Christmas Eve - Prose Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABCDEFFA A G A H A I J K L L L A J M L LLNGGN O G L N G MMOPPG J Q C R GGLLG GGSSG OOAAO GGAAG T U VV

Saint Francis and Saint BenedightA
Blesse this house from wicked wightA
From the night mare and the goblinB
That is hight good fellow RobinC
Keep it from all evil spiritsD
Fairies weezels rats and ferretsE
From curfew timeF
To the next primeF
CARTWRIGHTA
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It was a brilliant moonlight night but extremely cold our chaise whirled rapidly over the frozen ground the postboy smacked his whip incessantly and a part of the time his horses were on a gallop He knows where he is going said my companion laughing and is eager to arrive in time for some of the merriment and good cheer of the servants' hall My father you must know is a bigoted devotee of the old school and prides himself upon keeping up something of old English hospitality He is a tolerable specimen of what you will rarely meet with nowadays in its purity the old English country gentleman for our men of fortune spend so much of their time in town and fashion is carried so much into the country that the strong rich peculiarities of ancient rural life are almost polished away My father however from early years took honest Peacham for his textbook instead of Chesterfield he determined in his own mind that there was no condition more truly honorable and enviable than that of a country gentleman on his paternal lands and therefore passes the whole of his time on his estate He is a strenuous advocate for the revival of the old rural games and holiday observances and is deeply read in the writers ancient and modern who have treated on the subject Indeed his favorite range of reading is among the authors who flourished at least two centuries since who he insists wrote and thought more like true Englishmen than any of their successors He even regrets sometimes that he had not been born a few centuries earlier when England was itself and had its peculiar manners and customs As he lives at some distance from the main road in rather a lonely part of the country without any rival gentry near him he has that most enviable of all blessings to an Englishman an opportunity of indulging the bent of his own humor without molestation Being representative of the oldest family in the neighborhood and a great part of the peasantry being his tenants he is much looked up to and in general is known simply by the appellation of 'The Squire' a title which has been accorded to the head of the family since time immemorial I think it best to give you these hints about my worthy old father to prepare you for any eccentricities that might otherwise appear absurdA
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We had passed for some time along the wall of a park and at length the chaise stopped at the gate It was in a heavy magnificent old style of iron bars fancifully wrought at top into flourishes and flowers The huge square columns that supported the gate were surmounted by the family crest Close adjoining was the porter's lodge sheltered under dark fir trees and almost buried in shrubberyG
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The postboy rang a large porter's bell which resounded though the still frosty air and was answered by the distant barking of dogs with which the mansion house seemed garrisoned An old woman immediately appeared at the gate As the moonlight fell strongly upon her I had a full view of a little primitive dame dressed very much in the antique taste with a neat kerchief and stomacher and her silver hair peeping from under a cap of snowy whiteness She came curtseying forth with many expressions of simple joy at seeing her young master Her husband it seemed was up at the house keeping Christmas Eve in the servants' hall they could not do without him as he was the best hand at a song and story in the householdA
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My friend proposed that we should alight and walk through the park to the hall which was at no great distance while the chaise should follow on Our road wound through a noble avenue of trees among the naked branches of which the moon glittered as she rolled through the deep vault of a cloudless sky The lawn beyond was sheeted with a slight covering of snow which here and there sparkled as the moonbeams caught a frosty crystal and at a distance might be seen a thin transparent vapor stealing up from the low grounds and threatening gradually to shroud the landscapeH
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My companion looked around him with transport How often said he have I scampered up this avenue on returning home on school vacations How often have I played under these trees when a boy I feel a degree of filial reverence for them as we look up to those who have cherished us in childhood My father was always scrupulous in exacting our holidays and having us around him on family festivals He used to direct and superintend our games with the strictness that some parents do the studies of their children He was very particular that we should play the old English games according to their original form and consulted old books for precedent and authority for every 'merrie disport ' yet I assure you there never was pedantry so delightful It was the policy of the good old gentleman to make his children feel that home was the happiest place in the world and I value this delicious home feeling as one of the choicest gifts a parent could bestowA
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We were interrupted by the clamor of a troop of dogs of all sorts and sizes mongrel puppy whelp and hound and curs of lower degree that disturbed by the ring of the porter's bell and the rattling of the chaise came bounding open mouthed across the lawnI
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'The little dogs and allJ
Tray Blanch and Sweetheart see they bark at me '-
