' She moaned like a dove 'Oh Oh | C2 |
| Oh Oh | C2 |
| You are beautiful Hugh ' They returned to the stream bank | D |
| There | D2 |
| While Vina put on her shoes they were like a small boy's all | E2 |
| stubbed and shapeless young Flodden strung the five fish | F2 |
| On a willow rod through the red gills and slung them | G2 |
| To his saddle horn He led the horse and walked with Vina | Y |
| going part way home with her | B |
| - | |
| Toward the canyon sea mouth | H2 |
| The water spread wide and shoal fingering through many channels | I2 |
| down a broad flood bed and a mob of sea gulls | I2 |
| Screamed at each other Vina said 'That's a horrible thing ' | - |
| 'What ' 'What the birds do They're worse than I am ' | - |
| When Flodden returned alone he rode down and watched them | G2 |
| He saw that one of the thousand steelhead | E |
| Which irresistible nature herded up stream to the spawning gravel | U |
| in the mountain the river headwaters | L |
| Had wandered into a shallow finger of the current and was | J2 |
| forced over on his flank sculling uneasily | E |
| In three inches of water instantly a gaunt herring gull hovered | E |
| and dropped to gouge the exposed | E |
| Eye with her beak the great fish writhing flopping over in his | K2 |
| anguish another gull's beak | D |
| Took the other eye Their prey was then at their mercy writhing | D |
| blind soon stranded and the screaming mob | L2 |
| Covered him | M2 |
| - | |
| Young Flodden rode into them and drove them | G2 |
| up he found the torn steelhead | E |
| Still slowly and ceremoniously striking the sand with his tail and | E |
| a bloody eye socket under the | Y |
| Pavilion of wings They cast a cold shadow on the air a fleeting | D |
| sense of fortune's iniquities why should | E |
| Hugh Flodden be young and happy mounted on a good horse | N2 |
| And have had another girl besides his dear wife while others | L |
| have to endure blindness and death | O2 |
| Pain and disease misery old age God knows what worse | P2 |
Robinson Jeffers
(1)
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