The Old Huntsman Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Siegfried Sassoon

The Old Huntsman Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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I've never ceased to curse the day I signed	A
A seven years' bargain for the Golden Fleece	B
'Twas a bad deal all round and dear enough	C
It cost me what with my daft management	D
And the mean folk as owed and never paid me	E
And backing losers and the local bucks	F
Egging me on with whiskys while I bragged	G
The man I was when huntsman to the Squire	H
	-
I'd have been prosperous if I'd took a farm	I
Of fifty acres drove my gig and haggled	J
At Monday markets now I've squandered all	K
My savings nigh three hundred pound I got	L
As testimonial when I'd grown too stiff	M
And slow to press a beaten fox	N
	-
The Fleece	B
'Twas the damned Fleece that wore my Emily out	O
The wife of thirty years who served me well	P
Not like this beldam clattering in the kitchen	Q
That never trims a lamp nor sweeps the floor	R
And brings me greasy soup in a foul crock	S
	-
Blast the old harridan What's fetched her now	T
Leaving me in the dark and short of fire	U
And where's my pipe 'Tis lucky I've a turn	V
For thinking and remembering all that's past	W
And now's my hour before I hobble to bed	X
To set the works a wheezing wind the clock	S
That keeps the time of life with feeble tick	Y
Behind my bleared old face that stares and wonders	Z
	-
	-
It's queer how in the dark comes back to mind	A
Some morning of September We've been digging	A2
In a steep sandy warren riddled with holes	B2
And I've just pulled the terrier out and left	C2
A sharp nosed cub face blinking there and snapping	A2
Then in a moment seen him mobbed and torn	D2
To strips in the baying hurly of the pack	E2
I picture it so clear the dusty sunshine	F2
On bracken and the men with spades that wipe	G2
Red faces one tilts up a mug of ale	H2
And having stopped to clean my gory hands	I2
I whistle the jostling beauties out of the wood	J2
	-
I'm but a daft old fool I often wish	K2
The Squire were back again ah he was a man	L2
They don't breed men like him these days he'd come	M2
For sure and sit and talk and suck his briar	U
Till the old wife brings up a dish of tea	E
	-
Ay those were days when I was serving Squire	H
I never knowed such sport as '	-
The winter afore the one that snowed us silly	E
	-
	-
Once in a way the parson will drop in	N2
And read a bit o' the Bible if I'm bad	O2
And pray the Lord to make my spirit whole	P2
In faith he leaves some 'baccy on the shelf	Q2
And wonders I don't keep a dog to cheer me	E
Because he knows I'm mortal fond of dogs	R2
	-
I ask you what's a gent like that to me	E
As wouldn't know Elijah if I saw him	S2
Nor have the wit to keep him on the talk	T2
'Tis kind of parson to be troubling still	U2
With such as me but he's a town bred chap	V2
Full of his college notions and Christmas hymns	W2
	-
Religion beats me I'm amazed at folk	X2
Drinking the gospels in and never scratching	A2
Their heads for questions When I was a lad	O2
I learned a bit from mother and never thought	Y2
To educate myself for prayers and psalms	Z2
	-
But now I'm old and bald and serious minded	A3
With days to sit and ponder I'd no chance	B3
When young and gay to get the hang of all	K
This Hell and Heaven and when the clergy hoick	A2
And holloa from their pulpits I'm asleep	C3
However hard I listen and when they pray	D3
It seems we're all like children sucking sweets	E3
In school and wondering whether master sees	F3
	-
I used to dream of Hell when I was first	G3
Promoted to a huntsman's job and scent	H3
Was rotten and all the foxes disappeared	I3
And hounds were short of blood and officers	Z
From barracks over rode 'em all day long	A2
On weedy whistling nags that knocked a hole	P2
In every fence good sportsmen to a man	L2
And brigadiers by now but dreadful hard	J3
On a young huntsman keen to show some sport	K3
	-
Ay Hell was thick with captains and I rode	L3
The lumbering brute that's beat in half a mile	M3
And blunders into every blind old ditch	N3
Hell was the coldest scenting land I've known	O3
And both my whips were always lost and hounds	P3
Would never get their heads down and a man	L2
On a great yawing chestnut trying to cast 'em	M2
While I was in a corner pounded by	Q3
The ugliest hog backed stile you've clapped your eyes on	R3
There was an iron spiked fence round all the coverts	P3
And civil spoken keepers I couldn't trust	S3
And the main earth unstopp'd The fox I found	T3
Was always a three legged 'un from a bag	A2
Who reeked of aniseed and wouldn't run	Q
The farmers were all ploughing their old pasture	U
