Avon's Harvest Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKL MNOKPCJQRSTUVKWXBO YJZA2OB2TNC2OTC2PTD2 E2F2G2H2I2J2K2L2M2N2 QO2P2KWOK2KQ2OQ2R2E2 OKE2S2T2DU2 OBLHJOQV2KUDLW2X2OY2 X2OWKZ2LA3FB3KCTC3TV Y2 Q2LX2U2LVD3E3WCEA2Q2 Z ZB3OF3LG3OOKL CAPKH3CF2Y2B2S2W2W2 I3F2E3VOJ3K3CEL3M3N3 M3M3E2O3M3KM3P3CKQ3M 3VR3X2OLKLTS3LM3T3M3 U3QDM3M3

Fear like a living fire that only deathA
Might one day cool had now in Avon s eyesB
Been witness for so long of an invasionC
That made of a gay friend whom we had knownD
Almost a memory wore no other nameE
As yet for us than fear Another manF
Than Avon might have given to us at leastG
A futile opportunity for wordsH
We might regret But Avon since it happenedI
Fed with his unrevealing reticenceJ
The fire of death we saw that horriblyK
Consumed him while he crumbled and said nothingL
-
So many a time had I been on the edgeM
And off again of a foremeasured fallN
Into the darkness and discomfitureO
Of his oblique rebuff that finallyK
My silence honored his holding itselfP
Away from a gratuitous intrusionC
That likely would have widened a new distanceJ
Already wide enough if not so newQ
But there are seeming parallels in spaceR
That may converge in time and so it wasS
I walked with Avon fought and pondered with himT
While he made out a case for So and soU
Or slaughtered What s his name in his old wayV
With a new difference Nothing in Avon latelyK
Was or was ever again to be for usW
Like him that we remembered and all the whileX
We saw that fire at work within his eyesB
And had no glimpse of what was burning thereO
-
So for a year it went and so it wentY
For half another year when all at onceJ
At someone s tinkling afternoon at homeZ
I saw that in the eyes of Avon s wifeA2
The fire that I had met the day beforeO
In his had found another living fuelB2
To look at her and then to think of himT
And thereupon to contemplate the fallN
Of a dim curtain over the dark endC2
Of a dark play required of me no moreO
Clairvoyance than a man who cannot swimT
Will exercise in seeing that his friendC2
Off shore will drown except he save himselfP
To her I could say nothing and to himT
No more than tallied with a long beliefD2
That I should only have it back againE2
For my chagrin to ruminate uponF2
Ingloriously for the still time it starvedG2
And that would be for me as long a timeH2
As I remembered Avon who is yetI2
Not quite forgotten On the other handJ2
For saying nothing I might have with me alwaysK2
An injured and recriminating ghostL2
Of a dead friend The more I pondered itM2
The more I knew there was not much to loseN2
Albeit for one whose delving hithertoQ
Had been a forage of his own affairsO2
The quest however golden the rewardP2
Was irksome and as Avon suddenlyK
And soon was driven to let me see was needlessW
It seemed an age ago that we were thereO
One evening in the room that in the daysK2
When they could laugh he called the LibraryK
He calls it that you understand she saidQ2
Because the dictionary always lives hereO
He s not a man of books yet he can readQ2
And write He learned it all at school He smiledR2
And answered with a fervor that rang thenE2
Superfluous Had I learned a little moreO
At school it might have been as well for meK
And I remember now that he paused thenE2
Leaving a silence that one had to breakS2
But this was long ago and there was nowT2
No laughing in that house We were aloneD
This time and it was Avon s time to talkU2
-
I waited and anon became awareO
That I was looking less at Avon s eyesB
Than at the dictionary like one askingL
Already why we make so much of wordsH
That have so little weight in the true balanceJ
Your name is Resignation for an hourO
He said and I m a little sorry for youQ
So be resigned I shall not praise your workV2
Or strive in any way to make you happyK
My purpose only is to make you knowU
How clearly I have known that you have knownD
There was a reason waited on your comingL
And if it s in me to see clear enoughW2
To fish the reason out of a black wellX2
Where you see only a dim sort of glimmerO
That has for you no lightY2
-
I see the wellX2
I said but there s a doubt about the glimmerO
