Poet Sir Samuel Ferguson

Sir Samuel Ferguson

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The Fairy Thorn Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IDID GJGJ KLLL MNMO PDQD CFCF RSRS LDLD TLTL LLLL CGCG LDLD

Get up our Anna dear from the weary spinning wheelA
For your father's on the hill and your mother is asleepB
Come up above the crags and we'll dance a Highland reelA
Around the Fairy Thorn on the steepB
-
At Anna Grace's door 'twas thus the maidens criedC
Three merry maidens fair in kirtles of the greenD
And Anna laid the rock and the weary wheel asideC
The fairest of the four I weenD
-
They're glancing through the glimmer of the quiet eveE
Away in milky wavings of neck and ankle bareF
The heavy sliding stream in its sleepy song they leaveE
And the crags in the ghostly airF
-
And linking hand in hand and singing as they goG
The maids along the hillside have ta'en their fearless wayH
Till they come to where the rowan trees in lonely beauty growG
Beside the Fairy Hawthorn greyH
-
The Hawthorn stands between the ashes tall and slimI
Like matron with her twin grand daughters at her kneeD
The rowan berries cluster o'er her low head grey and dimI
In ruddy kisses sweet to seeD
-
The merry maidens four have ranged them in a rowG
Between each lovely couple a stately rowan stemJ
And away in mazes wavy like skimming birds they goG
Oh never carolled bird like themJ
-
But solemn is the silence on the silvery hazeK
That drinks away their voices in echoless reposeL
And dreamily the evening has stilled the haunted braesL
And dreamier the gloaming growsL
-
And sinking one by one like lark notes from the skyM
When the falcon's shadow saileth across the open shawN
Are hushed the maidens' voices as cowering down they lieM
In the flutter of their sudden aweO
-
For from the air above and the grassy ground beneathP
And from the mountain ashes and the old white thorn betweenD
A power of faint enchantment doth through their beings breatheQ
And they sink down together on the greenD
-
They sink together silent and stealing side to sideC
They fling their lovely arms o'er their drooping necks so fairF
Then vainly strive again their naked arms to hideC
For their shrinking necks again are bareF
-
Thus clasped and prostrate all with their heads together bowedR
Soft o'er their bosoms beating the only human soundS
They hear the silky footsteps of the silent fairy crowdR
Like a river in the air gliding roundS
-
Nor scream can any raise nor prayer can any sayL
But wild wild the terror of the speechless threeD
For they feel fair Anna Grace drawn silently awayL
By whom they dare not look to seeD
-
They feel their tresses twine with her parting locks of goldT
And the curls elastic falling as her head withdrawsL
They feel her sliding arms from their tranc egrave d arms unfoldT
But they dare not look to see the causeL
-
For heavy on their senses the faint enchantment liesL
Through all that night of anguish and perilous amazeL
And neither fear nor wonder can ope their quivering eyesL
Or their limbs from the cold ground raiseL
-
Till out of night the earth has rolled her dewy sideC
With every haunted mountain and streamy vale belowG
When as the mist dissolves in the yellow morningtideC
The maiden's trance dissolveth soG
-
Then fly the ghastly three as swiftly as they mayL
And tell their tale of sorrow to anxious friends in vainD
They pined away and died within the year and dayL
And ne'er was Anna Grace seen againD

Sir Samuel Ferguson



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