The Oldest Inhabitant Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABBACDDE FGGFHHIHIH JKKJLMLMNNLOO PPQRSQ TKUVWPXXYZXXQ HHHHFAFA2A2AHHB2C2B2 C2D2E2LE2LD2LF2LG2G2 F2F2L D2D2MD2MD2HH2H2H2HB2 B2B2KKVI2I2VI2J2VJ2 AAE2K2K2E2 JL2M2HHHHLLN2N2D2D2A O2FFAO2AAP2P2AQ2 AR2R2AS2 LLAAHHHHHHAAT2T2U2V2 V2U2HHHHHMMW2W2HAAAA HLAHLA HHHHR2HHR2 R2R2Q

'AND when came I to this town ' did he sayA
A question asked for the asking's sakeB
Answered merely an answer to makeB
As stranger to stranger mayA
Answered enough with ''Twas yesterday 'C
And a talk of the journey travelled so fastD
Had I said 'Since I dwelt here first have passedD
Hundreds of years away'E
-
Aye and there be who if they knewF
Would envy me as a cripple must longG
Looking on limbs erect and strongG
To have his freedom given him tooF
And rise and reach to whither he wouldH
'What ' they would think 'Is the gift not goodH
Beyond all gifts for earth or for timeI
Life and no shadow of death o'ercastH
Life and the joy of manhood's primeI
Life and the lore of a boundless pastH
Life and still life to come and to last '-
And I even even nowJ
I know not what that spirit might beK
Whether of love or of hate to meK
That stood in the dusk on the mountain's browJ
Alone with the stars I had climbed to see nighL
And smiled and gave and was no more thereM
There was no trace broke the skyL
There was no breath stirred the airM
Nought from the heaven or the earth to tellN
If it were wellN
And how much surer to day know IL
Whether he meant me a boon or a curseO
Whether to wait or to die be worseO
-
Ah how I joyed for so many yearsP
Death under my heel with his hindering fearsP
And I the lord of my life for everQ
Leisure and labour limitlessR
And always the joy of the earned successS
Crowned with the joy of the new endeavourQ
And I thought 'I will make all wisdoms mine '-
And I thought 'The world shall be glad of me '-
Ah how I joyed for could I divineT
What the fruit of immortal days must beK
But alas for the numbness of wont on allU
For the heart that has loved too often to prizeV
For the eyes that have wept too often for tearsW
For the listless feet and the careless earsP
For the brain that has learned that to learn is vainX
For forgotten joy and forgotten painX
For the life too frequent for memoriesY
And I taste no joy because it will pallZ
And I watch no grace because it will waneX
And I seek no good for it will not remainX
And I knit no tie because it will severQ
-
If I were not alone if the gift were sharedH
With but some one soul in the world besideH
Some one for whom I might have caredH
Who would not so soon have grown old and diedH
But ever and ever to build all anewF
And ever and ever to see all decayA
To fashion my life as the others doF
And have my place among fellow menA2
To sit content in my home and thenA2
To have lived and the rest has faded awayA
There are the graves and I part of the pastH
Forgotten with them whom I outlastH
Let it be 'tis a foolish gameB2
The game that children play on the beachC2
With its ending always the sameB2
Building amain till the tide waves reachC2
And the sands will be bare to build on to morrowD2
Let it be for what is the worthE2
Long since I wearied of saying good byeL
And what or whom should I cherish on earthE2
Where I go as might one from some world on highL
Unmeet for the short lived pleasure or sorrowD2
Only the men who look to dieL
Can have or hope in a world where death reignsF2
Do I pity that slight ephemerous flyL
Whirling and resting there in the sunG2
Because his day will be so soon doneG2
All remains while his day remainsF2
He will not have known that a rosebud wanesF2
How if he lived for ever as IL
-
Truly 'tis even soD2
To die betimes is scarcely to knowD2
How death is around us everywhereM
But ever for me the birth and blowD2
Are but a part of decay that is thereM
And the living come but to goD2
Till at length I am one who drawing asideH
Where the crowd sweeps by in one jostling raceH2
Stands unstirred in his lonely placeH2
And leaves off noting face after faceH2
I am one who wait stranded alone by the tideH
Of Life which has also Death for nameB2
Because for the world the two are the sameB2
The tide that goes winding back whence it cameB2
Bearing all thither save meK
And I dream and I scarcely seem to beK
