Tamar Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQPRSTUPVWTXYLSZA2B 2C2QPD2E2F2NVG2EGH2P VYI2QJ2K2CL2M2VE CN2CO2CCYYVP2VCV VQ2CCR2YG2S2T2E2VF2 H2U2PQVV2W2 CK2X2 VYNY2VCVCZ2G2YA3B3C3 I2D3H2E3PF3Z2CCB2G3Y EQPYH3HVCVQC2HQYI3VQ H ACHHCHJ3QQHQQPHK3CHH QCCHYHQYYC

IA
A night the half moon was like a dancing girlB
No like a drunkard's last half dollarC
Shoved on the polished bar of the eastern hill rangeD
Young Cauldwell rode his pony along the sea cliffE
When she stopped spurred when she trembled droveF
The teeth of the little jagged wheels so deepG
They tasted blood the mare with four slim hoovesH
On a foot of ground pivoted like a topI
Jumped from the crumble of sod went down caught slippedJ
Then the quick frenzy finished stiffening herselfK
Slid with her drunken rider down the ledgesL
Shot from sheer rock and brokeM
Her life out on the rounded tidal bouldersN
-
The night you know accepted with no show of emotion the littleO
accident grave OrionP
Moved northwest from the naked shore the moon moved toQ
meridian the slow pulse of the oceanP
Beat the slow tide came in across the slippery stones it drownedR
the dead mare's muzzle and sluggishlyS
Felt for the rider Cauldwell s sleepy soul came back from theT
blind course curious to knowU
What sea cold fingers tapped the walls of its deserted ruinP
Pain pain and faintness crushingV
Weights and a vain desire to vomit and soon againW
die icy fingers they had crept over the loose hand and lay in theT
hair now He rolled sidewiseX
Against mountains of weight and for another half hour lay stillY
With a gush of liquid noisesL
The wave covered him head and all his bodyS
Crawled without consciousness and like a creature with no bonesZ
a seaworm lifted its faceA2
Above the sea wrack of a stone then a white twilight grew aboutB2
the moon and aboveC2
The ancient water the everlasting repetition of the dawn YouQ
shipwrecked horsemanP
So many and still so many and now for you the last But when itD2
grew daylightE2
He grew quite conscious broken ends of bone ground on eachF2
other among the working fibersN
While by half inches he was drawing himself out of the seawrackV
up to sandy graniteG2
Out of the tide's path Where the thin ledge tailed into flat cliffE
he fell asleepG
Far seawardH2
The daylight moon hung like a slip of cloud against the horizonP
The tide was ebbingV
From the dead horse and the black belt of sea growth CauldwellY
seemed to have felt her crying beside himI2
His mother who was dead He thought 'If I had a month or twoQ
of life yetJ2
I would remember to be decent only it's now too late I'm finishedK2
mother motherC
I'm sorry ' After that he thought only of pain and raging thirstL2
until the sundownM2
Reddened the sea and hands were reaching for him and drawingV
him up the cliffE
-
His sister TamarC
Nursed him in the big westward bedroomN2
Of the old house on Point Lobos After feverC
A wonderful day of peace and pleasant weaknessO2
Brought home to his heart the beauty of things 'O TamarC
I've thrown away years like rubbish Listen TamarC
It would be better for me to be a crippleY
Sit on the steps and watch the forest grow up the hillY
Or a new speck of moss on some old rockV
That takes ten years agrowing than wasteP2
Shame and my spirit on Monterey rye whiskeyV
And worse and worse I shan't be a cripple TamarC
We'll walk along the blessed old gray seaV
And up in the hills and watch the spring come home '-
-
Youth is a troublesome but a magical thingV
There is little more to say for it when you've saidQ2
Young bones knit easily he that fell in DecemberC
Walked in the February fields His sister TamarC
Was with him and his mind ran on her nameR2
But she was saying 'We laugh at poor Aunt StellaY
With her spiritG2
visitors Lee something told her truthS2
Last August you were hunting deer you had been goneT2
Ten days or twelve we heard her scream at nightE2
I went to the room she told meV
She'd seen you lying all bloody on the sea beachF2
By a dead deer its blood dabbling the black weeds of the ebb '-
'I was up Tassajara way ' he answeredH2
'Far from the sea ' 'We were glad when you rode homeU2