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cried Bracebridge laughing At the sound of his voice the bark was changed into a yelp of delight and in a moment he was surrounded and almost overpowered by the caresses of the faithful animalsK
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We had now come in full view of the old family mansion partly thrown in deep shadow and partly lit up by the cold moonshine It was an irregular building of some magnitude and seemed to be of the architecture of different periods One wing was evidently very ancient with heavy stone shafted bow windows jutting out and overrun with ivy from among the foliage of which the small diamond shaped panes of glass glittered with the moonbeams The rest of the house was in the French taste of Charles the Second's time having been repaired and altered as my friend told me by one of his ancestors who returned with that monarch at the Restoration The grounds about the house were laid out in the old formal manner of artificial flower beds clipped shrubberies raised terraces and heavy stone balustrades ornamented with urns a leaden statue or two and a jet of water The old gentleman I was told was extremely careful to preserve this obsolete finery in all its original state He admired this fashion in gardening it had an air of magnificence was courtly and noble and befitting good old family style The boasted imitation of Nature in modern gardening had sprung up with modern republican notions but did not suit a monarchical government it smacked of the leveling system I could not help smiling at this introduction of politics into gardening though I expressed some apprehension that I should find the old gentleman rather intolerant in his creed Frank assured me however that it was almost the only instance in which he had ever heard his father meddle with politics and he believed that he had got this notion from a member of Parliament who once passed a few weeks with him The squire was glad of any argument to defend his clipped yew trees and formal terraces which had been occasionally attacked by modern landscape gardenersL
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As we approached the house we heard the sound of music and now and then a burst of laughter from one end of the building This Bracebridge said must proceed from the servants' hall where a great deal of revelry was permitted and even encouraged by the squire throughout the twelve days of Christmas provided everything was done conformably to ancient usage Here were kept up the old games of hoodman blind shoe the wild mare hot cockles steal the white loaf bob apple and snap dragon the Yule clog and Christmas candle were regularly burnt and the mistletoe with its white berries hung up to the imminent peril of all the pretty housemaidsL
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So intent were the servants upon their sports that we had to ring repeatedly before we could make ourselves heard On our arrival being announced the squire came out to receive us accompanied by his two other sons one a young officer in the army home on a leave of absence the other an Oxonian just from the university The squire was a fine healthy looking old gentleman with silver hair curling lightly round an open florid countenance in which the physiognomist with the advantage like myself of a previous hint or two might discover a singular mixture of whim and benevolenceL
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The family meeting was warm and affectionate as the evening was far advanced the squire would not permit us to change our travelling dresses but ushered us at once to the company which was assembled in a large old fashioned hall It was composed of different branches of a numerous family connection where there were the usual proportion of old uncles and aunts comfortable married dames superannuated spinsters blooming country cousins half fledged striplings and bright eyed boarding school hoydens They were variously occupied some at a round game of cards others conversing around the fireplace at one end of the hall was a group of the young folks some nearly grown up others of a more tender and budding age fully engrossed by a merry game and a profusion of wooden horses penny trumpets and tattered dolls about the floor showed traces of a troop of little fairy beings who having frolicked through a happy day had been carried off to slumber through a peaceful nightA
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While the mutual greetings were going on between young Bracebridge and his relatives I had time to scan the apartment I have called it a hall for so it had certainly been in old times and the squire had evidently endeavored to restore it to something of its primitive state Over the heavy projecting fireplace was suspended a picture of a warrior in armor standing by a white horse and on the opposite wall hung a helmet buckler and lance At one end an enormous pair of antlers were inserted in the wall the branches serving as hooks on which to suspend hats whips and spurs and in the corners of the apartment were fowling pieces fishing rods and other sporting implements The furniture was of the cumbrous workmanship of former days though some articles of modern convenience had been added and the oaken floor had been carpeted so that the whole presented an odd mixture of parlor and hallJ
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The grate had been removed from the wide overwhelming fireplace to make way for a fire of wood in the midst of which was an enormous log glowing and blazing and sending forth a vast volume of light and heat this I understood was the Yule clog which the squire was particular in having brought in and illumined on a Christmas Eve according to ancient customM
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Herrick mentions it in one of his songsL
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Come bring with a noiseL
