The Wild Huntsman Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAC DEDE FGFG HIHJ KBKB LFLF MNM OBP FJF QR DSSS SFS SBSB ATA FTFT SSSS SFS UFUF A A SBSB ARAR FBFB SSSS SVBV BFB UFUF SWS A AT BFBF XFYF STS JFJF SSS UFUF RZR A AT SA2SB2 SASA C2D2SE2 F2G2F2G2 SH2SH2 FBFB SSS FI2FB2 BJ2BJ2 SBSB K2BK2B ATA FRFR VSVS L2M2N2D2 FTM2The Wildgrave winds his bugle horn | A |
To horse to horse halloo halloo | B |
His fiery courser snuffs the morn | A |
And thronging serfs their lord pursue | C |
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The eager pack from couples freed | D |
Dash through the bush the brier the brake | E |
While answering hound and horn and steed | D |
The mountain echoes startling wake | E |
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The beams of God's own hallow'd day | F |
Had painted yonder spire with gold | G |
And called sinful man to pray | F |
Loud long and deep the bell had toll'd | G |
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But still the Wildgrave onward rides | H |
Halloo halloo and hark again | I |
When spurring from opposing sides | H |
Two Stranger Horsemen join the train | J |
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Who was each Stranger left and right | K |
Well may I guess but dare not tell | B |
The right hand steed was silver white | K |
The left the swarthy hue of hell | B |
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The right hand Horseman young and fair | L |
His smile was like the morn of May | F |
The left from eye of tawny glare | L |
Shot midnight lightning's lurid ray | F |
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He waved his huntsman's cap on high | M |
Cried 'Welcome welcome noble lord | N |
What sport can earth or sea or sky | M |
To match the princely chase afford ' | - |
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'Cease thy loud bugle's changing knell ' | - |
Cried the fair youth with silver voice | O |
'And for devotion's choral swell | B |
Exchange the rude unhallow'd noise | P |
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'To day the ill omen'd chase forbear | F |
Yon bell yet summons to the fane | J |
To day the Warning Spirit hear | F |
To morrow thou mayst mourn in vain ' | - |
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'Away and sweep the glades along ' | - |
The Sable Hunter hoarse replies | Q |
'To muttering monks leave matin song | R |
And bells and books and mysteries ' | - |
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The Wildgrave spurr'd his ardent steed | D |
And launching forward with a bound | S |
'Who for thy drowsy priestlike rede | S |
Would leave the jovial horn and hound | S |
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'Hence if our manly sport offend | S |
With pious fools go chant and pray | F |
Well hast thou spoke my dark brow'd friend | S |
Halloo halloo and hark away ' | - |
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The Wildgrave spurr'd his courser light | S |
O'er moss and moor o'er holt and hill | B |
And on the left and on the right | S |
Each Stranger Horseman follow'd still | B |
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Up springs from yonder tangled thorn | A |
A stag more white than mountain snow | T |
A louder rung the Wildgrave's horn | A |
'Hark forward forward holla ho ' | - |
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A heedless wretch has cross'd the way | F |
He gasps the thundering hoofs below | T |
But live who can or die who may | F |
Still 'Forward forward ' on they go | T |
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See where yon simple fences meet | S |
A field with Autumn's blessings crown'd | S |
See prostrate at the Wildgrave's feet | S |
A husbandman with toil embrown'd | S |
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'O mercy mercy noble lord | S |
Spare the poor's pittance ' was his cry | F |
'Earn'd by the sweat these brows have pour'd | S |
In scorching hour of fierce July ' | - |
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Earnest the right hand Stranger pleads | U |
The left still cheering to the prey | F |
The impetuous Earl no warning heeds | U |
But furious holds the onward way | F |
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'Away thou hound so basely born | A |
Or dread the scourge's echoing blow ' | - |
Then loudly rung his bugle horn | A |
'Hark forward forward holla ho ' | - |
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So said so done A single bound | S |
Clears the poor labourer's humble pale | B |
Wild follows man and horse and hound | S |
Like dark December's stormy gale | B |
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And man and horse and hound and horn | A |
Destructive sweep the field along | R |
While joying o'er the wasted corn | A |
Fell Famine marks the maddening throng | R |
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Again uproused the timorous prey | F |
Scours moss and moor and holt and hill | B |
Hard run he feels his strength decay | F |
And trusts for life his simple skill | B |
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Too dangerous solitude appear'd | S |
He seeks the shelter of the crowd | S |
Amid the flock's domestic herd | S |
His harmless head he hopes to shroud | S |
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O'er moss and moor and holt and hilt | S |
His track the steady blood hounds trace | V |
O'er moss and moor unwearied still | B |
The furious Earl pursues the chase | V |
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Full lowly did the herdsman fall | B |
'O spare thou noble Baron spare | F |
These herds a widow's little all | B |
These flocks an orphan's fleecy care ' | - |
