Forsaking All Others Part 5 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBC DCDDBDB A CEF GHIH G JK LMNM A OPOP BPBP CNNC QR Q STTS HUVH AWW N XYXYZNZN A2PA2PB2YB2YNPNP A C2HC2C2H D2HD2D2H E2HE2E2H F2HF2F2H A GNFNVG2GG2H2NNNGNI2N H2J2GJ2GEK2EYL2J NNH2N A MAM JNJN M2N2M2 NB2N TAT PNPN O2P2O2 PNP PQ2PN R2ES2 R2 NEPER2N L2T2L2T2AR2AR2APANR2 M2YM2YPR2PR2U2R2U2R2 V2W2 NV2| I | A |
| - | |
| TRAINED nurses trained nurses everywhere | B |
| Trained nurses by night trained nurses by day | C |
| In the corridors on the stair | B |
| Looking for towels carrying a tray | C |
| Saying 'you mustn't ' 'you must ' 'you may ' | - |
| Smooth as to hair stiff as to skirt | D |
| Kind in a cool impersonal way | C |
| Angels of mercy bright eyed alert | D |
| Hard young angels sent to avert | D |
| That older angel of dark despair | B |
| Stiff starched angels a trifle curt | D |
| Trained nurses trained nurses everywhere | B |
| - | |
| II | A |
| - | |
| A WHITE figure spoke from the doorway | C |
| In a tone deliberately bright | E |
| 'Would you like to see the patient | F |
| For a moment and say goodnight ' | - |
| - | |
| Shepherded in like a stranger | G |
| He stood beside her bed | H |
| Gazed at those pale blank eyelids | I |
| In that carven ivory head | H |
| - | |
| Took her hand and heard her | G |
| Murmur 'Is that you Jim ' | - |
| But he knew she was very tired | J |
| Tired even of him | K |
| - | |
| Too much spent with the struggle | L |
| Of drawing breath to afford | M |
| A brief smile utterly weary | N |
| And more than utterly bored | M |
| - | |
| III | A |
| - | |
| NEVER before had Ruth been out of reach | O |
| Barriers had been but only of his making | P |
| Now she had passed beyond the power of speech | O |
| Quite quite indifferent that his heart was breaking | P |
| - | |
| Here in the bedroom that he used to share | B |
| She lived day after day averse to living | P |
| Indifferent unforgiving unaware | B |
| That he had any need of her forgiving | P |
| - | |
| IV | - |
| - | |
| AT first Lee wrote to him every day | C |
| Tactful letters that let him see | N |
| She knew very well he would rather be | N |
| With her but it wasn't the thing to say | C |
| - | |
| Tactful letters at first and then | Q |
| Letters less tactful and more sincere | R |
| Ending 'Why don't you write to me dear ' | - |
| Write to me over and over again | Q |
| - | |
| But he could not answer her piteous call | S |
| Not exactly that he forgot | T |
| Their love but only that she had not | T |
| Any reality for him at all | S |
| - | |
| She seemed like a pleasant book he had read | H |
| Read and enjoyed but the printed page | U |
| Cannot compete with the heritage | V |
| Of Nature the living and Oh the dead | H |
| - | |
| At last he sent her a brief reply | A |
| 'I cannot write or eat or sleep | W |
| Just now I am going through the deep | W |
| Waters Forgive me dear Lee Good bye ' | - |
| - | |
| V | N |
| - | |
| - | |
| THEN a night came | X |
| When in sleep broken | Y |
| He heard his name | X |
| Suddenly spoken | Y |
| Into his dream | Z |
| Horrors flocked thickly | N |
| Was that a scream | Z |
| 'Better come quicklyl' | N |
| - | |
| Cold was his room | A2 |
| And his hands shaking | P |
| Out of the gloom | A2 |
| Dawn was just breaking | P |
| Dawn cool and green | B2 |
| Over the ocean | Y |
| Never more seen | B2 |
| Without emotion | Y |
| Of death agony | N |
| Somebody crying | P |
| All dawns that dawn when he | N |
| Knew Ruth was dying | P |
| - | |
| VI | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| WHAT can you do with a woman's things | C2 |
| After a woman is dead | H |
| Not the bracelets and rings and strings | C2 |
| Of pearls but the small unvalued things | C2 |
| What can I do Wayne said | H |
| - | |
| What can you do with a woman's dresses | D2 |
| After a woman is dead | H |
| Hanging limp in the cedar presses | D2 |
| They are part of herself her pretty dresses | D2 |
| What can I do Wayne said | H |
| - | |
| What can you do with a woman's shoes | E2 |
| After a woman is dead | H |
| Shoes that perhaps you helped her choose | E2 |
| Poor little empty half worn shoes | E2 |
| What can I do Wayne said | H |
| - | |
| What can you do with her brush and comb | F2 |
| After a woman is dead | H |
| What in God's name can you do with her home | F2 |
| And her loss and her love and her brush and comb | F2 |
| What can I do Wayne said | H |
| - | |
| VII | A |
| - | |
| UP a little river | G |
| Where salmon used to play | N |
| Not twenty miles distant | F |
| A little village lay | N |
| Ruth's native village | V |
| Where Wayne used to go | G2 |
| To see his mother's mother | G |
| Many years ago | G2 |
| Here in a churchyard | H2 |
| With pines along the wall | N |
| And a wooden church steeple | N |
