Edwin Booth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD EFGFHHF IJKLMML NOPOQQO RNNNSSN TUVUNNU NWXWYYW WWWWNNW| An old actor at the Player's Club told me that Edwin Booth | A |
| first impersonated Hamlet when a barnstormer in California | B |
| There were few theatres but the hotels were provided | C |
| with crude assembly rooms for strolling players | D |
| - | |
| - | |
| The youth played in the blear hotel | E |
| The rafters gleamed with glories strange | F |
| And winds of mourning Elsinore | G |
| Howling at chance and fate and change | F |
| Voices of old Europe's dead | H |
| Disturbed the new built cattle shed | H |
| The street the high and solemn range | F |
| - | |
| The while the coyote barked afar | I |
| All shadowy was the battlement | J |
| The ranch boys huddled and grew pale | K |
| Youths who had come on riot bent | L |
| Forgot were pranks well planned to sting | M |
| Behold there rose a ghostly king | M |
| And veils of smoking Hell were rent | L |
| - | |
| When Edwin Booth played Hamlet then | N |
| The camp drab's tears could not but flow | O |
| Then Romance lived and breathed and burned | P |
| She felt the frail queen mother's woe | O |
| Thrilled for Ophelia fond and blind | Q |
| And Hamlet cruel yet so kind | Q |
| And moaned his proud words hurt her so | O |
| - | |
| A haunted place though new and harsh | R |
| The Indian and the Chinaman | N |
| And Mexican were fain to learn | N |
| What had subdued the Saxon clan | N |
| Why did they mumble brood and stare | S |
| When the court players curtsied fair | S |
| And the Gonzago scene began | N |
| - | |
| And ah the duel scene at last | T |
| They cheered their prince with stamping feet | U |
| A death fight in a palace Yea | V |
| With velvet hangings incomplete | U |
| A pasteboard throne a pasteboard crown | N |
| And yet a monarch tumbled down | N |
| A brave lad fought in splendor meet | U |
| - | |
| Was it a palace or a barn | N |
| Immortal as the gods he flamed | W |
| There in his last great hour of rage | X |
| His foil avenged a mother shamed | W |
| In duty stern in purpose deep | Y |
| He drove that king to his black sleep | Y |
| And died all godlike and untamed | W |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| I was not born in that far day | W |
| I hear the tale from heads grown white | W |
| And then I walk that earlier street | W |
| The mining camp at candle light | W |
| I meet him wrapped in musings fine | N |
| Upon some whispering silvery line | N |
| He yet resolves to speak aright | W |
Vachel Lindsay
(1)
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