Henry Murray Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQ AEQRSTBBU VBWXYZA2EB2C2AD2E2F2 G2H2EI2J2K2L2M2N2TO2 P2Q2R2BEBS2T2U2EUV2E W2X2Y2OZ2A3BB3C3B2RD 3CME3IF3NG3H3Y2I3J3K 3L3RM3N3O3P3Q3R3 S3T3U3V3RCAW3RX3Q2Y3 R3T2Z3B2TBA4R3 B4C4CCMD4 E4F4T3G4E4IH4I4J4R2B 2R3BK4BC4L4M4SIN4R3O 4S3M4KR3L2P4WAQ4R4NA 4AB3R3WRP2S4CR3BCT4V 2FRB4M4D3U4V4W4F2L2X 4L2R3C N2FW2BY4Z4N2IR3O2ROA BB2M4R3B4AR3U2B4 S3BAB T2AR3AR3R3M4BM4W2M4A M4AM4M4C4M4C M4W4R4NT2A3A3I3M4QU4 ABS3L2WQ4 NM4 M4D3WCM4M4BT3AI3B4Y3 BOD3AAFB3M4DM4M4WC4K 4A AI4RA ACA4AM4X2L4M4A4C2C4C L4M4 M4D2S4D3M4S4M4T2L4QD 2H

Henry Murray father of Elenor Murray	A
Willing to tell the coroner Merival	B
All things about himself about his wife	C
All things as well about his daughter touching	D
Her growth and home life if the coroner	E
Would hear him privately save on such things	F
Strictly relating to the inquest went	G
To Coroner Merival's office and thus spoke	H
I was born here some sixty years ago	I
Was nurtured in these common schools too poor	J
To satisfy a longing for a college	K
Felt myself gifted with some gifts of mind	L
Some fineness of perception thought began	M
By twenty years to gather books and read	N
Some history philosophy and science	O
Had vague ambitions analyzed perhaps	P
To learn be wise	Q
	-
Now if you study me	A
Look at my face you'll see some trace of her	E
My brow is hers my mouth is hers my eyes	Q
Of lighter color are yet hers this way	R
I have of laughing as I saw inside	S
The matter deeper cause for laughter hers	T
And my jaw hers betokening a will	B
Hers too with chin that mitigates the will	B
Shading to softness as hers did	U
	-
Our minds	V
Had something too in common first this will	B
Which tempted fate to bend it break it too	W
I know not why in her case or in mine	X
But when my will is bent I grow morose	Y
And when it's broken I become a scourge	Z
To all around me Yes I've visited	A2
A life time's wrath upon my wife This daughter	E
When finding will subdued did not give up	B2
But took the will for something else went on	C2
By ways more prosperous but alas poor me	A
I hold on when defeated and lie down	D2
When I am beaten growling ruminate	E2
Upon my failure think of nothing else	F2
But truth to tell while we two were opposed	G2
This daughter and myself while temperaments	H2
Kept us at sword's points while I saw in her	E
Traits of myself I liked not also traits	I2
Of the child's mother which I loathe because	J2
They have undone me helped at least no less	K2
I see this child as better than myself	L2
And better than her mother so admire	M2
Also I never trusted her as a child	N2
She would rush in relating lying wonders	T
She feigned emotions purposes and moods	O2
She was a little actress from the first	P2
And all her high resolves from first to last	Q2
Seemed but a robe with flowing sleeves in which	R2
Her hands could hide some theft some secret spoil	B
When she was fourteen I could see in her	E
The passionate nature of her mother well	B
You know a father's feelings when he sees	S2
His daughter sensed by youths and lusty men	T2
As one of the kind for capture It's a theme	U2
A father cannot talk of with his daughter	E
He may say have a care or I forbid	U
Your strolling riding with these boys at night	V2
But if the daughter stands and eyes the father	E
As she did me with flaming eyes then goes	W2
Her way in secret lies about her ways	X2
The father can but wonder watch or brood	Y2
Or switch her maybe for I switched her once	O
And found it did no good I needed here	Z2
The mother's aid but no her mother saw	A3
Herself in the girl and said she knew the girl	B
That I was too suspicious out of touch	B3
With a young girl's life desire for happiness	C3
But when this Alma Bell affair came up	B2
And the school principal took pains to say	R
My daughter was too reckless of her name	D3
In strolling and in riding then my wife	C
Howled at me like a tigress whip that man	M
And as my daughter cried and my wife screeched	E3
And called me coward if I let him go	I
I rushed out to the street and finding him	F3
Beat up his face though almost dropping dead	N
From my exertion Well the aftermath	G3
Was worse for me not only by the talk	H3
But in my mind who saw no gratitude	Y2
In daughter or in mother for my deed	I3
The daughter from that day took up a course	J3
More secret from my eyes more variant	K3
From any wish I had We stood apart	L3
And grew apart thereafter And from that day	R
My wife grew worse in temper worse in nerves	M3
And though the people say she is my slave	N3
That I alone of all who live have conquered	O3
Her spirit still what despotism works	P3
Free of reprisals or of breakings forth	Q3
When hands are here not there	R3
	-
But to return	S3
One takes up something for a livelihood	T3
And dreams he'll leave it later when in time	U3
His plans mature and as he earns and lives	V3
With some time for his plans hopes for the day	R
When he may step forth from his olden life	C
Into a new life made thus gradually	A
I hoped to be a lawyer but to live	W3
I started as a drug clerk look to day	R
I own that little drug store here I am	X3
With drugs my years through drugged myself at last	Q2
