The Sack Of Baltimore.[1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEF A GGHHIIFF A JJKKLLFF M NNOOPPFF M QQRROOFF M OOBBOFFF M OORRFFFF| I | A |
| - | |
| The summer sun is falling soft on Carbery's hundred isles | B |
| The summer sun is gleaming still through Gabriel's rough defiles | B |
| Old Inisherkin's crumbled fane looks like a moulting bird | C |
| And in a calm and sleepy swell the ocean tide is heard | C |
| The hookers lie upon the beach the children cease their play | D |
| The gossips leave the little inn the households kneel to pray | D |
| And full of love and peace and rest its daily labour o'er | E |
| Upon that cosy creek there lay the town of Baltimore | F |
| - | |
| - | |
| II | A |
| - | |
| A deeper rest a starry trance has come with midnight there | G |
| No sound except that throbbing wave in earth or sea or air | G |
| The massive capes and ruined towers seem conscious of the calm | H |
| The fibrous sod and stunted trees are breathing heavy balm | H |
| So still the night these two long barques round Dunashad that glide | I |
| Must trust their oars methinks not few against the ebbing tide | I |
| Oh some sweet mission of true love must urge them to the shore | F |
| They bring some lover to his bride who sighs in Baltimore | F |
| - | |
| - | |
| III | A |
| - | |
| All all asleep within each roof along that rocky street | J |
| And these must be the lover's friends with gently gliding feet | J |
| A stifled gasp a dreamy noise the roof is in a flame | K |
| From out their beds and to their doors rush maid and sire and dame | K |
| And meet upon the threshold stone the gleaming sabre's fall | L |
| And o'er each black and bearded face the white or crimson shawl | L |
| The yell of Allah breaks above the prayer and shriek and roar | F |
| Oh blessed God the Algerine is lord of Baltimore | F |
| - | |
| - | |
| IV | M |
| - | |
| Then flung the youth his naked hand against the shearing sword | N |
| Then sprung the mother on the brand with which her son was gored | N |
| Then sunk the grandsire on the floor his grand babes clutching wild | O |
| Then fled the maiden moaning faint and nestled with the child | O |
| But see yon pirate strangled lies and crushed with splashing heel | P |
| While o'er him in an Irish hand there sweeps his Syrian steel | P |
| Though virtue sink and courage fail and misers yield their store | F |
| There's one hearth well aveng d in the sack of Baltimore | F |
| - | |
| - | |
| V | M |
| - | |
| Mid summer morn in woodland nigh the birds began to sing | Q |
| They see not now the milking maids deserted is the spring | Q |
| Mid summer day this gallant rides from distant Bandon's town | R |
| These hookers crossed from stormy Skull that skiff from Affadown | R |
| They only found the smoking walls with neighbours' blood besprent | O |
| And on the strewed and trampled beach awhile they wildly went | O |
| Then dashed to sea and passed Cape Cl ire and saw five leagues before | F |
| The pirate galleys vanishing that ravaged Baltimore | F |
| - | |
| - | |
| VI | M |
| - | |
| Oh some must tug the galley's oar and some must tend the steed | O |
| This boy will bear a Scheik's chibouk and that a Bey's jerreed | O |
| Oh some are for the arsenals by beauteous Dardanelles | B |
| And some are in the caravan to Mecca's sandy dells | B |
| The maid that Bandon gallant sought is chosen for the Dey | O |
| She's safe he's dead she stabbed him in the midst of his Serai | F |
| And when to die a death of fire that noble maid they bore | F |
| She only smiled O'Driscoll's child she thought of Baltimore | F |
| - | |
| - | |
| VII | M |
| - | |
| 'Tis two long years since sunk the town beneath that bloody band | O |
| And all around its trampled hearths a larger concourse stand | O |
| Where high upon a gallows tree a yelling wretch is seen | R |
| 'Tis Hackett of Dungarvan he who steered the Algerine | R |
| He fell amid a sullen shout with scarce a passing prayer | F |
| For he had slain the kith and kin of many a hundred there | F |
| Some muttered of MacMurchadh who brought the Norman o'er | F |
| Some cursed him with Iscariot that day in Baltimore | F |
Thomas Osborne Davis
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Sack Of Baltimore.[1] poem by Thomas Osborne Davis
Best Poems of Thomas Osborne Davis