| Almost too tall | N |
| Here in September | G |
| On a bright clear day | N |
| Among the graves of sailors | I2 |
| They laid Ruth away | N |
| - | |
| In this same churchyard | H2 |
| Sitting on the stones | J2 |
| He had first said he loved her | G |
| In young shaken tones | J2 |
| That had been September | G |
| But not this bright light | E |
| Between the pine needles | K2 |
| The stars shone white | E |
| Such a little maiden | Y |
| Such a young man | L2 |
| 'I love you ' And she answered | J |
| 'I don't see how you can ' | - |
| They had been so happy | N |
| They had not cared at all | N |
| That the place was a churchyard | H2 |
| With pines along the wall | N |
| - | |
| VIII | A |
| - | |
| WAYNE stood bareheaded on the churchyard sward | M |
| By the open grave under the open sky | A |
| 'I am the resurrection and the life saith the Lord | M |
| He who believeth in Me shall never die ' | - |
| - | |
| Beautiful terrible service He heard a word | J |
| Here and there and then he would drift away | N |
| To other memories and things not heard | J |
| Ruth's laugh when she used to laugh so little and gay | N |
| - | |
| 'When thou with rebukes dost chasten a man from sin ' | - |
| Was it sin that had parted him from Ruth | M2 |
| Was sin the secret corrosion that entered in | N2 |
| Likea moth fretting the garment of love in youth | M2 |
| - | |
| Too late too late He heard the parson say | N |
| 'Before I go hence and be no more seen | B2 |
| A thousand years in thy sight is but as yesterday | N |
| Too late too late 'As grass in the morning green ' | - |
| - | |
| 'Was it Ruth he was leaving here in the churchyard plot | T |
| Could it be Ruth who had gone not saying good bye | A |
| 'What advantageth it me if the dead rise not | T |
| Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die ' | - |
| - | |
| How can a man help eating and drinking | P |
| Die to morrow To day if he had his will | N |
| How many years must he spend in thinking thinking | P |
| Of the thing which someone has said that all men kill | N |
| - | |
| Well he could bear what he must bear even the sound | O2 |
| Of earth on a coffin falling What must be must | P2 |
| 'We therefore commit her body to the ground | O2 |
| Ashes to ashes earth to earth dust to dust ' | - |
| - | |
| Prayers Would they never be done these killing | P |
| Rites for the dead Ah there was the organ's roll | N |
| From the little church and children's voices shrilling | P |
| Piping Ruth's favourite hymn 'Hark hark my soul ' | - |
| - | |
| 'Hark hark my soul Angelic songs are swelling | P |
| O'er earth's green fields and ocean's wave beat shore | Q2 |
| How sweet the truth those blessed strains are telling | P |
| Of that new life where sin shall be no morel | N |
| - | |
| Angels of Jesus | R2 |
| Angels of light | E |
| Singing to welcome | S2 |
| The pilgrims of the night ' | - |
| - | |
| IX | R2 |
| - | |
| 'Dear Lee | N |
| I've tried so many times to write | E |
| And now I must write for I sail next week | P |
| For Italy Sardinia I might | E |
| Go on to Egypt later and the Greek Islands | R2 |
| I may be several years away | N |
| - | |
| 'I loved you Lee I wonder if I can | L2 |
| Explain at all what's happened From your wealth | T2 |
| You gave me freely more than any man | L2 |
| Has ever had beauty wit youth and health | T2 |
| I loved you passionately and now my wife | A |
| Is dead One might expect a mild distress | R2 |
| A briefly pensive mood Instead my life | A |
| Is shattered is dissolved is meaningless | R2 |
| She whom of late I thought so little of | A |
| And saw so little was I find the spring | P |
| Of all I did and felt even of my love | A |
| Of you What an insane incredible thingl | N |
| But there it is | R2 |
| - | |
| 'Dear Lee this is the truth | M2 |
| That any marriage founded on devotion | Y |
| Though that devotion die as mine for Ruth | M2 |
| Is not a state but a unique emotion | Y |
| Potent unalterable not romantic | P |
| Love though romantic love is where it starts | R2 |
| Marriage begins only when those hot frantic | P |
| Fires have finished welding human hearts | R2 |
| It is not love friendship or partnership | U2 |
| But this emotion marriage of a force | R2 |
| That when it once has held you in its grip | U2 |
| Nothing will free you wholly not divorce | R2 |
| Or death for these destroy not it but you | V2 |
| As I am now destroyed | W2 |
| - | |
| 'Beware dear Lee | N |
| Of a true marriage if you are not true | V2 |
| Yourself or you will be destroyed like me ' | - |
Alice Duer Miller
(1)
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About Forsaking All Others Part 5
Forsaking All Others Part 5 is a poem by Alice Duer Miller. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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