The Dead Quire Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBC A BDBD A EFEF GBGB HBHB IBIB J J KHKH B L M B NOP B QRQR B BSBS B TH BUBU TBTB VWVR UXUY BZBZ B UA2UA2 B B2C2B2C2 B D2E2D2E2 B D2F2D2F2 B BD2BD2 GXGX D2BD2BI | A |
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Beside the Mead of Memories | B |
Where Church way mounts to Moaning Hill | C |
The sad man sighed his phantasies | B |
He seems to sigh them still | C |
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II | A |
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'Twas the Birth tide Eve and the hamleteers | B |
Made merry with ancient Mellstock zest | D |
But the Mellstock quire of former years | B |
Had entered into rest | D |
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III | A |
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Old Dewy lay by the gaunt yew tree | E |
And Reuben and Michael a pace behind | F |
And Bowman with his family | E |
By the wall that the ivies bind | F |
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IV | - |
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The singers had followed one by one | G |
Treble and tenor and thorough bass | B |
And the worm that wasteth had begun | G |
To mine their mouldering place | B |
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V | - |
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For two score years ere Christ day light | H |
Mellstock had throbbed to strains from these | B |
But now there echoed on the night | H |
No Christmas harmonies | B |
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VI | - |
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Three meadows off at a dormered inn | I |
The youth had gathered in high carouse | B |
And ranged on settles some therein | I |
Had drunk them to a drowse | B |
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VII | - |
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Loud lively reckless some had grown | J |
Each dandling on his jigging knee | - |
Eliza Dolly Nance or Joan | J |
Livers in levity | - |
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VIII | - |
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The taper flames and hearthfire shine | K |
Grew smoke hazed to a lurid light | H |
And songs on subjects not divine | K |
Were warbled forth that night | H |
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IX | B |
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Yet many were sons and grandsons here | L |
Of those who on such eves gone by | - |
At that still hour had throated clear | M |
Their anthems to the sky | - |
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X | B |
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The clock belled midnight and ere long | N |
One shouted 'Now 'tis Christmas morn | O |
Here's to our women old and young | P |
And to John Barleycorn ' | - |
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XI | B |
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They drink the toast and shout again | Q |
The pewter ware rings back the boom | R |
And for a breath while follows then | Q |
A silence in the room | R |
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XII | B |
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When nigh without as in old days | B |
The ancient quire of voice and string | S |
Seemed singing words of prayer and praise | B |
As they had used to sing | S |
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XIII | B |
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'While shepherds watch'd their flocks by night ' | - |
Thus swells the long familiar sound | T |
In many a quaint symphonic flight | H |
To 'Glory shone around ' | - |
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XIV | - |
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The sons defined their fathers' tones | B |
The widow his whom she had wed | U |
And others in the minor moans | B |
The viols of the dead | U |
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XV | - |
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Something supernal has the sound | T |
As verse by verse the strain proceeds | B |
And stilly staring on the ground | T |
Each roysterer holds and heeds | B |
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XVI | - |
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Towards its chorded closing bar | V |
Plaintively thinly waned the hymn | W |
Yet lingered like the notes afar | V |
Of banded seraphim | R |
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XVII | - |
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With brows abashed and reverent tread | U |
The hearkeners sought the tavern door | X |
But nothing save wan moonlight spread | U |
The empty highway o'er | Y |
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XVIII | - |
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While on their hearing fixed and tense | B |
The aerial music seemed to sink | Z |
As it were gently moving thence | B |
Along the river brink | Z |
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XIX | B |
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Then did the Quick pursue the Dead | U |
By crystal Froom that crinkles there | A2 |
And still the viewless quire ahead | U |
Voiced the old holy air | A2 |
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XX | B |
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By Bank walk wicket brightly bleached | B2 |
It passed and 'twixt the hedges twain | C2 |
Dogged by the living till it reached | B2 |
The bottom of Church Lane | C2 |
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XXI | B |
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There at the turning it was heard | D2 |
Drawing to where the churchyard lay | E2 |
But when they followed thitherward | D2 |
It smalled and died away | E2 |
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XXII | B |
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Each headstone of the quire each mound | D2 |
Confronted them beneath the moon | F2 |
But no more floated therearound | D2 |
That ancient Birth night tune | F2 |
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XXIII | B |
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There Dewy lay by the gaunt yew tree | B |
There Reuben and Michael a pace behind | D2 |
And Bowman with his family | B |
By the wall that the ivies bind | D2 |
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XXIV | - |
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As from a dream each sobered son | G |
Awoke and musing reached his door | X |
'Twas said that of them all not one | G |
Sat in a tavern more | X |
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XXV | - |
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The sad man ceased and ceased to heed | D2 |
His listener and crossed the leaze | B |
From Moaning Hill towards the mead | D2 |
The Mead of Memories | B |
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Thomas Hardy
(1)
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