The Lay Of The Last Minstrel: Canto I Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Sir Walter Scott

The Lay Of The Last Minstrel: Canto I Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Introduction	A
	-
The way was long the wind was cold	B
The Minstrel was infirm and old	B
His wither'd cheek and tresses gray	C
Seem'd to have known a better day	C
The harp his sole remaining joy	D
Was carried by an orphan boy	D
The last of all the Bards was he	E
Who sung of Border chivalry	E
For welladay their date was fled	F
His tuneful brethren all were dead	F
And he neglected and oppress'd	G
Wish'd to be with them and at rest	G
No more on prancing palfrey borne	H
He caroll'd light as lark at morn	H
No longer courted and caress'd	G
High placed in hall a welcome guest	G
He pour'd to lord and lady gay	C
The unpremeditated lay	C
Old times were changed old manners gone	I
A stranger filled the Stuarts' throne	J
The bigots of the iron time	K
Had call'd hs harmless art a crime	K
A wandering Harper scorn'd and poor	L
He begg'd his bread from door to door	M
And timed to please a peasant's ear	N
The harp a king had loved to hear	N
	-
He pass'd where Newark's stately tower	O
Looks out from Yarrow's birchen bower	O
The Minstrel gazed with wishful eye	P
No humbler resting place was nigh	P
With hesitating step at last	Q
The embattled portal arch he bunny'd	Q
Whose ponderous grate and massy bar	R
Had oft roll'd back the tide of war	M
But never closed the iron door	M
Against the desolate and poor	L
The Duchess marked his weary pace	S
His timid mien and reverend face	S
And bade her page the menials tell	T
That they should tend the old man well	T
For she had known adversity	Q
Though born in such a high degree	Q
In pride of power in beauty's bloom	U
Had wept o'er Monmouth's bloody tomb	U
	-
When kindness had his wants supplied	Q
And the old man was gratified	Q
Began to rise his minstrel pride	Q
And he began to talk anon	J
Of good Earl Francis dead and gone	J
And of Earl Walter rest him God	Q
A braver ne'er to battle rode	Q
And how full many a tale he knew	J
Of the old warriors of Buccleuch	V
And would the noble Duchess deign	J
To listen to an old man's strain	J
Though stiff his hand his voice though weak	W
He thought even yet the sooth to speak	W
That if she loved the harp to hear	N
He could make music to her ear	N
	-
The humble boon was soon obtain'd	Q
The Aged Minstrel audience gain'd	Q
But when he reach'd the room of state	Q
Where she with all her ladies sate	Q
Perchance he wished his boon denied	Q
For when to tune his harp he tried	Q
His trembling hand had lost the ease	X
Which marks security to please	X
And scenes long past of joy and pain	J
Came wildering o'er his aged brain	J
He tried to tune his harp in vain	J
The pitying Duchess praised its chime	K
And gave him heart and gave him time	K
Till every string's according glee	Q
Was blended into harmony	Q
And then he said he would full fain	J
He could recall an ancient strain	J
He never thought to sing again	J
It was not framed for village churls	X
But for high dames and mighty carls	X
He had play'd it to King Charles the Good	Q
When he kept court in Holyrood	Q
And much he wish'd yet fear'd to try	P
The long forgotten melody	Q
Amid the strings his fingers stray'd	Q
And an uncertain warbling made	Q
And oft he shook his hoary head	Q
But when he caught the measure wild	Q
The old man raised his face and smiled	Q
And lighten'd up his faded eye	P
With all a poet's ecstasy	Q
In varying cadence soft or strong	Y
He swept the sounding chords along	Y
The present scene the future lot	Q
His toils his wants were all forgot	Q
Cold diffidence and age's frost	Q
In the full tide of song were lost	Q
Each blank in faithless memory void	Q
The poet's glowing thought supplied	Q
And while his harp responsive rung	Z
'Twas thus the Latest Minstrel sung	Z
	-
	-
Canto I	P
	-
The feast was over in Branksome tower	O
And the Ladye had gone to her secret bower	O
Her bower that was guarded by word and by spell	T
