The Ride To Melrose, From The Lay Of The Last Minstrel. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDEFEGHGHIHIJ A KHKHLL A FFAAAALLIIMMNOLL A PPIIQQFRFSIIII A TTUUL K IVAWLFL K IILLIIIIIIIILL K X IIIYIYYY K IIIIIIIIKKLLVWKK K LLIRZIII A YDLLYYAAAAAA A LILIAAAALLVV A IILLAKA2A2YYLLYYY B2 B2 IIIIIIC2C2YYYIKKYYD2 D2 B2 D2D2E2E2I IIIAIA B2 IIIIIIIIYY K YRY AIAI Y YIYIILILLLVVVY K LLYYVL K IYIYKKVVII K IIVVLF2IF2VIVIII Y VVKVVVG2G2II Y LLVLLLVII Y LLIIIILLIIIIIILL Y LVLVIIVV Y IIH2KKH2YYYLLLL K IIIIYYIIKK K UUIIVVIIIIKK K IIIILLIIII K IIIIV LLUUII K IILLI2I2YYKKIISVVS Y VVIIIIYIIYUUYY Y YYYJ2IIYIIYYY Y IIIIY UUIIII Y SSIIYYIIVVYYVVYY Y IIYYVIVIII I IIVKIIIIVVIICANTO I XIX | A |
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The Lady sought the lofty hall | B |
Where many a bold retainer lay | C |
And with jocund din among them all | B |
Her son pursued his infant play | C |
A fancied moss trooper the boy | D |
The truncheon of a spear bestrode | E |
And round the hall right merrily | F |
In mimic foray rode | E |
Even bearded knights in arms grown old | G |
Share in his frolic gambols bore | H |
Albeit their hearts of rugged mould | G |
Were stubborn as the steel they wore | H |
For the gray warriors prophesied | I |
How the brave boy in future war | H |
Should tame the Unicorn's pride | I |
Exalt the Crescent and the Star | J |
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XX | A |
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The Ladye forgot her purpose high | K |
One moment and no more | H |
One moment gazed with a mother's eye | K |
As she paused at the arched door | H |
Then from amid the armed train | L |
She called to her William of Deloraine | L |
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XXI | A |
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A stark moss trooping Scott was he | F |
As e'er couch'd Border lance by knee | F |
Through Solway sands through Tarras moss | A |
Blindfold he knew the paths to cross | A |
By wily turns by desperate bounds | A |
Had baffled Percy's best blood hounds | A |
In Eske or Liddel fords were none | L |
But he would ride them one by one | L |
Alike to him was time or tide | I |
December's snow or July's pride | I |
Alike to him was tide or time | M |
Moonless midnight or matin prime | M |
Steady of heart and stout of hand | N |
As ever drove prey from Cumberland | O |
Five times outlawed had he been | L |
By England's King and Scotland's Queen | L |
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XXII | A |
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'Sir William of Deloraine good at need | P |
Mount thee on the wightest steed | P |
Spare not to spur nor stint to ride | I |
Until thou come to fair Tweedside | I |
And in Melrose's holy pile | Q |
Seek thou the Monk of St Mary's aisle | Q |
Greet the father well from me | F |
Say that the fated hour is come | R |
And to night he shall watch with thee | F |
To win the treasure of the tomb | S |
For this will be St Michael's night | I |
And though stars be dim the moon is bright | I |
And the Cross of bloody red | I |
Will point to the grave of the mighty dead | I |
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XXIII | A |
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'What he gives thee see thou keep | T |
Stay not thou for food or sleep | T |
Be it scroll or be it book | U |
Into it knight thou must not look | U |
If thou readest thou art lorn | L |
Better hadst thou ne'er been born ' | - |
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XXIV | K |
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'O swiftly can speed my dapple gray steed | I |
Which drinks of the Teviot clear | V |
Ere break of day ' the warrior 'gan say | A |
'Again will I be here | W |
And safer by none may thy errand be done | L |
Than noble dame by me | F |
Letter nor line know I never a one | L |
Were't my neck verse at Hairibee ' | - |
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XXV | K |
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Soon in his saddle sate he fast | I |
And soon the steep descent he past | I |
Soon cross'd the sounding barbican | L |
And soon the Teviot side he won | L |
Eastward the wooded path he rode | I |
Green hazels o'er his basnet nod | I |
He pass'd the Peel of Goldiland | I |
And cross'd old Borthwick's roaring strand | I |
Dimly he view'd the Moat hill's mound | I |
Where Druid shades still flitted round | I |
In Hawick twinkled many a light | I |
Behind him soon they set in night | I |
And soon he spurr'd his courser keen | L |
Beneath the tower of Hazeldean | L |
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XXVI | K |
