Mr. Flood's Party Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFG HIJIAKLK MHNHOPQP RSTSUHVH WXYZA2AQA LB2C2B2D2E2F2E2 G2HDHPBH2BOld Eben Flood climbing alone one night | A |
Over the hill between the town below | B |
And the forsaken upland hermitage | C |
That held as much as he should ever know | B |
On earth again of home paused warily | D |
The road was his with not a native near | E |
And Eben having leisure said aloud | F |
For no man else in Tilbury Town to hear | G |
- | |
Well Mr Flood we have the harvest moon | H |
Again and we may not have many more | I |
The bird is on the wing the poet says | J |
And you and I have said it here before | I |
Drink to the bird He raised up to the light | A |
The jug that he had gone so far to fill | K |
And answered huskily Well Mr Flood | L |
Since you propose it I believe I will | K |
- | |
Alone as if enduring to the end | M |
A valiant armor of scarred hopes outworn | H |
He stood there in the middle of the road | N |
Like Roland's ghost winding a silent horn | H |
Below him in the town among the trees | O |
Where friends of other days had honored him | P |
A phantom salutation of the dead | Q |
Rang thinly till old Eben's eyes were dim | P |
- | |
Then as a mother lays her sleeping child | R |
Down tenderly fearing it may awake | S |
He sat the jug down slowly at his feet | T |
With trembling care knowing that most things break | S |
And only when assured that on firm earth | U |
It stood as the uncertain lives of men | H |
Assuredly did not he paced away | V |
And with his hand extended paused again | H |
- | |
Well Mr Flood we have not met like this | W |
In a long time and many a change has come | X |
To both of us I fear since last it was | Y |
We had a drop together Welcome home | Z |
Convivially returning with himself | A2 |
Again he raised the jug up to the light | A |
And with an acquiescent quaver said | Q |
Well Mr Flood if you insist I might | A |
- | |
Only a very little Mr Flood | L |
For auld lang syne No more sir that will do | B2 |
So for the time apparently it did | C2 |
And Eben apparently thouht so too | B2 |
For soon among the silver loneliness | D2 |
Of night he lifted up his voice and sang | E2 |
Secure with only two moons listening | F2 |
Until the whole harmonious landscape rang | E2 |
- | |
For auld lang syne The weary throat gave out | G2 |
The last word wavered and the song was done | H |
He raised again the jug regretfully | D |
And shook his head and was again alone | H |
There was not much that was ahead of him | P |
And there was nothing in the town below | B |
Where strangers would have shut the many doors | H2 |
That many friends had opened long ago | B |
Edwin Arlington Robinson
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