On A Great Hollow Tree Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCBBAADDEEBBDDBB FGHIJJBBBKKLMMNNOOBB BBAABBKBKKAAKKKNNKKM MAA KKMMDDAABBJJKBPPMMKL BBBBEEKKBBEEDD| Preethee stand still awhile and view this tree | A |
| Renown'd and honour'd for antiquitie | B |
| By all the neighbour twiggs for such are all | C |
| The trees adjoyning bee they nere so tall | C |
| Comparde to this if here Jacke Maypole stood | B |
| All men would sweare 'twere but a fishing rodde | B |
| Mark but the gyant trunk which when you see | A |
| You see how many woods and groves there bee | A |
| Compris'd within one elme The hardy stocke | D |
| Is knotted like a clubb and who dares mocke | D |
| His strength by shaking it Each brawny limbe | E |
| Could pose the centaure Monychus or him | E |
| That wav'de a hundred hands ere hee could wield | B |
| That sturdy waight whose large extent might shield | B |
| A poore man's tenement Greate Ceres' oake | D |
| Which Erisichthon feld could not provoke | D |
| Halfe so much hunger for his punishment | B |
| As hewing this would doe by consequent | B |
| - | |
| - | |
| Nothing but age could tame it Age came on | F |
| And loe a lingering consumption | G |
| Devour'd the entralls where an hollow cave | H |
| Without the workman's helpe beganne to have | I |
| The figure of a Tent a pretty cell | J |
| Where grand Silenus might not scorne to dwell | J |
| And owles might feare to harbour though they brought | B |
| Minerva's warrant for to bear them out | B |
| In this their bold attempt Looke down into | B |
| The twisted curles the wreathing to and fro | K |
| Contrived by nature where you may descry | K |
| How hall and parlour how the chambers lie | L |
| And wer't not strange to see men stand alone | M |
| On leggs of skinne without or flesh or bone | M |
| Or that the selfe same creature should survive | N |
| After the heart is dead This tree can thrive | N |
| Thus maym'd and thus impayr'd no other proppe | O |
| But only barke remayns to keep it uppe | O |
| Yet thus supported it doth firmly stand | B |
| Scorning the saw pitt though so neere at hand | B |
| No yawning grave this grandsire Elme can fright | B |
| Whilst yongling trees are martyr'd in his sight | B |
| O learne the thrift of Nature that maintaines | A |
| With needy myre stolne upp in hidden veynes | A |
| So great a bulke of wood Three columes rest | B |
| Upon the rotten trunke wherof the least | B |
| Were mast for Argos Th' open backe below | K |
| And three long leggs alone doe make it shew | B |
| Like a huge trivett or a monstrous chayre | K |
| With the heeles turn'd upward How proper O how fayre | K |
| A seate were this for old Diogenes | A |
| To grumble in and barke out oracles | A |
| And answere to the Raven's augury | K |
| That builds above Why grew not this strange tree | K |
| Neere Delphos had this wooden majesty | K |
| Stood in Dodona forrest then would Jove | N |
| Foregoe his oake and only this approve | N |
| Had those old Germans that did once admire | K |
| Deformed Groves and worshipping with fire | K |
| Burnt men unto theyr gods had they but seene | M |
| These horrid stumps they canonizde had beene | M |
| And highly too This tree would calme more gods | A |
| Than they had men to sacrifice by odds | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| You Hamadryades that wood borne bee | K |
| Tell mee the causes how this portly tree | K |
| Grew to this haughty stature Was it then | M |
| Because the mummys of so many men | M |
| Fattned the ground or cause the neighbor spring | D |
| Conduits of water to the roote did bring | D |
| Was it with Whitsun sweat or ample snuffes | A |
| Of my Lord's beere that such a bignesse stuffes | A |
| And breaks the barke O this it is no doubt | B |
| This tree I warrant you can number out | B |
| Your Westwell annals distinctly tell | J |
| The progresse of this hundred years as well | J |
| By Lords and Ladies as ere Rome could doe | K |
| By Consulships These boughes can witnesse too | B |
| How goodman Berry tript it in his youth | P |
| And how his daughter Joane of late forsooth | P |
| Became her place It might as well have grown | M |
| If Pan had pleas'd on toppe of Westwell downe | M |
| Instead of that proud Ash and easily | K |
| Have given ayme to travellers passing by | L |
| With wider armes But see it more desirde | B |
| Here to bee lov'd at home than there admirde | B |
| And porter like it here defends the gate | B |
| As if it once had beene greate Askapate | B |
| Had warlike Arthur's dayes enjoy'd this Elme | E |
| Sir Tristram's blade and good Sir Lancelot's helme | E |
| Had then bedeckt his locks with fertile store | K |
| Of votive reliques which those champions wore | K |
| Untill perhaps as 'tis with great men found | B |
| Those burdenous honours crusht it to the ground | B |
| But in these merry times 'twere farre more trimme | E |
| If pipes and citterns hung on every limbe | E |
| And since the fidlers it hath heard so long | D |
| I'me sure by this time it deserves my song | D |
William Strode
(1)
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About On A Great Hollow Tree
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