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The clattering hoofs the watchmen mark | X |
'Stand ho thou courier of the dark ' | - |
'For Branksome ho ' the knight rejoin'd | I |
And left the friendly tower behind | I |
He turned him now from Teviotside | I |
And guided by the tinkling rill | Y |
Northward the dark ascent did ride | I |
And gained the moor at Horsliehill | Y |
Broad on the left before him lay | Y |
For many a mile the Roman way | Y |
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XXVII | K |
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A moment now he slack'd his speed | I |
A moment breathed his panting steed | I |
Drew saddle girth and corslet band | I |
And loosen'd in the sheath his brand | I |
On Minto crags the moonbeams glint | I |
Where Barnhill hew'd his bed of flint | I |
Who flung his outlaw'd limbs to rest | I |
Where falcons hang their giddy nest | I |
Mid cliffs from whence his eagle eye | K |
For many a league his prey could spy | K |
Cliffs doubling on their echoes borne | L |
The terrors of the robber's horn | L |
Cliffs which for many a later year | V |
The warbling Doric reed shall hear | W |
When some sad swain shall teach the grove | K |
Ambition is no cure for love | K |
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XXVIII | K |
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Unchallenged thence pass'd Deloraine | L |
To ancient Riddel's fair domain | L |
Where Aill from mountains freed | I |
Down from the lakes did raving come | R |
Each wave was crested with tawny foam | Z |
Like the mane of a chestnut steed | I |
In vain no torrent deep or broad | I |
Might bar the bold moss trooper's road | I |
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XXIX | A |
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At the first plunge the horse sunk low | Y |
And the water broke o'er the saddlebow | D |
Above the foaming tide I ween | L |
Scarce half the charger's neck was seen | L |
For he was barded from counter to tail | Y |
And the rider was armed complete in mail | Y |
Never heavier man and horse | A |
Stemm'd a midnight torrent's force | A |
The warrior's very plume I say | A |
Was daggled by the dashing spray | A |
Yet through good heart and Our Ladye's grace | A |
At length he gain'd the landing place | A |
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XXX | A |
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Now Bowden Moor the march man won | L |
And sternly shook his plumed head | I |
As glanced his eye o'er Halidon | L |
For on his soul the slaughter red | I |
Of that unhallow'd morn arose | A |
When first the Scott and Carr were foes | A |
When royal James beheld the fray | A |
Prize to the victor of the day | A |
When Home and Douglas in the van | L |
Bore down Buccleuch's retiring clan | L |
Till gallant Cessford's heart blood dear | V |
Reek'd on dark Elliot's Border spear | V |
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XXXI | A |
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In bitter mood he spurred fast | I |
And soon the hated heath was past | I |
And far beneath in lustre wan | L |
Old Melros' rose and fair Tweed ran | L |
Like some tall rock with lichens gray | A |
Seem'd dimly huge the dark Abbaye | K |
When Hawick he pass'd had curfew rung | A2 |
Now midnight lauds were in Melrose sung | A2 |
The sound upon the fitful gale | Y |
In solemn wise did rise and fail | Y |
Like that wild harp whose magic tone | L |
Is waken'd by the winds alone | L |
But when Melrose he reach'd 'twas silence all | Y |
He meetly stabled his steed in stall | Y |
And sought the convent's lonely wall | Y |
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CANTO II | B2 |
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I | B2 |
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If thou would'st view fair Melrose aright | I |
Go visit it by the pale moonlight | I |
For the gay beams of lightsome day | I |
Gild but to flout the ruins gray | I |
When the broken arches are black in night | I |
And each shafted oriel glimmers white | I |
When the cold light's uncertain shower | C2 |
Streams on the ruin'd central tower | C2 |
When buttress and buttress alternately | Y |
Seem framed of ebon and ivory | Y |
When silver edges the imagery | Y |
And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die | I |
When distant Tweed is heard to rave | K |
And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave | K |
Then go but go alone the while | Y |
Then view St David's ruin'd pile | Y |
And home returning soothly swear | D2 |
Was never scene so sad and fair | D2 |
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II | B2 |
