Johnny Appleseed Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBC DECF GHGB IJKL MGHG IHBN BILI OBIG PMCQ BGBR SGIT PGUPWhen the air of October is sweet and cold as the wine of apples | A |
Hanging ungathered in frosted orchards along the Grand River | B |
I take the road that winds by the resting fields and wander | B |
From Eastmanville to Nunica down to the Villa Crossing | C |
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I look for old men to talk with men as old as the orchards | D |
Men to tell me of ancient days of those who built and planted | E |
Lichen gray branch broken bent and sighing | C |
Hobbling for warmth in the sun and for places to sit and smoke | F |
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For there is a legend here a tale of the croaking old ones | G |
That Johnny Appleseed came here planted some orchards around here | H |
When nothing was here but the pine trees oaks and the beeches | G |
And nothing was here but the marshes lake and the river | B |
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Peter Van Zylen is ninety and this he tells me | I |
My father talked with Johnny Appleseed there on the hill side | J |
There by the road on the way to Fruitport saw him | K |
Clearing pines and oaks for a place for an apple orchard | L |
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Peter Van Zylen says He got that name from the people | M |
For carrying apple seed with him and planting orchards | G |
All the way from Ohio through Indiana across here | H |
Planting orchards they say as far as Illinois | G |
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Johnny Appleseed said so my father told me | I |
I go to a place forgotten the orchards will thrive and be here | H |
For children to come who will gather and eat hereafter | B |
And few will know who planted and none will understand | N |
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I laugh said Johnny Appleseed Some fellow buys this timber | B |
Five years perhaps from to day begins to clear for barley | I |
And here in the midst of the timber is hidden an apple orchard | L |
How did it come here Lord Who was it here before me | I |
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Yes I was here before him to make these places of worship | O |
Labor and laughter and gain in the late October | B |
Why did I do it eh Some folks say I am crazy | I |
Where do my labors end Far west God only knows | G |
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Said Johnny Appleseed there on the hill side Listen | P |
Beware the deceit of nurseries sellers of seeds of the apple | M |
Think You labor for years in trees not worth the raising | C |
You planted what you knew not bitter or sour for sweet | Q |
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No luck more bitter than poor seed but one as bitter | B |
The planting of perfect seed in soil that feeds and fails | G |
Nourishes for a little and then goes spent forever | B |
Look to your seed he said and remember the soil | R |
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And after that is the fight the foe curled up at the root | S |
The scale that crumples and deadens the moth in the blossoms | G |
Becoming a life that coils at the core of a thing of beauty | I |
You bite your apple a worm is crushed on your tongue | T |
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And it's every bit the truth said Peter Van Zylen | P |
So many things love an apple as well as ourselves | G |
A man must fight for the thing he loves to possess it | U |
Apples freedom heaven said Peter Van Zylen | P |
Edgar Lee Masters
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