The Child Of The Islands - Spring Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCCDCDDA EFEFFGFGGA HIJIIAIFAK LMLMNOMOPK FQFQQCQCCK RSRSSTSUUK VWVWWFWFFK KXKYYZYZZA2 B2C2B2C2C2D2C2D2D2A2 E2 E2A2A2KA2KKA2 D2F2D2F2F2D2F2D2D2A2 A2UA2UUG2UG2G2A2 D2H2D2I2I2D2I2D2D2K A2FA2FFA2FA2A2K UD2UD2D2D2D2D2D2K FA2FA2A2D2A2D2D2K J2FJ2FFA2FA2A2K D2UD2UUD2UD2D2A2 D2D2D2D2I | A |
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WHAT shalt THOU know of Spring A verdant crown | B |
Of young boughs waving o'er thy blooming head | C |
White tufted Guelder roses showering down | B |
A fairy snow path where thy footsteps tread | C |
Fragrance and balm which purple violets shed | C |
Wild birds sweet warbling in commingled song | D |
Brooklets thin murmuring down their pebbly bed | C |
Or more abundant rivers swept along | D |
With shoals of tiny fish in many a silver throng | D |
II | A |
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To THEE shall be unknown that weary pain | E |
The feverish thirsting for a breath of air | F |
Which chokes the heart of those who sigh in vain | E |
For respite in their round of toil and care | F |
Who never gaze on Nature fresh and fair | F |
Nor in sweet leisure wile an hour away | G |
But like caged creatures sullenly despair | F |
As day monotonously follows day | G |
Till youth wears on to age and strength to faint decay | G |
III | A |
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A feeble girl sits working all alone | H |
A ruined Farmer's orphan pale and weak | I |
Her early home to wealthier strangers gone | J |
No rural beauty lingers on her cheek | I |
Her woe worn looks a woeful heart bespeak | I |
Though in her dull and rarely lifted eye | A |
Whose glances nothing hope and nothing seek | I |
Those who have time for pity might descry | F |
A thousand shattered gleams of merriment gone by | A |
IV | K |
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Her window sill some sickly plants adorn | L |
Poor links to memories sweet of Nature's green | M |
There to the City's smoke polluted morn | L |
The primrose lifts its leaves with buds between | M |
'Minished and faint as though their life had been | N |
Nipped by long pining and obscure regret | O |
Torn from the sunny bank where erst were seen | M |
Lovely and meek companions thickly set | O |
The cowslip rich in scent and humble violet | P |
V | K |
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Too fanciful the plant but pines like her | F |
For purer air for sunbeams warm and kind | Q |
Th' enlivening joy of nature's busy stir | F |
The rural freedom long since left behind | Q |
For the fresh woodlands for the summer wind | Q |
The open fields with perfumed clover spread | C |
The hazel copse whose branches intertwined | Q |
Made natural bow'rs and arches overhead | C |
With many a narrow path where only two could tread | C |
VI | K |
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Never oh never more shall these afford | R |
Her stifled heart their innocent delight | S |
Never oh never more the rich accord | R |
Of feathered songsters make her morning bright | S |
Earning scant bread that finds no appetite | S |
The sapless life she toils for lingers on | T |
And when at length it sinks in dreary night | S |
A shallow careless grave is dug where none | U |
Come round to bless her rest whose ceaseless tasks are done | U |
VII | K |
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And now the devious threads her simple skill | V |
Wove in a quaint device and flowery line | W |
Adorn some happier maid whose wayward will | V |
Was struck with wishing for the fair design | W |
Some 'curl d darling' of a lordly line | W |
Whose blooming cheek through veils of texture rare | F |
Mantling with youth's warm blood is seen to shine | W |
While her light garments draped with modest care | F |
Soft as a dove's white wings float on the breezy air | F |
VIII | K |
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Oh there is need for permanent belief | K |
In the All Equal World of Joy to come | X |
Need for such solace to the restless grief | K |
And heavy troubles of our earthly home | Y |
Else might our wandering reason blindly roam | Y |
And ask with all a heathen's discontent | Z |
Why Joy's bright cup for some should sparkling foam | Y |
While others not less worthy still lament | Z |
And find the cup of tears the only portion sent | Z |
IX | A2 |
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But for the Christian's hope how hard how cold | B2 |
How bitterly unjust our lot would seem | C2 |
How purposeless and sad to young and old | B2 |
How like the struggles of a torturing dream | C2 |
When ghastly midnight bids us strive and scream | C2 |
All fades all fleets of which our hearts grow fond | D2 |
Pain presses on us to the last extreme | C2 |
When lo the dawn upriseth clear beyond | D2 |
And radiant from the East forbids us to despond | D2 |
X | A2 |
