Life's Undercurrent Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDD EFEFGG HIHJGG KLKMGG NONOGG PFPFGG QCQRGG

Within the precincts of a hospitalA
I wandered in a sympathetic moodB
Where face to face with wormwood and with gallC
With wrecks of pain and stern vicissitudeB
The eye unused to human miseryD
Might view life's undercurrent vividlyD
-
My gaze soon rested on the stricken formE
Of one succumbing to the fever's drouthF
With throbbing brow intolerably warmE
With wasted lips and mute appealing mouthF
And when I watched that prostrate figure thereG
I thought that fate must be the worst to bearG
-
I next beheld a thin but patient faceH
Aged by the constant twinge of hopeless painI
Wheeled in an easy chair from place to placeH
A form which ne'er might stand erect againJ
I viewed that human shipwreck in his chairG
And thought a fate like that was worst to bearG
-
Within her room a beauteous maiden layK
Moaning in agony no words expressL
A cancer eating rapidly awayK
Her vital force so foul and pitilessM
And when I saw that face so young and fairG
I thought such anguish was the worst to bearG
-
-
A helpless paralytic met my eyesN
Whose hands might never grasp a friendly handO
But hung distorted and of shrunken sizeN
Insensible to muscular commandO
His face an abject picture of despairG
I thought a fate like that was worst to bearG
-
With wasted form emaciate and wanP
A pale consumptive coughed with labored breathF
His sunken eyes and hectic flush uponP
His cheek foretold a sure but lingering deathF
I thought whene'er I met his hollow stareG
A wasting death like that was worst to bearG
-
That day with fetters obdurate and fastQ
With chain of summer winter spring and fallC
Is bounden to the dim receding pastQ
Time o'er my life has spread a somber pallR
With sightless eyes I grope and clutch the airG
My lot is now the hardest lot to bearG

Alfred Castner King



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