The Shipman's Tale Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST UVWX YZ A2B2C2 D2| Listen my masters I speak naught but truth | A |
| From dawn to dawn they drifted on and on | B |
| Not knowing wither nor to what dark end | C |
| Now the North froze them now the hot South scorched | D |
| Some called to God and found great comfort so | E |
| Some gnashed their teeth with curses some laughed | F |
| An empty laughter seeing they yet lived | G |
| So sweet was breath between their foolish lips | H |
| Day after day the same relentless sun | I |
| Night after night the same unpitying stars | J |
| At intervals fierce lightning tore the clouds | K |
| Showing vast hollow spaces and the sleet | L |
| Hissed and the torrents of the sky were loosed | M |
| From time to time a hand relaxed its grip | N |
| And some pale wretch slid down into the dark | O |
| With stifled moan and transient horror seized | P |
| The rest who waited knowing what must be | Q |
| At every turn strange shapes reached up and clutched | R |
| The whirling wreck held on awhile and then | S |
| Slipt back into that blackness whence they came | T |
| Ah hapless folk to be so tost and torn | U |
| So racked by hunger fever fire and wave | V |
| And swept at last into the nameless void | W |
| Frail girls strong men and mothers with their babes | X |
| - | |
| And was none saved | Y |
| My masters not a soul | Z |
| - | |
| O shipman woful woful is thy tale | A2 |
| Our hearts are heavy and our eyes are dimmed | B2 |
| What ship is this that suffered such ill fate | C2 |
| - | |
| What ship my masters Know ye not The World | D2 |
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
(1)
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