And as a clerk I met my wife went mad	Y3
About her and I see in Elenor	R3
Her mother's gift for making fools of men	T2
Why I can scarce explain it it's the flesh	Z3
But then it's spirit too Such flaming up	B2
As came from flames like ours but more of hers	T
Burned in the children Yes it might be well	B
For theorists in heredity to think	A4
About the matter	R3
	-
Well but how about	B4
The flames that make the children For this woman	C4
Too surely ruined me and sapped my life	C
You hear much of the vampire but what wife	C
Has not more chance for eating up a man	M
She has him daily has him fast for years	D4
	-
A man can shake a vampire off but how	E4
To shake a wife off when the children come	F4
And you must leave your place your livelihood	T3
To shake her off And if you shake her off	G4
Where do you go what do you do and how	E4
You see 'twas love that caught me yet even so	I
I had resisted love had I not seen	H4
A chance to rise through marriage It was this	I4
You know of course my wife was Elenor Fouche	J4
Daughter of Arthur thought to be so rich	R2
And I had hopes to patch my fortunes up	B2
In this alliance and become a lawyer	R3
What happened Why they helped me not at all	B
The children came and I was chained to work	K4
To clothe and feed a family all the while	B
My soul combusted with this aspiration	C4
And my good nature went to ashes dampened	L4
By secret tears which filtered through as lye	M4
Then finally when my wife's father died	S
After our marriage twenty years or so	I
His fortune came to nothing all she got	N4
Went to that little house we live in here	R3
It needs paint now the porch has rotten boards	O4
And I was forced to see these children learn	S3
What public schools could teach and even as I	M4
Left school half taught and never went to college	K
So did these children saving Elenor	R3
Who saw two years of college earned herself	L2
By teaching I choke up just wait a minute	P4
What depths of calmness may a man come to	W
As father who can think of this and be	A
Quiet about his heart His heart will hurt	Q4
Move as it were as a worm does with its pain	R4
And these days now when trembling hands and head	N
Foretell decline or worse and make me think	A4
As face to face with God most earnestly	A
Most eager for the truth I wonder much	B3
If I misjudged this daughter canvass her	R3
Myself to see if I had power to do	W
A better part by her That is the way	R
This daughter has got in my soul At first	P2
She incubates in me as force unknown	S4
A spirit strange yet kindred in my life	C
And we are hostile and yet drawn together	R3
But when we're drawn together see and feel	B
These oppositions Next she's in my life	C
The second stage of the fever as dislike	T4
Repugnance and I wish her out of sight	V2
Out of my life Then comes these ugly things	F
Like Alma Bell and rumors from away	R
Where she is teaching and I put her out	B4
Of life and thought the more and wonder why	M4
I fathered such a nature whence it came	D3
Well then the fever goes and I am weak	U4
Repentant it may be delirious visions	V4
That haunted me in fever plague me yet	W4
Even while I think them visions nothing else	F2
So I grow pitiful and blame myself	L2
For any part I had in her mistakes	X4
Sorrows and struggles and I curse myself	L2
That I was powerless to help her more	R3
Thus is she like a fever in my life	C
	-
Well then the child grows up But as a child	N2
She dances laughs and sings At three years springs	F
For minutes and for minutes on her toes	W2
Like skipping rope clapping her hands the while	B
Her blue eyes twinkling and her milk white teeth	Y4
Glistening as she gurgled shouted laughed	Z4
There never was such vital strength I give
The pictures as my memory took them Next
I see her looking side ways at me as if
She studied me avoided me The child	N2
Is now ten years of age and now I know	I
She smelled the rats that made the family hearth
A place for scampering the horrors of our home
She thought I brought the rats and kept them there	R3
These rats of bickering anger strife at home
I knew she blamed me for her mother's moods	O2
Who dragged about the kitchen day by day	R
Sad faced and silent So the upshot was
I had two enemies in the house where once	O
I had but one her mother This made worse
The state for both and worse the state for me	A
And so it goes Then next there's Alma Bell	B
The following year my daughter finished up	B2
The High School and we sit my wife and I	M4
To see the exercises And that summer Elenor	R3
Now eighteen and a woman goes about	B4
I don't know what she does sometimes I see	A
Some young man with her walking But at home
When I come in the mother and the daughter	R3
Put pedals on their talk or change the theme	U2
I am shut out	B4
	-
And in the fall I learn	S3
From some outsider that she's teaching school	B
And later people laugh and talk to me	A
About her feat of cowing certain Czechs
Who broke her discipline in school	B
	-
Well then	T2
Two years go on that have no memory	A
Just like sick days in bed when you lie there	R3
And wake and sleep and wait But finally	A
Her mother says To night our Elenor	R3
Leaves for Los Angeles And then the mother	R3
