San Sebastian Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDCD EFEEE GEGEH IJKJK ELELE EMEME MNMOM PQRQR NESES ETETE EUNUN IEIEI EVIVI ECDCDWith Thoughts of Sergeant M Pensioner who died | A |
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WHY Sergeant stray on the Ivel Way | B |
As though at home there were spectres rife | C |
From first to last 'twas a proud career | D |
And your sunny years with a gracious wife | C |
Have brought you a daughter dear | D |
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I watched her to day a more comely maid | E |
As she danced in her muslin bowed with blue | F |
Round a Hintock maypole never gayed | E |
Aye aye I watched her this day too | E |
As it happens the Sergeant said | E |
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My daughter is now he again began | G |
Of just such an age as one I knew | E |
When we of the Line in the Foot Guard van | G |
On an August morning a chosen few | E |
Stormed San Sebastian | H |
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She's a score less three so about was she | I |
The maiden I wronged in Peninsular days | J |
You may prate of your prowess in lusty times | K |
But as years gnaw inward you blink your bays | J |
And see too well your crimes | K |
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We'd stormed it at night by the vlanker light | E |
Of burning towers and the mortar's boom | L |
We'd topped the breach but had failed to stay | E |
For our files were misled by the baffling gloom | L |
And we said we'd storm by day | E |
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So out of the trenches with features set | E |
On that hot still morning in measured pace | M |
Our column climbed climbed higher yet | E |
Past the fauss'bray scarp up the curtain face | M |
And along the parapet | E |
- | |
From the batteried hornwork the cannoneers | M |
Hove crashing balls of iron fire | N |
On the shaking gap mount the volunteers | M |
In files and as they mount expire | O |
Amid curses groans and cheers | M |
- | |
Five hours did we storm five hours re form | P |
As Death cooled those hot blood pricked on | Q |
Till our cause was helped by a woe within | R |
They swayed from the summit we'd leapt upon | Q |
And madly we entered in | R |
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On end for plunder 'mid rain and thunder | N |
That burst with the lull of our cannonade | E |
We vamped the streets in the stifling air | S |
Our hunger unsoothed our thirst unstayed | E |
And ransacked the buildings there | S |
- | |
Down the stony steps of the house fronts white | E |
We rolled rich puncheons of Spanish grape | T |
Till at length with the fire of the wine alight | E |
I saw at a doorway a fair fresh shape | T |
A woman a sylph or sprite | E |
- | |
Afeard she fled and with heated head | E |
I pursued to the chamber she called her own | U |
When might is right no qualms deter | N |
And having her helpless and alone | U |
I wreaked my lust on her | N |
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She raised her beseeching eyes to me | I |
And I heard the words of prayer she sent | E |
In her own soft language Seemingly | I |
I copied those eyes for my punishment | E |
In begetting the girl you see | I |
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So to day I stand with a God set brand | E |
Like Cain's when he wandered from kindred's ken | V |
I served through the war that made Europe free | I |
I wived me in peace year But hid from men | V |
I bear that mark on me | I |
- | |
And I nightly stray on the Ivel Way | E |
As though at home there were spectres rife | C |
I delight me not in my proud career | D |
And 'tis coals of fire that a gracious wife | C |
Should have brought me a daughter dear | D |
Thomas Hardy
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