The Widow Of Glencoe Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDEDFGHGIJFJKLAL MNON APAPQRRRRRSRTRURTJSP QVPVETWTTJPJXTTTYZSZ A2B2C2A2QTTTD2TD2TRR E2RPD2PD2TF2D2F2PD2P D2D2TRTE2G2RG2A2A2KR D2A2A2D2RD2TF2PF2A2G 2D2G2TD2TD2D2H2A2A2D 2E2A2E2A2TI2TTTPTA2A 2A2A2A2A2TA2Do not lift him from the bracken | A |
Leave him lying where he fell | B |
Better bier ye cannot fashion | A |
None beseems him half so well | B |
As the bare and broken heather | C |
And the hard and trampled sod | D |
Whence his angry soul ascended | E |
To the judgment seat of God | D |
Winding sheet we cannot give him | F |
Seek no mantle for the dead | G |
Save the cold and spotless covering | H |
Showered from heaven upon his head | G |
Leave his broadsword as we found it | I |
Bent and broken with the blow | J |
That before he died avenged him | F |
On the foremost of the foe | J |
Leave the blood upon his bosom | K |
Wash not off that sacred stain | L |
Let it stiffen on the tartan | A |
Let his wounds unclosed remain | L |
Till the day when he shall show them | M |
At the throne of God on high | N |
When the murderer and the murdered | O |
Meet before their Judge's eye | N |
- | |
Nay ye should not weep my children | A |
Leave it to the faint and weak | P |
Sobs are but a woman's weapon | A |
Tears befit a maiden's cheek | P |
Weep not children of Macdonald | Q |
Weep not thou his orphan heir | R |
Not in shame but stainless honour | R |
Lies thy slaughtered father there | R |
Weep not but when years are over | R |
And thine arm is strong and sure | R |
And thy foot is swift and steady | S |
On the mountain and the muir | R |
Let thy heart be hard as iron | T |
And thy wrath as fierce as fire | R |
Till the hour when vengeance cometh | U |
For the race that slew thy sire | R |
Till in deep and dark Glenlyon | T |
Rise a louder shriek of woe | J |
Than at midnight from their eyrie | S |
Scared the eagles of Glencoe | P |
Louder than the screams that mingled | Q |
With the howling of the blast | V |
When the murderer's steel was clashing | P |
And the fires were rising fast | V |
When thy noble father bounded | E |
To the rescue of his men | T |
And the slogan of our kindred | W |
Pealed throughout the startled glen | T |
When the herd of frantic women | T |
Stumbled through the midnight snow | J |
With their fathers' houses blazing | P |
And their dearest dead below | J |
Oh the horror of the tempest | X |
As the flashing drift was blown | T |
Crimsoned with the conflagration | T |
And the roofs went thundering down | T |
Oh the prayers the prayers and curses | Y |
That together winged their flight | Z |
From the maddened hearts of many | S |
Through that long and woeful night | Z |
Till the fires began to dwindle | A2 |
And the shots grew faint and few | B2 |
And we heard the foeman's challenge | C2 |
Only in a far halloo | A2 |
Till the silence once more settled | Q |
O'er the gorges of the glen | T |
Broken only by the Cona | T |
Plunging through its naked den | T |
Slowly from the mountain summit | D2 |
Was the drifting veil withdrawn | T |
And the ghastly valley glimmered | D2 |
In the gray December dawn | T |
Better had the morning never | R |
Dawned upon our dark despair | R |
Black amidst the common whiteness | E2 |
Rose the spectral ruins there | R |
But the sight of these was nothing | P |
More than wrings the wild dove's breast | D2 |
When she searches for her offspring | P |
Round the relics of her nest | D2 |
For in many a spot the tartan | T |
Peered above the wintry heap | F2 |
Marking where a dead Macdonald | D2 |
Lay within his frozen sleep | F2 |
Tremblingly we scooped the covering | P |
From each kindred victim's head | D2 |
And the living lips were burning | P |
On the cold ones of the dead | D2 |
And I left them with their dearest | D2 |
Dearest charge had everyone | T |
Left the maiden with her lover | R |
Left the mother with her son | T |
I alone of all was mateless | E2 |
Far more wretched I than they | G2 |
For the snow would not discover | R |
Where my lord and husband lay | G2 |
But I wandered up the valley | A2 |
Till I found him lying low | A2 |
With the gash upon his bosom | K |
And the frown upon his brow | R |
Till I found him lying murdered | D2 |
Where he wooed me long ago | A2 |
Woman's weakness shall not shame me | A2 |
Why should I have tears to shed | D2 |
Could I rain them down like water | R |
O my hero on thy head | D2 |
Could the cry of lamentation | T |
Wake thee from thy silent sleep | F2 |
Could it set thy heart a throbbing | P |
It were mine to wail and weep | F2 |
But I will not waste my sorrow | A2 |
Lest the Campbell women say | G2 |
That the daughters of Clanranald | D2 |
Are as weak and frail as they | G2 |
I had wept thee hadst thou fallen | T |
Like our fathers on thy shield | D2 |
When a host of English foemen | T |
Camped upon a Scottish field | D2 |
I had mourned thee hadst thou perished | D2 |
With the foremost of his name | H2 |
When the valiant and the noble | A2 |
Died around the dauntless Gr me | A2 |
But I will not wrong thee husband | D2 |
With my unavailing cries | E2 |
Whilst thy cold and mangled body | A2 |
Stricken by the traitor lies | E2 |
Whilst he counts the gold and glory | A2 |
That this hideous night has won | T |
And his heart is big with triumph | I2 |
At the murder he has done | T |
Other eyes than mine shall glisten | T |
Other hearts be rent in twain | T |
Ere the heathbells on thy hillock | P |
Wither in the autumn rain | T |
Then I'll seek thee where thou sleepest | A2 |
And I'll veil my weary head | A2 |
Praying for a place beside thee | A2 |
Dearer than my bridal bed | A2 |
And I'll give thee tears my husband | A2 |
If the tears remain to me | A2 |
When the widows of the foemen | T |
Cry the coronach for thee | A2 |
William Edmondstoune Aytoun
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