The Dancing Seal Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDBDCEEFGGFFGHHIJ KKLL MMGAGANNOOP PDDGGGLLOOL PGQQQPGRSSTRGGUT UVWXWXVC UOCYDYUUOOYDWhen we were building Skua Light | A |
The first men who had lived a night | A |
Upon that deep sea Isle | B |
As soon as chisel touched the stone | C |
The friendly seals would come ashore | D |
And sit and watch us all the while | B |
As though they'd not seen men before | D |
And so poor beasts had never known | C |
Men had the heart to do them harm | E |
They'd little cause to feel alarm | E |
With us for we were glad to find | F |
Some friendliness in that strange sea | G |
Only too pleaed to let them be | G |
And sit as long as they'd a mind | F |
To watch us for their eyes were kind | F |
Like women's eyes it seemed to me | G |
So hour on hour they sat I think | H |
They liked to hear the chisels clink | H |
And when the boy sang loud and clear | I |
They scrambled closer in to hear | J |
And if he whistled sweet and shrill | K |
The queer beasts shuffled nearer still | K |
But every sleek and sheeny skin | L |
Was mad to hear his violin | L |
- | |
When work all over for the day | M |
He'd take his fiddle down and play | M |
His merry tunes beside the sea | G |
Their eyes grew brighter and more bright | A |
And burned and twinkled merrily | G |
And as I watched them one still night | A |
And saw their eager sparkling eyes | N |
I felt those lively seals would rise | N |
Some shiny night ere he could know | O |
And dance about him heel and toe | O |
Unto the fiddle's headdy tune | P |
- | |
And at the rising of the moon | P |
Half daft I took my stand before | D |
A young seal lying on the shore | D |
And called on her to dance with me | G |
And it seemed hardly strange when she | G |
Stood up before me suddenly | G |
And shed her black and sheeny skin | L |
And smiled all eager to begin | L |
And I was dancing heel and toe | O |
With a young maiden white as snow | O |
Unto a crazy violin | L |
- | |
We danced beneath the dancing moon | P |
All night beside the dancing sea | G |
With tripping toes and skipping heels | Q |
And all about us friendly seals | Q |
Like Christian folk were dancing reels | Q |
Unto the fiddle's endless tune | P |
That kept on spinning merrily | G |
As though it never meant to stop | R |
And never once the snow white maid | S |
A moment stayed | S |
To take a breath | T |
Though I was fit to drop | R |
And while those wild eyes challenged me | G |
I knew as well as well could be | G |
I must keep step with that young girl | U |
Though we should dance to death | T |
- | |
Then with a skirl | U |
The fiddle broke | V |
The moon went out | W |
The sea stopped dead | X |
And in a twinkling all the rout | W |
Of dancing folk had fled | X |
And in the chill bleak dawn I woke | V |
Upon the naked rock alone | C |
- | |
They've brought me far from Skua Isle | U |
I laugh to think they do not know | O |
That as all day I chip the stone | C |
Among my fellows here inland | Y |
I smell the sea wrack on the shore | D |
And see her snowy tossing hand | Y |
And meet again her merry smile | U |
And dream I'm dancing all the while | U |
I'm dancing ever heel and toe | O |
With a seal maiden white as snow | O |
On that moonshiny Island strand | Y |
For ever and for evermore | D |
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
(1)
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