Wild Gratitude Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACDEFA AGACHIA JKAAACAF LMNBO PQ RSTKFACA U VMFWCTonight when I knelt down next to our cat Zooey | A |
And put my fingers into her clean cat's mouth | B |
And rubbed her swollen belly that will never know kittens | A |
And watched her wriggle onto her side pawing the air | C |
And listened to her solemn little squeals of delight | D |
I was thinking about the poet Christopher Smart | E |
Who wanted to kneel down and pray without ceasing | F |
In everyone of the splintered London streets | A |
- | |
And was locked away in the madhouse at St Luke's | A |
With his sad religious mania and his wild gratitude | G |
And his grave prayers for the other lunatics | A |
And his great love for his speckled cat Jeoffry | C |
All day today August I remembered how | H |
Christopher Smart blessed this same day in August | I |
For its calm bravery and ordinary good conscience | A |
- | |
This was the day that he blessed the Postmaster General | J |
'And all conveyancers of letters' for their warm humanity | K |
And the gardeners for their private benevolence | A |
And intricate knowledge of the language of flowers | A |
And the milkmen for their universal human kindness | A |
This morning I understood that he loved to hear | C |
As I have heard the soft clink of milk bottles | A |
On the rickety stairs in the early morning | F |
- | |
And how terrible it must have seemed | L |
When even this small pleasure was denied him | M |
But it wasn't until tonight when I knelt down | N |
And slipped my hand into Zooey's waggling mouth | B |
That I remembered how he'd called Jeoffry 'the servant | O |
Of the Living God duly and daily serving Him ' | - |
And for the first time understood what it meant | P |
Because it wasn't until I saw my own cat | Q |
- | |
Whine and roll over on her fluffy back | R |
That I realized how gratefully he had watched | S |
Jeoffry fetch and carry his wooden cork | T |
Across the grass in the wet garden patiently | K |
Jumping over a high stick calmly sharpening | F |
His claws on the woodpile rubbing his nose | A |
Against the nose of another cat stretching or | C |
Slowly stalking his traditional enemy the mouse | A |
A rodent 'a creature of great personal valour ' | - |
And then dallying so much that his enemy escaped | U |
- | |
And only then did I understand | V |
It is Jeoffry and every creature like him | M |
Who can teach us how to praise purring | F |
In their own language | W |
Wreathing themselves in the living fire | C |
Edward Hirsch
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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