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Short halt did Deloraine make there | D2 |
Little reck'd he of the scene so fair | D2 |
With dagger's hilt on the wicket strong | E2 |
He struck full loud and struck full long | E2 |
The porter hurried to the gate | I |
'Who knocks so loud and knocks so late ' | - |
'From Branksome I ' the warrior cried | I |
And straight the wicket open'd wide | I |
For Branksome's chiefs had in battle stood | I |
To fence the rights of fair Melrose | A |
And lands and livings many a rood | I |
Had gifted the shrine for their souls' repose | A |
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III | B2 |
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Bold Deloraine his errand said | I |
The porter bent his humble head | I |
With torch in hand and feet unshod | I |
And noiseless step the path he trod | I |
The arched cloister far and wide | I |
Rang to the warrior's clanking stride | I |
Till stooping low his lofty crest | I |
He enter'd the cell of the ancient priest | I |
And lifted his barred aventayle | Y |
To hail the Monk of St Mary's aisle | Y |
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IV | K |
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'The Ladye of Branksome greets thee by me | Y |
Says that the fated hour is come | R |
And that to night I shall watch with thee | Y |
To win the treasure of the tomb ' | - |
From sackcloth couch the monk arose | A |
With toil his stiffen'd limbs he rear'd | I |
A hundred years had flung their snows | A |
On his thin locks and floating beard | I |
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V | Y |
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And strangely on the knight look'd he | Y |
And his blue eyes gleam'd wild and wide | I |
'And darest thou warrior seek to see | Y |
What heaven and hell alike would hide | I |
My breast in belt of iron pent | I |
With shirt of hair and scourge of thorn | L |
For threescore years in penance spent | I |
My knees those flinty stones have worn | L |
Yet all too little to atone | L |
For knowing what should ne'er be known | L |
Would'st thou thy every future year | V |
In ceaseless prayer and penance drie | V |
Yet wait thy latter end with fear | V |
Then daring warrior follow me | Y |
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VI | K |
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'Penance father will I none | L |
Prayer know I hardly one | L |
For mass or prayer can I rarely tarry | Y |
Save to patter an Ave Mary | Y |
When I ride on a Border foray | V |
Other prayer can I none | L |
So speed me my errand and let me be gone ' | - |
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VII | K |
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Again on the knight look'd the churchman old | I |
And again he sighed heavily | Y |
For he had himself been a warrior bold | I |
And fought in Spain and Italy | Y |
And he thought on the days that were long since by | K |
When his limbs were strong and his courage was high | K |
Now slow and faint he led the way | V |
Where cloister'd round the garden lay | V |
The pillar'd arches were over their head | I |
And beneath their feet were the bones of the dead | I |
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VIII | K |
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Spreading herbs and flowerets bright | I |
Glisten'd with the dew of night | I |
Nor herb nor floweret glisten'd there | V |
But was carved in the cloister arches as fair | V |
The monk gazed long on the lovely moon | L |
Then into the night he looked forth | F2 |
And red and bright the streamers light | I |
Were dancing in the glowing north | F2 |
So had he seen in fair Castile | V |
The youth in glittering squadrons start | I |
Sudden the flying jennet wheel | V |
And hurl the unexpected dart | I |
He knew by the streamers that shot so bright | I |
That spirits were riding the northern light | I |
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IX | Y |
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By a steel clenched postern door | V |
They enter'd now the chancel tall | V |
The darken'd roof rose high aloof | K |
On pillars lofty and light and small | V |
The key stone that lock'd each ribbed aisle | V |
Was a fleur de lys or a quatre feuille | V |
The corbells were carved grotesque and grim | G2 |
And the pillars with cluster'd shafts so trim | G2 |
With base and with capital flourish'd around | I |
Seem'd bundles of lances which garlands had bound | I |
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X | Y |
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Full many a scutcheon and banner riven | L |