And I know no count of time as it fliesV
And the river passes passes passesI2
Smooth and for ever and changelessly glassesI2
Summers and winters and changing skiesV
Passes and passes and passesI2
And nothing abides and nothing is strangeJ2
And oh for rest to my languid eyesV
Weary of change that is never changeJ2
-
Ah men might marvel to hear me sayA
The world of my youth is the world of to dayA
Here in this very home of my birthE2
How they would answer from some old bookK2
'Thus and thus was the past now lookK2
Are we as they of the older earthE2
We and our ways and the fields we plough '-
And the first met gossip who knows but NowJ
Counts chances a score in half a yearL2
Tells me this was that and there was hereM2
A hall is burnt a new market is madeH
A railway runs where the school boys playedH
He is married and he is deadH
And he so rich goes begging his breadH
''Tis a world of change ' he will soberly sighL
For point to his tales why and so say IL
Chances and changes enough I deemN2
In a world that goes on like a shifting dreamN2
But oh the long sameness Ebb and flowD2
Billows that come and billows that goD2
Nothing is but will drift awayA
Nothing was but will comeO2
Future finds Past old becomes newF
What men have done that they will doF
'Tis but the counting coins of to dayA
To measure the former sumO2
But the naming laterwiseA
Things and thoughts of an ancient guiseA
And what change for me who see life as some starP2
The expanses of earth in one from afarP2
Hill grows valley and valley grows hillsA
'Tis a world of hills and valleys stillQ2
-
Did I dream I could have been wearied thusA
With truth and with wisdoms left to seekR2
Alas my learners who heard me speakR2
'Is not to learn enough for usA
Is not to strive a strength for the soulS2
Though she never gained one foot to the goal '-
If you could waken now where you lieL
You and your graves forgotten as IL
In our town that would tell our names for its praiseA
If you could hear and your pitying gazeA
Could know the teacher who made you boldH
Nay sleep on unconscious there in the mouldH
You died with a joy as of something gainedH
Something given to the world you leftH
I laboured on to be ever bereftH
Of the skill achieved of the science attainedH
For lo the end of all learning is thisA
Only to know one has learned amissA
Only to know that the art or the loreT2
With its rules and its axioms was nothing moreT2
Than a working guess that did for the whileU2
Only to know that sage after sageV2
Has passed on a dream from age to ageV2
Till the world awakes and the children smileU2
At the thoughts of the foolish grown men of oldH
Aye sleep ye who counted your lives well spentH
Sleep ye who dreamed ye are contentH
Thou who hadst gained the secret of goldH
Save that one last fusion left me to findH
Thou who hadst tracked the sun's path through the airM
Thou with thy skill of the stars thou thereM
In the chapel vault with thy name still shownW2
To sauntering strangers cut on the stoneW2
With thy chronicle of the world left behindH
Thou who hadst learned and hadst lighted on curesA
For every ill man's body enduresA
And leftst me thy leechcrafts for legacyA
Thou and thou and thou oh poor foolsA
Who dreamed ye had found the thing ye soughtH
Sleep sleep and know not All goes byL
Lores and crafts and beliefs and schoolsA
Wrought is unravelled thought is new thoughtH
Till meseems that truth's very self must dieL
And be born again unto younger rulesA
-
Whereto is life for me And I wouldH
I had now departed and knew the endH
Death 'tis a way even I might wendH
But were it evil or goodH
Oh had it been but a word to speakR2
But a blow at once or a venomous draughtH
Long since I had said or struck or quaffedH
But all a seven days' weekR2
-
Each dawn and each dusk of a seven days' weekR2
To will it unwavering all a weekR2
Vain vain o'er and o'erQ
A thousand times and a thousand y-

Augusta Davies Webster



Rate:
(1)



Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< Deserted Poem Next Poem


Write your comment about The Oldest Inhabitant poem by Augusta Davies Webster


 
Best Poems of Augusta Davies Webster

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 5 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Popular Poets