The Old Huntsman Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGH IJKLMN BOPQRS TUVWXSYZ AA2B2C2A2D2E2F2G2H2I 2J2 K2L2M2UE H E N2O2P2Q2ER2 ES2T2U2V2W2 X2A2O2Y2Z2 A3B3KA2C3D3E3F3 G3H3I3ZA2P2L2J3K3 L3M3N3O3P3L2M2Q3R3P3 S3T3A2QUP3R3P3P3D2 A2A2O2Q3D3QU3V3O2P3 P3P3W3L3A2P3G3 P3P3X3P3EP3P3QQP3 T3P3A2 A2P3A2OY3JP3Z3W3P3A2 A4Q2B4 C4D4P3X3LUT E4F4AU3 A2L3 UG4H4A2 I4U3J4P3 P3P3K4A2A3V3 U3L4M4ON4 P3N2UV3O4H4D4 A2P4L2P3 U3P3OP3P3P3Q4R4S4 AP3XI'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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Now I'm tired | A4 |
With hearkening to the tick tack on the shelf | Q2 |
And pondering makes me doubtful | B4 |
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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 |
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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 |
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The naked stars make men feel lonely wheeling | A2 |
And glinting on the puddles in the road | L3 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
Siegfried Sassoon
(2)
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