The Strange Lady Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EFGG HHII JJKK LLAA MMNN EFOO PPQQ BBGR EESS| The summer morn is bright and fresh the birds are darting by | A |
| As if they loved to breast the breeze that sweeps the cool clear sky | A |
| Young Albert in the forest's edge has heard a rustling sound | B |
| An arrow slightly strikes his hand and falls upon the ground | B |
| - | |
| A dark haired woman from the wood comes suddenly in sight | C |
| Her merry eye is full and black her cheek is brown and bright | C |
| Her gown is of the mid sea blue her belt with beads is strung | D |
| And yet she speaks in gentle tones and in the English tongue | D |
| - | |
| It was an idle bolt I sent against the villain crow | E |
| Fair sir I fear it harmed thy hand beshrew my erring bow | F |
| Ah would that bolt had not been spent then lady might I wear | G |
| A lasting token on my hand of one so passing fair | G |
| - | |
| Thou art a flatterer like the rest but wouldst thou take with me | H |
| A day of hunting in the wilds beneath the greenwood tree | H |
| I know where most the pheasants feed and where the red deer herd | I |
| And thou shouldst chase the nobler game and I bring down the bird | I |
| - | |
| Now Albert in her quiver lays the arrow in its place | J |
| And wonders as he gazes on the beauty of her face | J |
| Those hunting grounds are far away and lady 'twere not meet | K |
| That night amid the wilderness should overtake thy feet | K |
| - | |
| Heed not the night a summer lodge amid the wild is mine | L |
| 'Tis shadowed by the tulip tree 'tis mantled by the vine | L |
| The wild plum sheds its yellow fruit from fragrant thickets nigh | A |
| And flowery prairies from the door stretch till they meet the sky | A |
| - | |
| There in the boughs that hide the roof the mock bird sits and sings | M |
| And there the hang bird's brood within its little hammock swings | M |
| A pebbly brook where rustling winds among the hopples sweep | N |
| Shall lull thee till the morning sun looks in upon thy sleep | N |
| - | |
| Away into the forest depths by pleasant paths they go | E |
| He with his rifle on his arm the lady with her bow | F |
| Where cornels arch their cool dark boughs o'er beds of winter green | O |
| And never at his father's door again was Albert seen | O |
| - | |
| That night upon the woods came down a furious hurricane | P |
| With howl of winds and roar of streams and beating of the rain | P |
| The mighty thunder broke and drowned the noises in its crash | Q |
| The old trees seemed to fight like fiends beneath the lightning flash | Q |
| - | |
| Next day within a mossy glen 'mid mouldering trunks were found | B |
| The fragments of a human form upon the bloody ground | B |
| White bones from which the flesh was torn and locks of glossy hair | G |
| They laid them in the place of graves yet wist not whose they were | R |
| - | |
| And whether famished evening wolves had mangled Albert so | E |
| Or that strange dame so gay and fair were some mysterious foe | E |
| Or whether to that forest lodge beyond the mountains blue | S |
| He went to dwell with her the friends who mourned him never knew | S |
William Cullen Bryant
(1)
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