Only A Building Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEDE FGFGHEHE IJIJDEDE FKFK| You may delve down to rock for your foundation piers | A |
| You may go with your steel to the sky | B |
| You may purchase the best of the thought of the year | C |
| And the finest of workmanship buy | B |
| You may line with the rarest of marble each wall | D |
| And with gold you may tint it but then | E |
| It is only a building if it after all | D |
| Isn't filled with the spirit of men | E |
| - | |
| You may put up a structure of brick and of stone | F |
| Such as never was put up before | G |
| Place therein the costliest woods that are grown | F |
| And carve every pillar and door | G |
| You may fill it with splendors of quarry and mine | H |
| With the glories of brush and of pen | E |
| But it's only a building though ever so fine | H |
| If it hasn't the spirit of men | E |
| - | |
| You may build such a structure that lightning can't harm | I |
| Or one that an earthquake can't raze | J |
| You may build it of granite and boast that its charm | I |
| Shall last to the end of all days | J |
| But you might as well never have builded at all | D |
| Never cleared off the bog and the fen | E |
| If after it's finished its sheltering wall | D |
| Doesn't stand for the spirit of men | E |
| - | |
| For it isn't the marble nor is it the stone | F |
| Nor is it the columns of steel | K |
| By which is the worth of an edifice known | F |
| But by something that's living and real | K |
Edgar Albert Guest
(2)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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