My metric merrie boysL
The Christmas Log to the firingN
While my good dame sheG
Bids ye all be freeG
And drink to your hearts' desiringN
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The Yule clog is still burnt in many farm houses and kitchens in England particularly in the north and there are several superstitions connected with it among the peasantry If a squinting person come to the house while it is burning or a person barefooted it is considered an ill omen The brand remaining from the Yule clog is carefully put away to light the next year's Christmas fireO
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It was really delightful to see the old squire seated in his hereditary elbow chair by the hospitable fireside of his ancestors and looking around him like the sun of a system beaming warmth and gladness to every heart Even the very dog that lay stretched at his feet as he lazily shifted his position and yawned would look fondly up in his master's face wag his tail against the floor and stretch himself again to sleep confident of kindness and protection There is an emanation from the heart in genuine hospitality which cannot be described but is immediately felt and puts the stranger at once at his ease I had not been seated many minutes by the comfortable hearth of the worthy old cavalier before I found myself as much at home as if I had been one of the familyG
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Supper was announced shortly after our arrival It was served up in a spacious oaken chamber the panels of which shone with wax and around which were several family portraits decorated with holly and ivy Besides the accustomed lights two great wax tapers called Christmas candles wreathed with greens were placed on a highly polished beaufet among the family plate The table was abundantly spread with substantial fare but the squire made his supper of frumenty a dish made of wheat cakes boiled in milk with rich spices being a standing dish in old times for Christmas Eve I was happy to find my old friend minced pie in the retinue of the feast and finding him to be perfectly orthodox and that I need not be ashamed of my predilection I greeted him with all the warmth wherewith we usually greet an old and very genteel acquaintanceL
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The mirth of the company was greatly promoted by the humors of an eccentric personage whom Mr Bracebridge always addressed with the quaint appellation of Master Simon He was a tight brisk little man with the air of an arrant old bachelor His nose was shaped like the bill of a parrot his face slightly pitted with the small pox with a dry perpetual bloom on it like a frostbitten leaf in autumn He had an eye of great quickness and vivacity with a drollery and lurking waggery of expression that was irresistible He was evidently the wit of the family dealing very much in sly jokes and innuendoes with the ladies and making infinite merriment by harping upon old themes which unfortunately my ignorance of the family chronicles did not permit me to enjoy It seemed to be his great delight during supper to keep a young girl next to him in a continual agony of stifled laughter in spite of her awe of the reproving looks of her mother who sat opposite Indeed he was the idol of the younger part of the company who laughed at everything he said or did and at every turn of his countenance I could not wonder at it for be must have been a miracle of accomplishments in their eyes He could imitate Punch and Judy make an old woman of his hand with the assistance of a burnt cork and pocket handkerchief and cut an orange into such a ludicrous caricature that the young folks were ready to die with laughingN
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I was let briefly into his history by Frank Bracebridge He was an old bachelor of a small independent income which by careful management was sufficient for all his wants He revolved through the family system like a vagrant comet in its orbit sometimes visiting one branch and sometimes another quite remote as is often the case with gentlemen of extensive connections and small fortunes in England He had a chirping buoyant disposition always enjoying the present moment and his frequent change of scene and company prevented his acquiring those rusty unaccommodating habits with which old bachelors are so uncharitably charged He was a complete family chronicle being versed in the genealogy history and intermarriages of the whole house of Bracebridge which made him a great favorite with the old folks he was a beau of all the elder ladies and superannuated spinsters among whom he was habitually considered rather a young fellow and he was master of the revels among the children so that there was not a more popular being in the sphere in which he moved than Mr Simon Bracebridge Of late years he had resided almost entirely with the squire to whom he had become a factotum and whom he particularly delighted by jumping with his humor in respect to old times and by having a scrap of an old song to suit every occasion We had presently a specimen of his last mentioned talent for no sooner was supper removed and spiced wines and other beverages peculiar to the season introduced than Master Simon was called on for a good old Christmas song He bethought himself for a moment and then with a sparkle of the eye and a voice that was by no means bad excepting that it ran occasionally into a falsetto like the notes of a split reed he quavered forth a quaint old dittyG
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Now Christmas is comeM
Let us beat up the drumM
And call all our neighbors togetherO
And when they appearP
Let us make them such cheerP
As will keep out the wind and the weather cG