Say nothing of the light I m at your serviceW
And though you say that I shall not be happyK
I shall be if in some way I may serveZ2
To tell you fairly now that I know nothingL
Is nothing more than fair You know as muchA3
As any man alive save only one manF
If he s alive Whether he lives or notB3
Is rather for time to answer than for meK
And that s a reason or a part of oneC
For your appearance here You do not know himT
And even if you should pass him in the streetC3
He might go by without your feeling himT
Between you and the world I cannot sayV
Whether he would but I suppose he mightY2
-
And I suppose you might if urged I saidQ2
Say in what water it is that we are fishingL
You that have reasons hidden in a wellX2
Not mentioning all your nameless friends that walkU2
The streets and are not either dead or livingL
For company are surely one would sayV
To be forgiven if you may seem distraughtD3
I mean distrait I don t know what I meanE3
I only know that I am at your serviceW
Always yet with a special reservationC
That you may deem eccentric All the sameE
Unless your living dead man comes to lifeA2
Or is less indiscriminately deadQ2
I shall go homeZ
-
No you will not go homeZ
Said Avon or I beg that you will notB3
So saying he went slowly to the doorO
And turned the key Forgive me and my mannersF3
But I would be alone with you this eveningL
The key as you observe is in the lockG3
And you may sit between me and the doorO
Or where you will You have my word of honorO
That I would spare you the least injuryK
That might attend your presence here this eveningL
-
I thank you for your soothing introductionC
Avon I said Go on The Lord givethA
The Lord taketh away I trust myselfP
Always to you and to your courtesyK
Only remember that I cling somewhatH3
Affectionately to the old traditionC
I understand you and your part said AvonF2
And I dare say it s well enough tonightY2
We play around the circumstance a littleB2
I ve read of men that half way to the stakeS2
Would have their little joke It s well enoughW2
Rather a waste of time but well enoughW2
-
I listened as I waited and heard stepsI3
Outside of one who paused and then went onF2
And having heard I might as well have seenE3
The fear in his wife s eyes He gazed awayV
As I could see in helpless thought of herO
And said to me Well then it was like thisJ3
Some tales will have a deal of going backK3
In them before they are begun But this oneC
Begins in the beginning when he cameE
I was a boy at school sixteen years oldL3
And on my way in all appearancesM3
To mark an even tempered averageN3
Among the major mediocritiesM3
Who serve and earn with no especial noiseM3
Or vast reward I saw myself even thenE2
A light for no high shining and I fearedO3
No boy or man having in truth no causeM3
I was enough a leader to be freeK
And not enough a hero to be jealousM3
Having eyes and ears I knew that I was enviedP3
And as a proper sort of compensationC
Had envy of my own for two or threeK
But never felt and surely never gaveQ3
The wound of any more malevolenceM3
Than decent youth defeated for a dayV
May take to bed with him and kill with sleepR3
So and so far my days were going wellX2
And would have gone so but for the black tigerO
That many of us fancy is in waitingL
But waits for most of us in fancy onlyK
For me there was no fancy in his comingL
Though God knows I had never summoned himT
Or thought of him To this day I m adriftS3
And in the dark out of all reckoningL
To find a reason why he ever wasM3
Or what was ailing Fate when he was bornT3
On this alleged God ordered earth of oursM3
Now and again there comes one of his kindU3
By chance we say I leave all that to youQ
Whether it was an evil chance aloneD
Or some invidious juggling of the starsM3
Or some accrued arrears of anceM3

Edwin Arlington Robinson



Rate:
(1)



Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation


Write your comment about Avon's Harvest poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson


 
Best Poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 4 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Popular Poets