The Fire At Tranter Sweatley's Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAAAAB CDEFFD GHIIH FHFFFH JHJJH IFIIF HKHHHL MNNNNN IFIIF JNJJJN HHHHHH OOHOOOH PHPPPH FIFFFI HIHHHI PNPPPN AI AI AHAAAH FFPFFFFPThey had long met o' Zundays her true love and she | A |
And at junketings maypoles and flings | B |
But she bode wi' a thirtover uncle and he | A |
Swore by noon and by night that her goodman should be | A |
Naibor Sweatley a gaffer oft weak at the knee | A |
From taking o' sommat more cheerful than tea | A |
Who tranted and moved people's things | B |
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She cried O pray pity me Nought would he hear | C |
Then with wild rainy eyes she obeyed | D |
She chid when her Love was for clinking off wi' her | E |
The pa'son was told as the season drew near | F |
To throw over pu'pit the names of the pe auml ir | F |
As fitting one flesh to be made | D |
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The wedding day dawned and the morning drew on | G |
The couple stood bridegroom and bride | H |
The evening was passed and when midnight had gone | I |
The folks horned out God save the King and anon | I |
The two home along gloomily hied | H |
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The lover Tim Tankens mourned heart sick and drear | F |
To be thus of his darling deprived | H |
He roamed in the dark ath'art field mound and mere | F |
And a'most without knowing it found himself near | F |
The house of the tranter and now of his Dear | F |
Where the lantern light showed 'em arrived | H |
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The bride sought her cham'er so calm and so pale | J |
That a Northern had thought her resigned | H |
But to eyes that had seen her in tide times of weal | J |
Like the white cloud o' smoke the red battlefield's vail | J |
That look spak' of havoc behind | H |
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The bridegroom yet laitered a beaker to drain | I |
Then reeled to the linhay for more | F |
When the candle snoff kindled some chaff from his grain | I |
Flames spread and red vlankers wi' might and wi' main | I |
And round beams thatch and chimley tun roar | F |
- | |
Young Tim away yond rafted up by the light | H |
Through brimble and underwood tears | K |
Till he comes to the orchet when crooping thereright | H |
In the lewth of a codlin tree bivering wi' fright | H |
Wi' on'y her night rail to screen her from sight | H |
His lonesome young Barbree appears | L |
- | |
Her cwold little figure half naked he views | M |
Played about by the frolicsome breeze | N |
Her light tripping totties her ten little tooes | N |
All bare and besprinkled wi' Fall's chilly dews | N |
While her great gallied eyes through her hair hanging loose | N |
Sheened as stars through a tardle o' trees | N |
- | |
She eyed en and as when a weir hatch is drawn | I |
Her tears penned by terror afore | F |
With a rushing of sobs in a shower were strawn | I |
Till her power to pour 'em seemed wasted and gone | I |
From the heft o' misfortune she bore | F |
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O Tim my own Tim I must call 'ee I will | J |
All the world ha' turned round on me so | N |
Can you help her who loved 'ee though acting so ill | J |
Can you pity her misery feel for her still | J |
When worse than her body so quivering and chill | J |
Is her heart in its winter o' woe | N |
- | |
I think I mid almost ha' borne it she said | H |
Had my griefs one by one come to hand | H |
But O to be slave to thik husbird for bread | H |
And then upon top o' that driven to wed | H |
And then upon top o' that burnt out o' bed | H |
Is more than my nater can stand | H |
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Tim's soul like a lion 'ithin en outsprung | O |
Tim had a great soul when his feelings were wrung | O |
Feel for 'ee dear Barbree he cried | H |
And his warm working jacket about her he flung | O |
Made a back horsed her up till behind him she clung | O |
Like a chiel on a gipsy her figure uphung | O |
By the sleeves that around her he tied | H |
- | |
Over piggeries and mixens and apples and hay | P |
They lumpered straight into the night | H |
And finding bylong where a halter path lay | P |
At dawn reached Tim's house on'y seen on their way | P |
By a naibor or two who were up wi' the day | P |
But they gathered no clue to the sight | H |
- | |
Then tender Tim Tankens he searched here and there | F |
For some garment to clothe her fair skin | I |
But though he had breeches and waistcoats to spare | F |
He had nothing quite seemly for Barbree to wear | F |
Who half shrammed to death stood and cried on a chair | F |
At the caddle she found herself in | I |
- | |
There was one thing to do and that one thing he did | H |
He lent her some clouts of his own | I |
And she took 'em perforce and while in 'em she slid | H |
Tim turned to the winder as modesty bid | H |
Thinking O that the picter my duty keeps hid | H |
To the sight o' my eyes mid be shown | I |
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In the tallet he stowed her there huddied she lay | P |
Shortening sleeves legs and tails to her limbs | N |
But most o' the time in a mortal bad way | P |
Well knowing that there'd be the divel to pay | P |
If 'twere found that instead o' the elements' prey | P |
She was living in lodgings at Tim's | N |
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Where's the tranter said men and boys where can er be | A |
Where's the tranter said Barbree alone | I |
Where on e'th is the tranter said everybod y | - |
They sifted the dust of his perished roof tree | A |
And all they could find was a bone | I |
- | |
Then the uncle cried Lord pray have mercy on me | A |
And in terror began to repent | H |
But before 'twas complete and till sure she was free | A |
Barbree drew up her loft ladder tight turned her key | A |
Tim bringing up breakfast and dinner and tea | A |
Till the news of her hiding got vent | H |
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Then followed the custom kept rout shout and flare | F |
Of a skimmington ride through the naiborhood ere | F |
Folk had proof o' wold Sweatley's decay | P |
Whereupon decent people all stood in a stare | F |
Saying Tim and his lodger should risk it and pair | F |
So he took her to church An' some laughing lads there | F |
Cried to Tim After Sweatley She said I declare | F |
I stand as a maiden to day | P |
Thomas Hardy
(1)
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