All Life In A Life Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Edgar Lee Masters

All Life In A Life Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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His father had a large family	A
Of girls and boys and he was born and bred	B
In a barn or kind of cattle shed	B
But he was a hardy youngster and grew to be	A
A boy with eyes that sparkled like a rod	C
Of white hot iron in the blacksmith shop	D
His face was ruddy like a rising moon	E
And his hair was black as sheep's wool that is black	F
And he had rugged arms and legs and a strong back	F
And he had a voice half flute and half bassoon	E
And from his toes up to his head's top	D
He was a man simple but intricate	G
And most men differ who try to delineate	H
His life and fate	H
	-
He never seemed ashamed	I
Of poverty or of his origin He was a wayward child	J
Nevertheless though wise and mild	J
And thoughtful but when angered then he flamed	I
As fire does in a forge	K
When he was ten years old he ran away	L
To be alone and watch the sea and the stars	M
At midnight from a mountain gorge	K
	-
When he returned his parents scolded him	N
And threatened him with bolts and bars	M
Then they grew soft for his return and gay	L
And with their love would have enfolded him	N
But even at ten years old he had a way	L
Of gazing at you with a look austere	O
Which gave his kinfolk fear	O
He had no childlike love for father or mother	P
Sister or brother	P
They were the same to him as any other	P
He was a little cold a little queer	O
	-
His father was a laborer and now	Q
They made the boy work for his daily bread	B
They say he read	B
A book or two during these years of work	R
But if there was a secret prone to lurk	R
Between the pages under the light of his brow	Q
It came forth And if he had a woman	S
In love or out of love or a companion or a chum	T
History is dumb	T
So far as we know he dreamed and worked with hands	U
And learned to know his genius' commands	U
Or what is called one's d mon	V
	-
And this became at last the city's call	W
He had now reached the age of thirty years	X
And found a Dream of Life and a solution	S
For slavery of soul and even all	W
Miseries that flow from things material	Y
To free the world was his soul's resolution	S
But his family had great fears	X
For him knowing the evil	Y
Which might befall him seeing that the light	Z
Of his own dream had blinded his mind's eyes	A2
They could not tell but what he had a devil	Y
But still in their tears despite	Z
And warnings he departed with replies	A2
That when a man's genius calls him	N
He must obey no matter what befalls him	N
	-
What he had in his mind was growth	B2
Of soul by watching	C2
And the creation of eyes	A2
Over your mind's eyes to supervise	A2
A clear activity and to ward off sloth	B2
What he had in his mind was scotching	C2
And killing the snake of Hatred and stripping the glove	D2
From the hand of Hypocrisy and quenching the fire	P
Of Falsehood and Unbrotherly Desire	P
What he had in his mind was simply Love	D2
And it was strange he preached the sword and force	E2
To establish Love but it was not strange	F2
Since he did this his life took on a change	F2
And what he taught seems muddled at its source	E2
With moralizing and with moral strife	G2
For morals are merely the Truth diluted	H2
And sweetened up and suited	H2
To the business and bread of Life	G2
	-
And now this City was just what you'd find	I2
A city anywhere	J2
A turmoil and a Vanity Fair	J2
A sort of heaven and a sort of Tophet	I2
There were so many leaders of his kind	I2
The city didn't care	J2
For one additional prophet	I2
He said some extravagant things	K2
And planted a few stings	K2
Under the rich man's hide	I2
And one of the sensational newspapers	L2
Gave him a line or two for cutting capers	L2
In front of the Palace of Justice and the Church	M2
But all of the first grade people took the other side	I2
Of the street when they saw him coming	C2
With a rag tag crowd singing and humming	C2
And curious boys and men up in a perch	M2
Of a tree or window taking the spectacle in	N2
And the Corybantic din	N2
Of a Salvation Army as it were	P
And whatever he dreamed when he lived in a little town	O2
The intelligent people ignored him and this is the stir	P
And the only stir he made in the city	I2
	-
But there was a certain sinister	P
Fellow who came to him hearing of his renown	O2
And said You can be Mayor of this city	I2
We need a man like you for Mayor	P
And others said You'd make a lawyer or a politician	S