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Earnest the right hand Stranger pleads | U |
The left still cheering to the prey | F |
The Earl nor prayer nor pity heeds | U |
But furious keeps the onward way | F |
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'Unmanner'd dog To stop my sport | S |
Vain were thy cant and beggar whine | W |
Though human spirits of thy sort | S |
Were tenants of these carrion kine ' | - |
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Again he winds his bugle horn | A |
'Hark forward forward holla ho ' | - |
And through the herd in ruthless scorn | A |
He cheers his furious hounds to go | T |
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In heaps the throttled victims fall | B |
Down sinks their mangled herdsman near | F |
The murderous cries the stag appal | B |
Again he starts new nerved by fear | F |
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With blood besmear'd and white with foam | X |
While big the tears of anguish pour | F |
He seeks amid the forest's gloom | Y |
The humble hermit's hallow'd bower | F |
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But man and horse and horn and hound | S |
Fast rattling on his traces go | T |
The sacred chapel rung around | S |
With 'Hark away and holla ho ' | - |
- | |
All mild amid the rout profane | J |
The holy hermit pour'd his prayer | F |
'Forbear with blood God's house to stain | J |
Revere his altar and forbear | F |
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'The meanest brute has rights to plead | S |
Which wrong'd by cruelty or pride | S |
Draw vengeance on the ruthless head | S |
Be warn'd at length and turn aside ' | - |
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Still the Fair Horseman anxious pleads | U |
The Black wild whooping points the prey | F |
Alas the Earl no warning heeds | U |
But frantic keeps the forward way | F |
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'Holy or not or right or wrong | R |
Thy altar and its rites I spurn | Z |
Not sainted martyr's sacred song | R |
Not God himself shall make me turn ' | - |
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He spurs his horse he winds his horn | A |
'Hark forward forward holla ho ' | - |
But off on whirlwind's pinions borne | A |
The stag the hut the hermit go | T |
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And horse and man and horn and hound | S |
And clamour of the chase was gone | A2 |
For hoofs and howls and bugle sound | S |
A deadly silence reign'd alone | B2 |
- | |
Wild gazed the affrighted Earl around | S |
He strove in vain to wake his horn | A |
In vain to call for not a sound | S |
Could from his anxious lips be borne | A |
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He listens for his trusty hounds | C2 |
No distant baying reach'd his ears | D2 |
His courser rooted to the ground | S |
The quickening spur unmindful bears | E2 |
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Still dark and darker frown the shades | F2 |
Dark as the darkness of the grave | G2 |
And not a sound the still invades | F2 |
Save what a distant torrent gave | G2 |
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High o'er the sinner's humbled head | S |
At length the solemn silence broke | H2 |
And from a cloud of swarthy red | S |
The awful voice of thunder spoke | H2 |
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'Oppressor of creation fair | F |
Apostate Spirits' harden'd tool | B |
Scorner of God Scourge of the poor | F |
The measure of thy cup is full | B |
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'Be chased for ever through the wood | S |
For ever roam the affrighted wild | S |
And let thy fate instruct the proud | S |
God's meanest creature is his child ' | - |
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'Twas hush'd One flash of sombre glare | F |
With yellow tinged the forests brown | I2 |
Uprose the Wildgrave's bristling hair | F |
And horror chill'd each nerve and bone | B2 |
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Cold pour'd the sweat in freezing rill | B |
A rising wind began to sing | J2 |
And louder louder louder still | B |
Brought storm and tempest on its wing | J2 |
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Earth heard the call her entrails rend | S |
From yawning rifts with many a yell | B |
Mix'd with sulphureous flames ascend | S |
The misbegotten dogs of hell | B |
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What ghastly Huntsman next arose | K2 |
Well may I guess but dare not tell | B |
His eye like midnight lightning glows | K2 |
His steed the swarthy hue of hell | B |
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The Wildgrave flies o'er bush and thorn | A |
With many a shriek of helpless woe | T |
Behind him hound and horse and horn | A |
And 'Hark away and holla ho ' | - |
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With wild despair's reverted eye | F |
Close close behind he marks the throng | R |
With bloody fangs and eager cry | F |
In frantic fear he scours along | R |
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Still still shall last the dreadful chase | V |
Till time itself shall have an end | S |
By day they scour earth's cavern'd space | V |
At midnight's witching hour ascend | S |
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This is the horn and hound and horse | L2 |
That oft the lated peasant hears | M2 |
Appall'd he signs the frequent cross | N2 |
When the wild din invades his ears | D2 |
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The wakeful priest oft drops a tear | F |
For human pride for human woe | T |
When at his midnight mass he hears | M2 |
The infernal cry of 'Holla ho ' | - |
Sir Walter Scott
(1)
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