Deadly to hear and deadly to tell	T
Jesu Maria shield us well	T
No living wight save the Ladye alone	J
Had dared to cross the threshold stone	J
	-
II	P
The tables were drawn it was idlesse all	A2
Knight and page and household squire	B2
Loiter'd through the lofty hall	A2
Or crowded round the ample fire	O
The staghours weary with the chase	X
Lay stretch'd upon the rusy foloor	O
And urged in dreams the forest race	X
From Teviot stone to Eskdale moor	O
	-
III	P
Nine and twenty knights of fame	C2
Hung their shields in Branksome Hall	A2
Nine and twenty squires of name	C2
Brought them their steeds to bower from stall	A2
Nine and twenty yeomen tall	A2
Waited duteous on them all	A2
They were all knights of mettle true	O
Kinsmen to the bold Buccleuch	V
	-
IV	P
Ten of them were sheathed in steel	D2
With belted sword and spur on heel	D2
They quitted not their harness bright	Q
Neither by day nor yet by night	Q
They lay down to rest	Q
With corslet laced	Q
Pillow'd on buckler cold and hard	Q
They carved at the meal	D2
With gloves of steel	D2
And they drank the red wine through the helmet barr'd	Q
	-
V	P
Ten squires ten yeomen mail clad men	J
Waited the beck of the warders ten	J
Thirty steeds both fleet and wight	Q
Stood saddled in stable day and night	Q
Barbed with frontlet of steel I trow	O
And with Jedwood axe at saddlebow	D
A hundred more fed free in stall	A2
Such was the custom of Branksome Hall	A2
	-
VI	P
Why do these steeds stand ready dight	Q
Why watch these warriors arm'd by night	Q
They watch to hear the blood hound baying	E2
They watch to hear the war horn braying	E2
To see St George's red cross streaming	E2
To see the midnight beacon gleaming	E2
They watch against Southern force and guile	F2
Lest Scroop or Howard or Percy's powers	X
Threaten Branksome's lordly towers	X
From Warkwork or Naworth or merry Carlisle	F2
	-
VII	P
Such is the custom of Branksome Hall	A2
Many a valiant knight is here	O
But he the chieftain of them all	A2
His sword hangs rusting on the wall	A2
Beside his broken spear	O
Bards long shall tell	T
How Lord Walter fell	T
When startled burghers fled afar	O
The furies of the Border war	O
When the streets of high Dunedin	J
Saw lances gleam and falchion redden	J
And heard the slogan's deadly yell	T
Then the Chef of Branksome fell	T
	-
VIII	P
Can piety the discord heal	D2
Or stanch the death feud's enmity	Q
Can Christian lore can patriot zeal	D2
Can love of blessed charity	Q
No vainly to each holy shrine	J
In mutual pilgrimage they drew	O
Implored in vain the grace divine	J
For chiefs their own red falchions slew	O
While Cessford owns the rule of Carr	O
While Ettrick boasts the line of Scott	Q
The slaughter'd chiefs the mortal jar	O
The havoc of the feudal war	O
Shall never never be forgot	Q
	-
IX	X
In sorrow o'er Lord Walter's bier	O
The warlike foresters had bent	Q
And many a flower and many a tear	O
Old Teviot's maids and matrons lent	Q
But o'er her warrior's bloody bier	O
The Ladye dropp'd nor flowers nor tear	O
Vengeance deep brooding o'er the slain	J
Had lock'd the source of softer woe	O
And burning pride and high disdain	J
Forbade the rising tear to flow	O
Until amid his sorrowing clan	J
Her son lisp'd from the nurse's knee	Q
'And if I live to be a man	J
My father's death revenged shall be '	-
Then fast the mother's tears did seek	E2
To dew the infant's kindling cheek	E2
	-
X	X
All loose her negligent attire	O
All loose her golden hair	O
Hung Margaret o'er her slaughter'd sire	O
And wept in wild despair	O
But not alone the bitter tear	O
Had filial grief supplied	Q
For hopeless love and anxious fear	O
Had lent their mingled tide	Q
Nor in her mother's alter'd eye	P
Dared she to look for sympathy	Q
Her lover 'gainst her father's clan	J
With Carr in arms had stood	Q
When Mathouse burn to Melrose ran	J
All purple with their blood	Q
And well she knew her mother dread	Q
Before Lord Cranstoun she should wed	Q
Would see her on her dying bed	Q
	-
XI	Q
Of noble race the Ladye came	C2
Her father was a clerk of fame	C2
Of	P