Safe with the two bucks on the packhorse But listenP
She said she watched the stars flying over youQ
In her vision Orion she said and made me lookV
Out of her window southward where I sawV2
The stars they call the Scorpion the red beadW2
With the curling tail Then it will be in winter '-
She whispered to me 'Orion is winter '-
'Tamar TamarC
Winter is over visions are over and vanishedK2
The fields are winking full of poppiesX2
In a week or two I'll fill your arms with shining irises '-
-
The winter sun went under and all that night there came a roaringV
from the south Lee CauldwellY
Lay awake and heard the tough old house creak all her timbersN
he was miserably lonely and vacantY2
He'd put away the boyish jets of wickedness loves with darkV
eyes in Monterey back streets liquorC
And all its fellowship what was left to live for but the farmworkV
rain would come and hinderC
He heard the cypress trees that seemed to scream in the windZ2
and felt the ocean pounding graniteG2
His father and Tamar's the old man David Cauldwell lay in theY
eastern chamber when the stormA3
Wakened him from the heartless fugitive slumber of age he roseB3
and made a light and lightedC3
The lamp not cold yet night and day were nearly equal to himI2
he had seen too many he dressedD3
Slowly and opened his Bible In the neighboring rooms he heardH2
on one side Stella MorelandE3
His dead wife's sister quieting his own sister the idiot JinnyP
Cauldwell who laughed and chuckledF3
Often for half the night long an old woman with a child's mindZ2
and mostly sleepless in the otherC
Chamber Tamar was moaning for it seemed that nightmareC
Within the house answered to storm withoutB2
To Tamar it seemed that she was walking by the seasideG3
With her dear brother who said 'Here's where I fellY
A bad girl that I knew in Monterey pushed me over the cliffE
You can see blood still on the boulders ' Where he vanished toQ
She could not tell nor why she was crying 'Lee NoP
No dearest brother dearest brother no ' But she cried vainlyY
Lee was not there to help her a wild white horseH3
Came out of the wave and trampled her with his hoovesH
The horror that she had dreaded through her dreamingV
With mystical foreknowledge When it wakened herC
She like her father heard old Jinny chucklingV
And Stella sighing and soothing her and the southwindQ
Raging around the gables of the house and through the forest ofC2
the cypressesH
'When it rains it will be quieter ' Tamar thought She sleptQ
again all night not a drop fellY
Old Cauldwell from his window saw the cloudy light seep upI3
the sky from the overhangingV
Hilltops the dawn was dammed behind the hills but overflowedQ
at last and ran down on the seaH
-
IIA
Lee Cauldwell rode across the roaring southwind to the winterC
pasture up in the hillsH
A hundred times he wanted Tamar to show her some new beautyH
of canyon wildflowers waterC
Dashing its ferns or oaktrees thrusting elbows at the wind blackoaksH
smoldering with foliageJ3
And the streaked beauty of white oak trunks and redwoodQ
glens he rode up higher across the rainwindQ
And found his father's cattle in a quiet hollow among the hillsH
their horns to the windQ
Quietly grazing He returned another way from the headlandQ
over Wildcat CanyonP
Saw the immense water possessing all the west and saw Point LobosH
Gemmed in it and the barn roofs and the house roofK3
Like ships' keels in the cypress tops and thought of TamarC
Toward sundown he approached the house Will AndrewsH
Was leaving it and young Cauldwell said 'Listen Bill AndrewsH
We've had gay times together and ridden at nightQ
I've quit it I don't want my old friends to visit my sisterC
Better keep off the place ' 'I will ' said the otherC
'When Tamar tells me to ' 'You think my bonesH
Aren't mended yet better keep off ' Lee CauldwellY
Rode by to the stable wondering why his lipsH
Twitched with such bitter anger Tamar wonderedQ
Why he went upstairs without a word or smileY
Of pleasure in her The old man David CauldwellY
When Lee had told him news of the herC

Robinson Jeffers



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