The Toad Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFFGHIFFF FFJKFLMNOPQRFF SITKUDVWFXLNFYUZA2B2 C2D2FOPE2F2A2G2D2TCK JB2EH2I2SMJ2K2L2E PIFE2M2IFIFFN2IIFO2I E2I H2P2XIQ2XO2II FFP2R2IIS2IIT2E2O2FU 2IN2IF III KIFCIEV2W2FX2FISE2O2 Y2ZEI T2FE2 ZIN2FZ2OA3B3FV2OFC3F EID3 IFE3ZXIWZEF3IIO who shall tell us of the truth of things | A |
The day was ending blood red in the West | B |
After a storm The sun had smelted down | C |
As in a furnace all the clouds to gold | D |
Upon a cart track by a pool of rain | E |
Dumbly with calm eyes fixed upon the heavens | F |
A toad sat thinking It was wretchedness | F |
That gazed on majesty Ah who shall tell | G |
The very truth of things the hidden law | H |
Of pain and ugliness Byzantium bred | I |
Growths of Augustuli Great Rome her crimes | F |
As Earth breeds flowers the firmament its suns | F |
And the toad too his crop of ulcerous sores | F |
- | |
The leaves turned purple on the vermeil trees | F |
The rain lay like a mirror in the ruts | F |
The dying sun shook his last banners out | J |
Birds sang in whispers and the world grew dumb | K |
With the hush of evening and forgetfulness | F |
Then too the toad forgot himself and all | L |
His daylight shame as he looked out bright eyed | M |
Into the sweet face of the coming night | N |
For who shall tell He too the accursed one | O |
Dreamt of a blessing There is not a creature | P |
On whom the infinite heaven hath not smiled | Q |
Wildly and tenderly no thing impure | R |
Monstrous deformed and hideous but he holds | F |
The immensity of the starlight in his eyes | F |
- | |
A priest came by and saw the unholy thing | S |
And with his foot even as his prayers he read | I |
Trod it aside and shuddered and went on | T |
A woman with a wild flower in her bosom | K |
Came next and at the eye's light mirrored there | U |
Aimed her umbrella point Now he was old | D |
And she was beautiful Then home from school | V |
Ran four boys with young faces like the dawn | W |
I was a child was weak was pitiless'' | F |
Thus must each man relate who would begin | X |
The true tale of his life A child hath all | L |
Joy laughter mirth He is drunk with life's delight | N |
Hope's day star breaketh in his innocent eyes | F |
He hath a mother He is just a boy | Y |
A little man who breathes the untrammelled air | U |
Clean winded and clean limbed and he is free | Z |
And the world loves him Why should he not then | A2 |
For lack of sorrow strike the sorrowful | B2 |
- | |
The toad dragged down the deep track of the road | C2 |
It was the hour when from the hollows round | D2 |
Blue mists steal creeping low upon the fields | F |
His wild heart sought the night Just then the children | O |
Came on the fugitive and all together | P |
Cried Let us kill him We will punish him | E2 |
For being so ugly '' And at the word they laughed | F2 |
For children laugh when they do murder Then | A2 |
They thrust at him with sticks and where the eye | G2 |
Bulged from its socket made a ghastlier wound | D2 |
Opening his sores The passers by looked on | T |
And they too laughed And then the night fell down | C |
Black on the blackness of his martyrdom | K |
Who was so dumb And when the blood flowed out | J |
It was horrible blood And he was horrible | B2 |
That was his crime And still along the lane | E |
The creature sprawled One foot had been shorn away | H2 |
By a child's spade and at each new blow aimed | I2 |
Its jaws foamed blood poor damn d suffering thing | S |
Which even when the sun had soothed its hide | M |
Had skulked in holes And the children mocked the more | J2 |
Wretch Would you spit at us '' O strange child's heart | K2 |
What rage is thine to pluck thus at the robe | L2 |
Of misery and taunt it with its pain | E |
- | |
And so from clod to clod from briar to briar | P |
But breathing still in his dull fear he fled | I |
Seeking a shelter from their tyrannous eyes | F |
So mean a thing it seemed Death shrank from him | E2 |
Refusing aid of his all pitying scythe | M2 |
And the children followed on with rushes noosed | I |
To take him but he slipped between their hands | F |
And fell so chanced it where the rut gaped deepest | I |
Into a mire of mud cool hiding place | F |
It was and refuge for his mangled limbs | F |
And there he quaking lay The anointing slime | N2 |
Soothed his hurt body like a sacrament | I |
An extreme unction for his utter need | I |
Nor yet was safety won The children's eyes | F |
Abominable eyes were on him still | O2 |
