Life's Undercurrent Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDD EFEFGG HIHJGG KLKMGG NONOGG PFPFGG QCQRGG| Within the precincts of a hospital | A |
| I wandered in a sympathetic mood | B |
| Where face to face with wormwood and with gall | C |
| With wrecks of pain and stern vicissitude | B |
| The eye unused to human misery | D |
| Might view life's undercurrent vividly | D |
| - | |
| My gaze soon rested on the stricken form | E |
| Of one succumbing to the fever's drouth | F |
| With throbbing brow intolerably warm | E |
| With wasted lips and mute appealing mouth | F |
| And when I watched that prostrate figure there | G |
| I thought that fate must be the worst to bear | G |
| - | |
| I next beheld a thin but patient face | H |
| Aged by the constant twinge of hopeless pain | I |
| Wheeled in an easy chair from place to place | H |
| A form which ne'er might stand erect again | J |
| I viewed that human shipwreck in his chair | G |
| And thought a fate like that was worst to bear | G |
| - | |
| Within her room a beauteous maiden lay | K |
| Moaning in agony no words express | L |
| A cancer eating rapidly away | K |
| Her vital force so foul and pitiless | M |
| And when I saw that face so young and fair | G |
| I thought such anguish was the worst to bear | G |
| - | |
| A helpless paralytic met my eyes | N |
| Whose hands might never grasp a friendly hand | O |
| But hung distorted and of shrunken size | N |
| Insensible to muscular command | O |
| His face an abject picture of despair | G |
| I thought a fate like that was worst to bear | G |
| - | |
| With wasted form emaciate and wan | P |
| A pale consumptive coughed with labored breath | F |
| His sunken eyes and hectic flush upon | P |
| His cheek foretold a sure but lingering death | F |
| I thought whene'er I met his hollow stare | G |
| A wasting death like that was worst to bear | G |
| - | |
| That day with fetters obdurate and fast | Q |
| With chain of summer winter spring and fall | C |
| Is bounden to the dim receding past | Q |
| Time o'er my life has spread a somber pall | R |
| With sightless eyes I grope and clutch the air | G |
| My lot is now the hardest lot to bear | G |
Alfred Castner King
(1)
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About Life's Undercurrent
Life's Undercurrent is a poem by Alfred Castner King. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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