Shook to the cold night wind of heaven | L |
Around the screened altar's pale | V |
And there the dying lamps did burn | L |
Before thy low and lonely urn | L |
O gallant chief of Otterburne | L |
And thine dark knight of Liddesdale | V |
O fading honours of the dead | I |
O high ambition lowly laid | I |
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XI | Y |
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The moon on the east oriel shone | L |
Through slender shafts of shapely stone | L |
By foliaged tracery combined | I |
Thou would'st have thought some fairy's hand | I |
'Twixt poplars straight the osier wand | I |
In many a freakish knot had twined | I |
Then framed a spell when the work was done | L |
And changed the willow wreaths to stone | L |
The silver light so pale and faint | I |
Show'd many a prophet and many a saint | I |
Whose image on the glass was dyed | I |
Full in the midst his Cross of Red | I |
Triumphant Michael brandished | I |
And trampled the Apostate's pride | I |
The moon beam kiss'd the holy pane | L |
And threw on the pavement a bloody stain | L |
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XII | Y |
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They sate them down on a marble stone | L |
A Scottish monarch slept below | V |
Thus spoke the monk in solemn tone | L |
'I was not always a man of woe | V |
For Paynim countries I have trod | I |
And fought beneath the Cross of God | I |
Now strange to my eyes thine arms appear | V |
And their iron clang sounds strange to my ear | V |
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XIII | Y |
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'In these far climes it was my lot | I |
To meet the wondrous Michael Scott | I |
A wizard of such dreaded fame | H2 |
That when in Salamanca's cave | K |
Him listed his magic wand to wave | K |
The bells would ring in Notre Dame | H2 |
Some of his skill he taught to me | Y |
And warrior I could say to thee | Y |
The words that cleft Eildon hills in three | Y |
And bridled the Tweed with a eurb of stone | L |
But to speak them were a deadly sin | L |
And for having but thought them my heart within | L |
A treble penance must be done | L |
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XIV | K |
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'When Michael lay on his dying bed | I |
His conscience was awakened | I |
He bethought him of his sinful deed | I |
And he gave me a sign to come with speed | I |
I was in Spain when the morning rose | Y |
But I stood by his bed ere evening close | Y |
The words may not again be said | I |
That he spoke to me on death bed laid | I |
They would rend this Abbaye's messy nave | K |
And pile it in heaps above his grave | K |
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XV | K |
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'I swore to bury his Mighty Book | U |
That never mortal might therein look | U |
And never to tell where it was hid | I |
Save at his Chief of Branksome's need | I |
And when that need was past and o'er | V |
Again the volume to restore | V |
I buried him on St Michael's night | I |
When the bell toll'd one and the moon was bright | I |
And I dug his chamber among the dead | I |
When the floor of the chancel was stained red | I |
That his patron's cross might over him wave | K |
And scare the fiends from the wizard's grave | K |
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XVI | K |
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'It was a night of woe and dread | I |
When Michael in the tomb I laid | I |
Strange sounds along the chancel pass'd | I |
The banners waved without a blast' | I |
Still spoke the monk when the bell toll'd one | L |
I tell you that a braver man | L |
Than William of Deloraine good at need | I |
Against a foe ne'er spurr'd a steed | I |
Yet somewhat was he chill'd with dread | I |
And his hair did bristle upon his head | I |
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XVII | K |
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'Lo warrior now the Cross of Red | I |
Points to the grave of the mighty dead | I |
Within it burns a wondrous light | I |
To chase the spirits that love the night | I |
That lamp shall burn unquenchably | V |
Until the eternal doom shall be ' | - |
Slow moved the monk to the broad flag stone | L |
Which the bloody Cross was traced upon | L |
He pointed to a secret nook | U |
An iron bar the warrior took | U |
And the monk made a sign with his wither'd hand | I |
The grave's huge portal to expand | I |
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XVIII | K |
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With beating heart to the task he went | I |
