Humanity's Stream Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGH IJJHHHKLMANJOPQRSHTJ UJAJVJNQWXLYDZJA2HB2 IC2JD2ZWZE2F2DZG2DH2 ZI2A2MWJ2K2WL2JM2JHJ N2ZWD2O2O2JJO2P2O2O2 A2J Q2R2O2S2T2JIU2JWV2JJ JJJO2O2JW2J JO2JX2JZJO2 IQZY2Z2A3S

I stood upon a crowded thoroughfareA
Within a city's confines where were metB
All classes and conditions and surveyedC
From a secluded niche or apertureD
The various ever changing multitudeE
Which passed along in restless turbulenceF
And as a human river ebbed and flowedG
Within its banks of brick and masonryH
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Within this vast and heterogeneous throngI
One might discern all stages and degreesJ
From wealth and power to helpless indigenceJ
Extravagance to trenchant penuryH
And all extremes of want and miseryH
Some blest by wealth some cursed by povertyH
Some in positions neutral to them bothK
Some wore a gaunt and ill conditioned lookL
Which told its tale of lack of nourishmentM
While others showed that irritated airA
Which speaks of gout and pampered appetiteN
Some following vocations quite reverseJ
From those which nature had endowed them forO
Some passed with face self satisfied and calmP
As if the world bore nothing else but joyQ
And some there were who from the cradle's mouthR
As they pursued their journey to the graveS
Had felt no throb save that of miseryH
The man of large affairs passed by in hasteT
With mind preoccupied nor thought of elseJ
Save undertakings which concerned himselfU
The shallow son of misplaced opulenceJ
Came strutting by with self important airA
With head erect in a contemptuous poiseJ
As if the stars were subject to his willV
And e'en the golden sun was something baseJ
Which had offended with its wholesome lightN
In shining on so great a personageQ
A being more than ordinary clayW
And much superior to the vulgar herdX
Some faces passed which knew no kindly lookL
And felt no friendly pressure of the handY
And if the face depict the characterD
Some passed so steeped in crime and villainyZ
That Judas' vile ill favored countenanceJ
Would seem in contrast quite respectableA2
Some features glowed with unfeigned honestyH
Some grimaced in dissimulating craftB2
Some smiled benignantly and passed alongI
Some faces meek some stern and resoluteC2
Some the embodiment of gentlenessJ
Some whose specific aspects plainly toldD2
Their fondest dreams were not of earth but heavenZ
A newly wedded couple passed that wayW
In the sweet zenith of their honeymoonZ
But little dreaming what the future heldE2
The light and trivial fool the brainless fopF2
The staid and sober priest and ministerD
And she who worshiped at proud fashion's shrineZ
The mental giant serious and sadG2
The thoughtful student and philosopherD
And some of intellect diminutiveH2
The man of letters with abstracted mienZ
And he whose every thought was on the toilI2
Which made his bare existence possibleA2
The blushing maiden pure and innocentM
The stately grandam dignified and grayW
The matron with the babe upon her breastJ2
The silly superannuated flirtK2
Who nursed her waning beauty day by dayW
And still essayed to act the role of youthL2
The gay coquette and belle of other daysJ
Who in life's morning with disdainful laughM2
Had quaffed the cup of pleasure to its dregsJ
And now grown old must pay the penaltyH
In wrinkles and uncourted lonelinessJ
The widow who but newly desolateN2
Would grasp a hand then start to find it goneZ
The spendthrift and the sordid usurerW
Who knew no sentiment save lust for goldD2
The bloated drunkard sinking 'neath the weightO2
Of wassail inclination dissoluteO2
The youth who following his baleful stepsJ
Reeled for the first time from intemperanceJ
And she who had forgot her covenantO2
In brazen infamy and unwept shameP2
The good the bad the impious and unjustO2
The energetic and the indolentO2
The adolescent and the venerableA2
Passed by pursuant of their various waysJ
-
-
-
The aged and decrepit plodded byQ2
Whom one would think were ripe for any tombR2
Yet quailed at dissolution's very thoughtO2
The crippled and deformed with cane and crutchS2
Came limping by as eddies in the streamT2
The mendicant whose eyes might never seeJ
The golden sunlight felt his way alongI
And though the world was dark still shrank from deathU2
Some faces showed the trace of recent tearsJ
And some revealed the impress of despairW
Others endeavored with a careless smileV2
To hide a breast surcharged with hopelessnessJ
As one afflicted with a foul diseaseJ
Strives to avoid the scrutinizing gazeJ
By the assumption of indifferenceJ
Some whose misfortunes and adversitiesJ
And oft repeated disappointments driedO2
The fountain heads of kindness and had turnedO2
Life's sweetest joys to gall and bitternessJ
Each face betrayed some sort or form of woeW2
In more than one I read a tragedyJ
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-
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How complex is existence What a mazeJ
Of complication and entanglementO2
Each thread combining with the other threadsJ
Fulfills its office in the labyrinthX2
Each link concatenates the other linksJ
Which constitute the vast and endless chainZ
Of human life and human destinyJ
The strange phantasmagoria of fateO2
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-
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So we in life's procession pass alongI
To the accompaniment of secret dirgeQ
Or laughter interspersed with tear and groanZ
Nor pause a moment nor retrace a stepY2
But march in Fate's spectacular reviewZ2
In pageant to our common goalA3
The GraveS

Alfred Castner King



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