A Dilettante Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEF ECGEECHEICJ KCE LEMEEEEEEACAFNECECCE CEOEEC EEEMPECEEHQ MERLEEEPECCCCSTEEUEV E EWXCYZA CPA2CPB2ELPEECEEC2E ECEEE D2C2CEEECCEA2CCFCREX E2F2CCCCRCECG2CEECCE H2 DECCFCCEECI2MCC CHEECCJ2 CK2EL2CEEF CM2ECEFCIR

Good friend be patient goes the world awryA
well can you groove it straight with all your painsB
and sigh or scold and argue or intreatC
what have you done but waste your part of lifeD
on impotent fool's battles with the windsE
that will blow as they list in spite of youF
-
Fie I am weary of your pettish griefsE
against the world that's given like a childC
who whines and pules because his bread's not cakeG
because the roses have those ugly thornsE
that prick if he's not careful of his handsE
Oh foolish spite what talk you of the worldC
and mean the men and women and the sinH
Oh friend these all pass by and God remainsE
and God has made a world that pleases HimI
and when He wills then He will better itC
let it suffice us as he wills it nowJ
-
Nay hush and look and listen For this noonK
this summer noon replies but be contentC
speaking in voices of a hundred joysE
-
For lo we lying on this mossy knollL
tasting the vivid musk of sheltering pinesE
and balm of odorous flowers and sweet warm airM
feeling the uncadenced music of slow leavesE
and ripples in the brook athwart its stonesE
and birds that call each other in the brakesE
with sudden questions and smooth long repliesE
the gossip of the incessant grasshoppersE
and the contented hum of laden beesE
we knowing with the easy restful eyeA
that whichsoever way it turns is filledC
with unexacting beauty this smooth skyA
blue with our English placid silvery blueF
mottled with little lazy clouds this stretchN
of dappled wealds and green and saffron slopesE
and near us these gnarled elm trunks barred with goldC
and ruddy pine boles where the slumbrous beamsE
have slipped through the translucent leafy netC
to break the shimmering dimness of the woodC
we who like licensed truants from light tasksE
which lightly can be banished out of mindC
have all ourselves to give to idlenessE
were more unreasoning if we make moanO
of miseries and toils and barrennessE
than if we sitting at a feast told talesE
of famines and for the pity of them starvedC
-
Oh life is good when on such summer daysE
we linger in the dreamful paradiseE
that lies at every door where so much spaceE
is left to garner in the languid airM
as grass may grow in and some verdurous treeP
and some few yards of blueness and of cloudsE
may stretch above making immensityC
when lost out of our petty unit selvesE
the heart grows large in the grave trance of peaceE
and all things breathing growing are its kinH
and all the fair and blossoming earth is homeQ
-
And beauty is our lesson for look thereM
that exquisite curve and cluster of rich leavesE
emerald and shadow in that patch of sunR
what is it but a nettle And that knollL
of woven green where all fantastic graceE
of shaggy stems and lush and trailing shootsE
and all a thousand delicate varied tintsE
are mingled in a wanton symmetryP
what is it but a thorn and bramble copseE
And that far plain on which through all the dayC
change still grows lovelier and every cloudC
makes different softer dimness every lightC
an other coloured glory what is itC
a desolate barren waste marshland and moorS
And in some other moment when the rainT
spurts greyly downwards on the soddening fieldsE
or the dank autumn fog veils leaden skiesE
or the keen baleful east winds nip the bloomU
of frightened spring with bleak and parching chillsE
the waste the thorns the nettle each would seemV
cursed with the unloveliness of evil thingsE
-
So beauty comes and goes yet beauty isE
a message out of Heaven can it speakW
from evil things I know not but I knowX
that waste and thorns and nettle are to dayC
teachers of Love a prospect not to changeY
for use against a fifty miles of cornZ
Can we tell good from evil you and IA
-
Oh if the men and women of to dayC
seem ill or good to us why what know weP
to morrow they or those who follow themA2
will seem another way and are they changedC
or are the eyes that see them Let them beP
are we divine that we should judge and ruleB2
And they are not the world by several selvesE
but in a gathered whole and if that wholeL
drift heavenward or hellward God can seeP
not we who ants hived in our coloniesE
count the world loam or gravel stocked with flowersE
or weeds or cabbages as we shall findC
within our own small ranges and being wiseE
and full of care for all the universeE
wonder and blame and theorize and planC2
by the broad guide of our experiencesE
-
'Twere a neat world if levelled by the antsE
no ridges no rough gaps all fined and softC
But I will rather use my antish witsE
in smoothing just my cell and at my doorsE
than join in such heroic enterpriseE
-
Selfish you call me callous Hear a taleD2
There was a little shallow brook that ranC2
between low banks scarcely a child's leap wideC
feeding a foot or two of bordering grassE
and here and there some tufts of waterflowersE
and cresses and tall sedge rushes and reedsE
and where it bubbled past a poor man's cotC
he and his household came and drank of itC
and all the children loved it for its flowersE
and counted it a playmate made for themA2
but not far off a sandy arid wasteC
where when a winged seed rested or a birdC
would drop a grain in passing and it grewF
it presently must droop and die athirstC
spread its scorched silent leagues to the fierce sunR
and once a learned man came by and sawE
and lo said he what space for corn to growX
could we send vivifying moistures hereE2
while look this wanton misdirected brookF2
watering its useless weeds so had it turnedC
and made a channel for it through the wasteC
but its small waters could not feed that droughtC
and in the wide unshadowed plain it laggedC
and shrank away sucked upwards of the sunR
and downwards of the sands so the new bedC
lay dry and dry the old and the parched reedsE
grew brown and dwined the stunted rushes droopedC
the cresses could not root in that slacked soilG2
the blossoms and the sedges died awayC
the greenness shrivelled from the dusty banksE
the children missed their playmate and the flowersE
and thirsted in hot noon tides for the draughtC
grown over precious now their mother wentC
a half mile to the well to fill her pailsE
and not two ears of corn the more were greenH2
-
Tell me what should I do I take my lifeD
as I have found it and the work it bringsE
well and the life is kind the work is lightC
shall I go fret and scorn myself for thatC
and must I sally forth to hack and hewF
at giants or at windmills leave the postC
I could have filled the work I could have wroughtC
for some magnificent mad enterpriseE
some task to lift a mountain drain a seaE
tread down a Titan build a pyramidC
No let me like a bird bred in the cageI2
that singing its own self to gladness thereM
makes some who hear it gladder take what partC
I have been born to and make joy of itC
-
Grumbler what are you muttering in your beardC
You've a bird likeness too to shew me inH
I take life as a sea gull takes the seaE
mere skimmingly I say no otherwiseE
'tis a wise bird the sea gull does but tasteC
the hale and briny freshness of the sprayC
what would you have me do plunge in and drownJ2
-
Oh chiding friend I am not of your kindC
you strenuous souls who cannot think you liveK2
unless you feel your limbs though 'twere by achesE
great boisterous winds you are who must rush onL2
and sweep all on your way or drop and dieC
but I am only a small fluttering breezeE
to coax the roses open let me beE
perhaps I have my use no less than youF
-
Ah well How strange that you and I who treadC
so same a path perceive it so unlikeM2
And which sees justly Maybe both of usE
or maybe one of us is colour blindC
and sees the tintings blurred or sees them falseE
or does not see so misses what they shewF
Or likelier each of us is colour blindC
and sees the world his own way fit for himI
doubtless we afterwards shall unR

Augusta Davies Webster



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