His sinewy frame o'er the grave stone bent | I |
With bar of iron heaved amain | L |
Till the toil drops fell from his brows like rain | L |
It was by dint of passing strength | I2 |
That he moved the messy stone at length | I2 |
I would you had been there to see | Y |
How the light broke forth so gloriously | Y |
Stream'd upward to the chancel roof | K |
And through the galleries far aloof | K |
No earthly flame blazed e'er so bright | I |
It shone like heaven's own blessed light | I |
And issuing from the tomb | S |
Show'd the monk's cowl and visage pale | V |
Danced on the dark brow'd warrior's mail | V |
And kiss'd his waving plume | S |
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XIX | Y |
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Before their eyes the wizard lay | V |
As if he had not been dead a day | V |
His hoary beard in silver roll'd | I |
He seem'd some seventy winters old | I |
A palmer's amice wrapp'd him round | I |
With a wrought Spanish baldric bound | I |
Like a pilgrim from beyond the sea | Y |
His left hand held his Book of Might | I |
A silver cross was in his right | I |
The lamp was placed beside his knee | Y |
High and majestic was his look | U |
At which the fellest fiend had shook | U |
And all unruffled was his face | Y |
They trusted his soul had gotten grace | Y |
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XX | Y |
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Often had William of Deloraine | Y |
Rode through the battle's bloody plain | Y |
And trampled down the warriors slain | Y |
And neither known remorse nor awe | J2 |
Yet now remorse and awe he own'd | I |
His breath came thick his head swam round | I |
When this strange scene of death he saw | Y |
Bewilder'd and unnerv'd he stood | I |
And the priest pray'd fervently and loud | I |
With eyes averted prayed he | Y |
He might not endure the sight to see | Y |
Of the man he had loved so brotherly | Y |
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XXI | Y |
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And when the priest his death prayer had pray'd | I |
Thus unto Deloraine he said | I |
'Now speed thee what thou hast to do | I |
Or warrior we may dearly rue | I |
For those thou may'st not look upon | Y |
Are gathering fast round the yawning stone ' | - |
Then Deloraine in terror took | U |
From the cold hand the Mighty Book | U |
With iron clasp'd and with iron bound | I |
He thought as he took it the dead man frown'd | I |
But the glare of the sepulchral light | I |
Perchance had dazzled the warrior's sight | I |
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XXII | Y |
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When the huge stone sunk o'er the tomb | S |
The night return'd in double gloom | S |
For the moon had gone down and the stars were few | I |
And as the knight and priest withdrew | I |
With wavering steps and dizzy brain | Y |
They hardly might the postern gain | Y |
'Tis said as through the aisles they pass'd | I |
They heard strange noises on the blast | I |
And through the cloister galleries small | V |
Which at mid height thread the chancel wall | V |
Loud sobs and laughter louder ran | Y |
And voices unlike the voice of man | Y |
As if the fiends kept holiday | V |
Because these spells were brought to day | V |
I cannot tell how the truth may be | Y |
I say the tale as 'twas said to me | Y |
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XXIII | Y |
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Now hie thee hence ' the father said | I |
And when we are on death bed laid | I |
O may our dear Ladye and sweet St John | Y |
Forgive our souls for the deed we have done | Y |
The monk returned him to his cell | V |
And many a prayer and penance sped | I |
When the convent met at the noontide bell | V |
The Monk of St Mary's aisle was dead | I |
Before the cross was the body laid | I |
With hands clasp'd fast as if still he pray'd | I |
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XXIV | I |
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The knight breathed free in the morning wind | I |
And strove his hardihood to find | I |
He was glad when he pass'd the tombstones gray | V |
Which girdle round the fair Abbaye | K |
For the mystic book to his bosom prest | I |
Felt like a load upon his breast | I |
And his joints with nerves of iron twined | I |
Shook like the aspen leaves in wind | I |
Full fain was he when the dawn of day | V |
Began to brighten Cheviot gray | V |
He joy'd to see the cheerful light | I |
And he said Ave Mary as well as he might | I |
Walter Scott (sir)
(1)
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