To hide a sob coughs nervously and leaves
The room where I am for the kitchen I	M4
Sit with the evening paper let it fall	B
Then hold it up to read again and try	M4
To say to self All right what if she goes	W2
The evening meal goes hard for Elenor	M4
Shines forth in kindness for me talks and laughs
I choke again She says to me if God
Had meant her for a better youth then God
Had given her a better youth she thanks me	A
For making High School possible to her	M4
And says all will be well she will earn money	A
To go to college that she will gain strength
By helping self Just think my friend to hear	M4
Such words which in their kindness proved my failure	M4
When I had hoped aspired when I had given	C4
My very soul whether I liked this daughter	M4
Or liked her not out of a generous hand
Large hearted in its carelessness to give
A daughter of such mind a place in life	C
And schooling for the place
	-
The meal was over	M4
We stood there silent then her face grew wet	W4
With tears as wet as blossoms soaked with rain	R4
She took my hand and took her mother's hand
And put our hands together then she said	N
Be friends be friends and hurried from the room
Her mother following I stepped out doors
And stood what seemed a minute entered again	T2
Walked to the front room from the window saw	A3
Elenor and her mother in the street
The girl was gone How could I follow them
They had not asked me So I stood and saw	A3
The canvas telescope her mother carried	I3
They disappeared I went back to my store	M4
Came back at nine o'clock lighted a match
And saw my wife in bed cloths on her eyes	Q
She turned her face to the wall and didn't speak	U4
	-
Next morning at the breakfast table she	A
Complaining of a stiff arm said that satchel	B
Was weighted down with books my arm is stiff
Elenor took French books to study French
When she can pay a teacher she will learn	S3
How to pronounce the words but by herself	L2
She'll learn the grammar how to read She knew	W
How words like that would hurt	Q4
	-
I merely said	N
A happy home is better than knowing French
And went off to my store	M4
	-
But coroner	M4
Search for the men in her life When she came	D3
Back from the West after three years I knew	W
By look of her eyes that some one filled her life	C
Had taken her life and body What if I	M4
Had failed as father in the way I failed
And what if our home was not home to her	M4
She could have married why not If a girl	B
Can fascinate the men I know she could	T3
She can have marriage if she wants to marry	A
Unless she runs to men already married	I3
And if she does so don't you make her out	B4
As loose and bad	Y3
	-
Well what is more to tell	B
She learned French seemed to know the ways of the world
Knew books knew how to dress gave evidence	O
Of contact with refinements letters came	D3
When she was here at intervals inscribed
In writing of elite ones gifted maybe	A
And she was filial and kind to me	A
Most kind toward her mother gave us things	F
At Christmas time But still her way was such	B3
That I as well had been familiar with her	M4
As with some formal lady visiting	D
She came back here before she went to France
Staid two days with us Once upon the porch
She turned to me and said I wish to honor	M4
Mother and you by serving in the war	M4
You must rejoice that I can serve you must
But most I wish to honor America
This land of promise of fulfillment too	W
Which proves to all the world that men and women	C4
Are born alike of God at least that riches
And classes formed in pride have neither hearts
Nor minds above the souls of those who work	K4
This land that reared me is my dearest love
I go to serve the country	A
	-
Pardon me	A
A man of my age in an hour like this	I4
Must cry a little wait till I can say	R
The last words that she said to me	A
	-
She put
Her arms about me then she said to me	A
I am so glad my life and place in life	C
Were such that I was forced to rise or sink	A4
To strive or fail God has been good to me	A
Who gifted me with spirit to aspire	M4
I go back to my store now In these days	X2
Last days of course I try to be a husband	L4
Try to be kinder to the mother of Elenor	M4
Death is not far off and that makes us think	A4
We may be over soft or penitent
Forgive where we should hate still being soft
And fade off from the wrongs we brooded on	C2
And cease to care life has been badly lived
From first to last But none the less our vision	C4
Seems clearer as we end this trivial life	C
And so I try to be a kinder husband	L4
To Elenor's mother	M4
	-
So spoke Henry Murray	M4
To Merival a stenographer took down	D2
His words and they were written out and shown	S4
The jury Afterward the mother came	D3
And told her story to the coroner	M4
Also reported written out and shown	S4
The jury But it happened thus with her	M4
She waited in the coroner's outer room
Until her husband told his story then	T2
With eyes upon the floor passing her husband	L4
The two in silence passing as he left
The coroner's office spoke amid her sighs	Q
Her breath long drawn at intervals looking down	D2
The while she spoke	H

Edgar Lee Masters

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