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And many a crippled child and aged man | E2 |
And withered crone who once saw 'better days ' | - |
With just enough of intellect to scan | E2 |
This gracious truth uncheered by human praise | A2 |
Patient plods through the thorn encumbered ways | A2 |
Oh trust God counts the hours through which they sigh | K |
While His green Spring eludes their suffering gaze | A2 |
And flowers along Earth's spangled bosom lie | K |
Whose barren bloom for them must unenjoyed pass by | K |
XI | A2 |
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So lives the little Trapper underground | D2 |
No glittering sunshine streaks the oozy wall | F2 |
Not e'en a lamp's cold glimmer shineth round | D2 |
Where he must sit through summer days and all | F2 |
While in warm upper air the cuckoos call | F2 |
For ever listening at the weary gate | D2 |
Where echoes of the unseen footsteps fall | F2 |
Early he comes and lingers long and late | D2 |
With savage men whose blows his misery aggravate | D2 |
XII | A2 |
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Yet sometimes for the heart of childhood is | A2 |
A thing so pregnant with joy's blessed sun | U |
That all the dismal gloom that round him lies | A2 |
Can scarce suffice to bid its rays begone | U |
In lieu of vain complaint or peevish moan | U |
A feeble SONG the passing hour will mark | G2 |
Poor little nightingale that sing'st alone | U |
Thy cage is very low and bitter dark | G2 |
But God hears thee who hears the glad upsoaring lark | G2 |
XIII | A2 |
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God seeth thee who sees the prosperous proud | D2 |
Into the sunshine of their joy go forth | H2 |
God marks thee weak one in the human crowd | D2 |
And judgeth all thy grief as all their mirth | I2 |
Bird with the broken wing that trails on earth | I2 |
His angels watch thee if none watch beside | D2 |
As faithfully despite thy lowly birth | I2 |
As the child royal of the queenly bride | D2 |
Or our belief is vain in Christ the Crucified | D2 |
XIV | K |
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In Christ who made young children's guileless lives | A2 |
The cherished objects of His love and care | F |
Who bade each sinner that for pardon strives | A2 |
Low at Heaven's feet a child like heart lay bare | F |
Opening the world's great universal prayer | F |
With these meek words 'Our Father ' Strange that we | A2 |
The common blessings of His earth and air | F |
Deny to those who circling round His knee | A2 |
Embraced in mortal life His immortality | A2 |
XV | K |
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Those 'common blessings ' In this chequered scene | U |
How scant the gratitude we shew to God | D2 |
Is it in truth a privilege so mean | U |
To wander with free footsteps o'er the sod | D2 |
See various blossoms paint the valley clod | D2 |
And all things into teeming beauty burst | D2 |
A miracle as great as Aaron's rod | D2 |
But that our senses into dulness nurst | D2 |
Recurring Custom still with Apathy hath curst | D2 |
XVI | K |
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They who have rarest joy know Joy's true measure | F |
They who most suffer value Suffering's pause | A2 |
They who but seldom taste the simplest pleasure | F |
Kneel oftenest to the Giver and the Cause | A2 |
Heavy the curtains feasting Luxury draws | A2 |
To hide the sunset and the silver night | D2 |
While humbler hearts when Care no longer gnaws | A2 |
And some rare holiday permits delight | D2 |
Lingering with love would watch that earth enchanting sight | D2 |
XVII | K |
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So sits the pallid weaver at his loom | J2 |
Copying the wreaths the artist pencil drew | F |
In the dull confines of his cheerless room | J2 |
Glisten those tints of rich and living hue | F |
The air is sweet the grass is fresh with dew | F |
And feverish aches are throbbing in his veins | A2 |
But his are work day Springs and Summers too | F |
And if he quit his loom he leaves his gains | A2 |
That gorgeous glistering silk designed with so much pains | A2 |
XVIII | K |
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It shall be purchased as a robe of state | D2 |
By some great lady when his toil is done | U |
While on her will obsequious shopmen wait | D2 |
To shift its radiance in the flattering sun | U |
And as she listless eyes its beauty none | U |
Her brow shall darken or her smile shall shade | D2 |
By a strange story yet a common one | U |
Of tears that fell but not on her brocade | D2 |
And misery weakly borne while it was slowly made | D2 |
XIX | A2 |
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For while that silk the weaver's time beguiled | D2 |
His wife lay groaning on her narrow bed | D2 |
The suffering mother of a new born child | D2 |
Without a cradle for its weakly head | D2 |
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton
(1)
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