And bellowing at me when I rode their beans	P3
To cast for beaten fox or galloped on	R3
With hounds to a lucky view I'd lost my voice	P3
Although I shouted fit to burst my guts	P3
And couldn't blow my horn	D2
	-
And when I woke	A2
Emily snored and barn cocks started crowing	A2
And morn was at the window and I was glad	O2
To be alive because I heard the cry	Q3
Of hounds like church bells chiming on a Sunday	D3
Ay that's the song I'd wish to hear in Heaven	Q
The cry of hounds was Heaven for me I know	U3
Parson would call me crazed and wrong to say it	V3
But where's the use of life and being glad	O2
If God's not in your gladness	P3
	-
I've no brains	P3
For book learned studies but I've heard men say	P3
There's much in print that clergy have to wink at	W3
Though many I've met were jolly chaps and rode	L3
To hounds and walked me puppies and could pick	A2
Good legs and loins and necks and shoulders ay	P3
And feet 'twas necks and feet I looked at first	G3
	-
Some hounds I've known were wise as half your saints	P3
And better hunters That old dog of the Duke's	P3
Harlequin what a dog he was to draw	X3
And what a note he had and what a nose	P3
When foxes ran down wind and scent was catchy	E
And that light lemon bitch of the Squire's old Dorcas	P3
She were a marvellous hunter were old Dorcas	P3
Ay oft I've thought 'If there were hounds in Heaven	Q
With God as master taking no subscription	Q
And all His bless egrave d country farmed by tenants	P3
And a straight necked old fox in every gorse '	-
But when I came to work it out I found	T3
There'd be too many huntsmen wanting places	P3
Though some I've known might get a job with Nick	A2
	-
	-
I've come to think of God as something like	A2
The figure of a man the old Duke was	P3
When I was turning hounds to Nimrod King	A2
Before his Grace was took so bad with gout	O
And had to quit the saddle Tall and spare	Y3
Clean shaved and grey with shrewd kind eyes that twinkled	J
And easy walk who when he gave good words	P3
Gave them whole hearted and would never blame	Z3
Without just cause Lord God might be like that	W3
Sitting alone in a great room of books	P3
Some evening after hunting	A2
	-
Now I'm tired	A4
With hearkening to the tick tack on the shelf	Q2
And pondering makes me doubtful	B4
	-
Riding home	C4
On a moonless night of cloud that feels like frost	D4
Though stars are hidden hold your feet up horse	P3
And thinking what a task I had to draw	X3
A pack with all those lame 'uns and the lot	L
Wanting a rest from all this open weather	U
That's what I'm doing now	T
	-
And likely too	E4
The frost'll be a long 'un and the night	F4
One sleep The parsons say we'll wake to find	A
A country blinding white with dazzle of snow	U3
	-
The naked stars make men feel lonely wheeling	A2
And glinting on the puddles in the road	L3
	-
And then you listen to the wind and wonder	U
If folk are quite such bucks as they appear	G4
When dressed by London tailors looking down	H4
Their boots at covert side and thinking big	A2
	-
	-
This world's a funny place to live in Soon	I4
I'll need to change my country but I know	U3
'Tis little enough I've understood my life	J4
And a power of sights I've missed and foreign marvels	P3
	-
I used to feel it riding on spring days	P3
In meadows pied with sun and chasing clouds	P3
And half forget how I was there to catch	K4
The foxes lose the angry eager feeling	A2
A huntsman ought to have that's out for blood	A3
And means his hounds to get it	V3
	-
Now I know	U3
It's God that speaks to us when we're bewitched	L4
Smelling the hay in June and smiling quiet	M4
Or when there's been a spell of summer drought	O
Lying awake and listening to the rain	N4
	-
	-
I'd like to be the simpleton I was	P3
In the old days when I was whipping in	N2
To a little harrier pack in Worcestershire	U
And loved a dairymaid but never knew it	V3
Until she'd wed another So I've loved	O4
My life and when the good years are gone down	H4
Discover what I've lost	D4
	-
I never broke	A2
Out of my blundering self into the world	P4
But let it all go past me like a man	L2
Half asleep in a land that's full of wars	P3
	-
What a grand thing 'twould be if I could go	U3
Back to the kennels now and take my hounds	P3
For summer exercise be riding out	O
With forty couple when the quiet skies	P3
Are streaked with sunrise and the silly birds	P3
Grown hoarse with singing cobwebs on the furze	P3
Up on the hill and all the country strange	Q4
With no one stirring and the horses fresh	R4
Sniffing the air I'll never breathe again	S4
	-
	-
You've brought the lamp then Martha I've no mind	A
For newspaper to night nor bread and cheese	P3
Give me the candle and I'll get to bed	X