With their hard mirth Is there no stone '' they cried | I |
To end him with Here Jeremiah Jim | E2 |
Lend us a hand '' And willing hands were lent | I |
- | |
Once more O child of Man I ask it Say | H2 |
What is the goal of thy desire What aim | P2 |
Is thine What target wouldst thou hit What win | X |
Say Is it death or life The stone was brought | I |
A ponderous mass broad as a paving flag | Q2 |
But light in his young hands that bore it in | X |
Pride giving strength to lift and the lust to kill | O2 |
You shall see what this will do '' the young giant cried | I |
And all stood near expectant of the end | I |
- | |
And then a new thing happened a new chance | F |
A coster's dray drawn by an ancient ass | F |
Passed down the lane With creaking wheels it came | P2 |
And slow harsh jolts in the ruts The ass was lean | R2 |
And stiff with age spavined with foundered feet | I |
And dead to blows which rained on his dull hide | I |
Each step he stumbled He was near his home | S2 |
After a long day's labour in the field | I |
And began to scent his stable while the cart | I |
Lagged in the ruts or with shafts forward thrown | T2 |
Pressed his galled sides and thrust its load on him | E2 |
At the downward slope where the lane left the hill | O2 |
More than his strength A mist was in his eyes | F |
And that dull stupor which foreshadows death | U2 |
Thus the cart moved its driver cursing loud | I |
Its driven dumb while the whip cracked in time | N2 |
The ass was in his dreams beyond our thought | I |
Plunged in those depths of soul where no man strays | F |
- | |
And the children heard the cart upon the road | I |
It gave them a new thought And Stop '' they cried | I |
Let the stone be We shall have better sport | I |
Here with the wheels This ass will do the thing '' | - |
And they stood aside and watched what next should come | K |
And the cart drew near its wheels sunk in the rut | I |
Where the toad lay the ass with his dull eyes | F |
Fixed on the path before him his head down | C |
Nosing the ground in apathy of thought | I |
And the ass stopped He the sad slave of pain | E |
Had seen the vision of a sadder slave | V2 |
Needing his pity and being as it were the judge | W2 |
To save or slay he had been moved to grace | F |
He had seen and understood And gathering up | X2 |
In a single act supreme of his poor weakness | F |
All that remained to him of combative pride | I |
He made the grand refusal mastering | S |
By his last strength the load which pressed on him | E2 |
With terrible connivance of the hill | O2 |
And wrenched the cart wheel from its track of doom | Y2 |
Spite of his tyrant's voice of blasphemy | Z |
And its mad curses and his own huge pain | E |
And so the victory won passed on his road | I |
- | |
Then also was it that that child with the stone | T2 |
He who now tells this story from his hands | F |
Let the flag drop A voice had cried to him | E2 |
Too loud for denial Fool Be merciful '' | - |
- | |
O wisdom of the witless Law of pity | Z |
Loud on the lips of pain Nature's pure light | I |
Lightening the darkness of Man's gulfs of crime | N2 |
Lessons of courage taught by coward hearts | F |
Of joy by the joyless Eyes that cannot weep | Z2 |
Pleading with grief and pointing consolation | O |
The eloquent call of one poor damn d soul | A3 |
Preaching to souls elect the beast to man | B3 |
Know this hours are there twilight hours of grace | F |
When be he what he may beast bird or slave | V2 |
Each living thing gets glimpses of God's heaven | O |
And knows himself own brother to the stars | F |
Being one with these in ancestry of love | C3 |
Kindred in kindness Learn that this poor ass | F |
Facing his pain rather than add to pain | E |
Was master of his soul in verier deed | I |
Than Socrates was saint than Plato sage | D3 |
- | |
Who is the teacher here O man of mind | I |
Wouldst thou touch truth The true truth in thee lies | F |
Thy lack of light Nay kneel weep pray believe | E3 |
Grovel on the Earth She shall thy teacher be | Z |
A corner of their Heaven thou too shalt win | X |
When thou art dust with these Then shalt thou too | I |
Get glimpses of their world's ingenuous dawn | W |
And purchase back thy soul's lost purity | Z |
The love that casts out fear and conquers pain | E |
The link which binds its weak ones with its strong | F3 |
And equals all in one divine accord | I |
The unknowing ass with the all knowing God | I |
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
(1)
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