Look how the people follow you	P2
Why don't you hire out as a special writer	P
You could become a business man a rhetorician	S
You could become a player	P
You can grow rich There's nothing for a fighter	P
Fighting as you are but to end in ruin	S
But he turned from them on his way pursuing	C2
The dream he had in view	P2
	-
He had a rich man or two	P2
Who took up with him against the powerful frown	O2
Which looked him down	O2
For you'll always find a rich man or two	P2
To take up with anything	C2
There are those who can't get into society or bring	C2
Their riches to a social recognition	S
Or ill formed souls who lack the real patrician	S
Spirit for life	G2
But as for him he didn't care he passed	I2
Where the richness of living was rife	G2
And like wise Goethe talking to the last	I2
With cabmen rather than with lords	Q2
He sat about the markets and the fountains	R2
He walked about the country and the mountains	R2
Took trips upon the lakes and waded fords	Q2
Barefooted laughing as a young animal	Y
Disports itself amid the festival	Y
Of warm winds sunshine summer's carnival	Y
With laborers carpenters seamen	S
And some loose women	S
And certain notable sinners	L2
Gave him dinners	L2
And he went to weddings and to places where youth slakes	L2
Its thirst for happiness and they served him cakes	L2
And wine wherever he went	I2
And he ate and drank and spent	I2
His time in feasting and in telling stories	L2
And singing poems of lilies and of trees	L2
With crowds of people crowded around his knees	L2
That searched with lightning secrets hidden	S
Of life and of life's glories	L2
Of death and of the soul's way after death	S2
	-
Time makes amends usually for scandal's breath	S2
Which touched him to his earthly ruination	S
But this city had a Civic Federation	S
And a certain social order which intrigues	L2
Through churches courts with an endless ramification	S
Of money and morals to save itself	T2
And this city had a Bar Association	S
Also its Public Efficiency Leagues	L2
For laying honest men upon the shelf	T2
While making private pelf	T2
Secure and free to increase	L2
And this city had illustrious Pharisees	L2
And this city had a legion	S
Of men who make a business of religion	S
With eyes one inch apart	I2
Dark and narrow of heart	I2
Who give themselves and give the city no peace	L2
And who are everywhere the best police	L2
For Life as business	L2
And when they saw this youth	U2
Was telling the truth	U2
And that his followers were multiplying	C2
And were going about rejoicing and defying	C2
The social order and were stirring up	V2
The dregs of discontent in the cup	V2
With the hand of their own happiness	L2
They saw dynamic mysteries	L2
In the poems of lilies and trees	L2
Therefore they held him for a felony	S
	-
If you will take a kernel of wheat	I2
And first make free	S
The outer flake and then pare off the meat	I2
Of edible starch you'll find at the kernel's core	W2
The life germ And this young man's words were dim	N
With blasphemy sedition at the rim	N
Which fired the heads of dreamers like new wine	S
But this was just the outward force of him	N
For this young man's philosophy was more	W2
Than such external ferment being divine	S
With secrets so profound no plummet line	S
Can altogether sound it It means growth	B2
Of soul by watching	C2
And the creation of eyes	L2
Over your mind's eyes to supervise	L2
A clear activity and to ward off sloth	B2
What he had in mind was scotching	C2
And killing the snake of Hatred and stripping the glove	T2
From the hand of Hypocrisy and quenching the fire	P
Of falsehood and unbrotherly Desire	P
What he had in mind was simply Love	T2
	-
But he was prosecuted	I2
As a rebel and as a rebel executed	I2
Right in a public place where all could see	S
And his mother watched him hang for the felony	S
He hated to die being but thirty three	S
And fearing that his poems might be lost	I2
And certain members of the Bar Association	S
And of the Civic Federation	S
And of the League of Public Efficiency	S
And a legion	S
Of men devoted to religion	S
With policemen soldiers roughs	S
Loose women thieves and toughs	S
Came out to see him die	I2
And hooted at him giving up the ghost	I2
In great despair and with a fearful cry	I2
	-
And after him there was a man named Paul	W
Who almost spoiled it all	W
	-
And protozoan things like hypocrites	S
And parasitic things who make a food	I2
Of the mysteries of God for earthly power	P
Must wonder how before this young man's hour	P
They lived without his blood	I2
Shed on that day and which	X2
In red cells is so rich	X2