Johnny Appleseed Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBC DECF GHGB IJKL MGHG IHBN BILI OBIG PMCQ BGBR SGIT PGUP| When 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 |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| 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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