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The supper had disposed every one to gayety and an old harper was summoned from the servants' hall where he had been strumming all the evening and to all appearance comforting himself with some of the squire's home brewed He was a kind of hanger on I was told of the establishment and though ostensibly a resident of the village was oftener to be found in the squire's kitchen than his own home the old gentleman being fond of the sound of harp in hallJ
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The dance like most dances after supper was a merry one some of the older folks joined in it and the squire himself figured down several couple with a partner with whom he affirmed he had danced at every Christmas for nearly half a century Master Simon who seemed to be a kind of connecting link between the old times and the new and to be withal a little antiquated in the taste of his accomplishments evidently piqued himself on his dancing and was endeavoring to gain credit by the heel and toe rigadoon and other graces of the ancient school but he had unluckily assorted himself with a little romping girl from boarding school who by her wild vivacity kept him continually on the stretch and defeated all his sober attempts at elegance such are the ill sorted matches to which antique gentlemen are unfortunately proneQ
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The young Oxonian on the contrary had led out one of his maiden aunts on whom the rogue played a thousand little knaveries with impunity he was full of practical jokes and his delight was to tease his aunts and cousins yet like all madcap youngsters he was a universal favorite among the women The most interesting couple in the dance was the young officer and a ward of the squire's a beautiful blushing girl of seventeen From several shy glances which I had noticed in the course of the evening I suspected there was a little kindness growing up between them and indeed the young soldier was just the hero to captivate a romantic girl He was tall slender and handsome and like most young British officers of late years had picked up various small accomplishments on the Continent he could talk French and Italian draw landscapes sing very tolerably dance divinely but above all he had been wounded at Waterloo What girl of seventeen well read in poetry and romance could resist such a mirror of chivalry and perfectionC
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The moment the dance was over he caught up a guitar and lolling against the old marble fireplace in an attitude which I am half inclined to suspect was studied began the little French air of the Troubadour The squire however exclaimed against having anything on Christmas Eve but good old English upon which the young minstrel casting up his eye for a moment as if in an effort of memory struck into another strain and with a charming air of gallantry gave Herrick's Night Piece to JuliaR
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Her eyes the glow worm lend theeG
The shooting stars attend theeG
And the elves alsoL
Whose little eyes glowL
Like the sparks of fire befriend theeG
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No Will o' the Wisp mislight theeG
Nor snake nor slow worm bite theeG
But on thy wayS
Not making a stayS
Since ghost there is none to affright theeG
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Then let not the dark thee cumberO
What though the moon does slumberO
The stars of the nightA
Will lend thee their lightA
Like tapers clear without numberO
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Then Julia let me woo theeG
Thus thus to come unto meG
And when I shall meetA
Thy silvery feetA
My soul I'll pour into theeG
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The song might or might not have been intended in compliment to the fair Julia for so I found his partner was called she however was certainly unconscious of any such application for she never looked at the singer but kept her eyes cast upon the floor Her face was suffused it is true with a beautiful blush and there was a gentle heaving of the bosom but all that was doubtless caused by the exercise of the dance indeed so great was her indifference that she amused herself with plucking to pieces a choice bouquet of hot house flowers and by the time the song was concluded the nosegay lay in ruins on the floorT
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The party now broke up for the night with the kind hearted old custom of shaking hands As I passed through the hall on my way to my chamber the dying embers of the Yule clog still sent forth a dusky glow and had it not been the season when no spirit dares stir abroad I should have been half tempted to steal from my room at midnight and peep whether the fairies might not be at their revels about the hearthU
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My chamber was in the old part of the mansion the ponderous furniture of which might have been fabricated in the days of the giants The room was panelled with cornices of heavy carved work in which flowers and grotesque faces were strangely intermingled and a row of black looking portraits stared mournfully at me from the walls The bed was of rich thought faded damask with a lofty tester and stood in a niche opposite a bow window I had scarcely got into bed when a strain of music seemed to break forth in the air just below the window I listened and found it proceeded from a band which I concluded to be the Waits from some neighboring village They went round the house playing under the windows I drew aside the curtains to hear them more distinctly The moonbeams fell through the upper part of the casement partially lighting up the antiquated apartment The sounds as they receded became more soft and aerial and seemed to accord with the quiet and moonlight I listened and listened they became more and more tender and remote and as they gradually died away my head sunk upon the pillow and I fell asleepV
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Washington Irving



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