The Night Before Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCADAEFGAHGFIDJGKAD DLMNOPAFMPPQDDPDLLLL LFD AAFRDISADTUVAMWEGDFA MSQAGGADXGAGDMAGYTGZ GGAAAMGA2B2AAYPGAMYY GDAC2GGGB2SD2GDMDE2 F2AG2H2YPGI2DD2ASJ2M GAYXGA2B2YXYDMMGGDFG YGAAGAYA2AK2QDZAGDYG AYDA2GGK2DGGYYGGYYZD 2G DYAYGB2GSDYYDDAGYAGG MGYFFA AQJYDB2YDB2YDL2ZDADB 2YMB2YK2MYYYYGMRSMMG A2DAYF2FD2YAM2SDF2AD XATXPYGSA2F2JDMYDA2G YYDAYPGSGMY YDXYDQDAMTSGAYYYGYMY GSYJ2I2MYAG2GYYYGFN2 XQGMA2AMO2GN2YYXQYAG QYQYYO2MYYJB2YYGYF YYP2YAAO2XA2YAA2YMA2 B2B2FF

Look you Dominie look you and listen	A
Look in my face first search every line there	B
Mark every feature chin lip and forehead	C
Look in my eyes and tell me the lesson	A
You read there measure my nose and tell me	D
Where I am wanting A man's nose Dominie	A
Is often the cast of his inward spirit	E
So mark mine well But why do you smile so	F
Pity or what Is it written all over	G
This face of mine with a brute's confession	A
Nothing but sin there nothing but hell scars	H
Or is it because there is something better	G
A glimmer of good maybe or a shadow	F
Of something that's followed me down from childhood	I
Followed me all these years and kept me	D
Spite of my slips and sins and follies	J
Spite of my last red sin my murder	G
Just out of hell Yes something of that kind	K
And you smile for that You're a good man Dominie	A
The one good man in the world who knows me	D
My one good friend in a world that mocks me	D
Here in this hard stone cage But I leave it	L
To morrow To morrow My God am I crying	M
Are these things tears Tears What am I frightened	N
I who swore I should go to the scaffold	O
With big strong steps and No more I thank you	P
But no I am all right now No listen	A
I am here to be hanged to be hanged to morrow	F
At six o'clock when the sun is rising	M
And why am I here Not a soul can tell you	P
But this poor shivering thing before you	P
This fluttering wreck of the man God made him	Q
For God knows what wild reason Hear me	D
And learn from my lips the truth of my story	D
There's nothing strange in what I shall tell you	P
Nothing mysterious nothing unearthly	D
But damnably human and you shall hear it	L
Not one of those little black lawyers had guessed it	L
The judge with his big bald head never knew it	L
And the jury God rest their poor souls never dreamed it	L
Once there were three in the world who could tell it	L
Now there are two There'll be two to morrow	F
You my friend and But there's the story	D
	-
When I was a boy the world was heaven	A
I never knew then that the men and the women	A
Who petted and called me a brave big fellow	F
Were ever less happy than I but wisdom	R
Which comes with the years you know soon showed me	D
The secret of all my glittering childhood	I
The broken key to the fairies' castle	S
That held my life in the fresh glad season	A
When I was the king of the earth Then slowly	D
And yet so swiftly there came the knowledge	T
That the marvellous life I had lived was my life	U
That the glorious world I had loved was my world	V
And that every man and every woman	A
And every child was a different being	M
Wrought with a different heat and fired	W
With passions born of a single spirit	E
That the pleasure I felt was not their pleasure	G
Nor my sorrow a kind of nameless pity	D
For something I knew not what their sorrow	F
And thus was I taught my first hard lesson	A
The lesson we suffer the most in learning	M
That a happy man is a man forgetful	S
Of all the torturing ills around him	Q
When or where I first met the woman	A
I cherished and made my wife no matter	G
Enough to say that I found her and kept her	G
Here in my heart with as pure a devotion	A
As ever Christ felt for his brothers Forgive me	D
For naming His name in your patient presence	X
But I feel my words and the truth I utter	G
Is God's own truth I loved that woman	A
Not for her face but for something fairer	G
Something diviner I thought than beauty	D
I loved the spirit the human something	M
That seemed to chime with my own condition	A
And make soul music when we were together	G
And we were never apart from the moment	Y
My eyes flashed into her eyes the message	T
That swept itself in a quivering answer	G
Back through my strange lost being My pulses	Z
Leapt with an aching speed and the measure	G
Of this great world grew small and smaller	G
Till it seemed the sky and the land and the ocean	A
Closed at last in a mist all golden	A
Around us two And we stood for a season	A
Like gods outflung from chaos dreaming	M
That we were the king and the queen of the fire	G
That reddened the clouds of love that held us	A2
Blind to the new world soon to be ours	B2
Ours to seize and sway The passion	A
Of that great love was a nameless passion	A
Bright as the blaze of the sun at noonday	Y
Wild as the flames of hell but mark you	P
Never a whit less pure for its fervor	G
The baseness in me for I was human	A
Burned like a worm and perished and nothing	M
Was left me then but a soul that mingled	Y
Itself with hers and swayed and shuddered	Y
In fearful triumph When I consider	G
That helpless love and the cursed folly	D
That wrecked my life for the sake of a woman	A
Who broke with a laugh the chains of her marriage	C2
Whatever the word may mean I wonder	G
If all the woe was her sin or whether	G
The chains themselves were enough to lead her	G
In love's despite to break them Sinners	B2
And saints I say are rocked in the cradle	S
But never are known till the will within them	D2
Speaks in its own good time So I foster	G
Even to night for the woman who wronged me	D
Nothing of hate nor of love but a feeling	M
Of still regret for the man But hear me	D
And judge for yourself	E2
	-
For a time the seasons	F2
Changed and passed in a sweet succession	A
That seemed to me like an endless music	G2
Life was a rolling psalm and the choirs	H2
Of God were glad for our love I fancied	Y
All this and more than I dare to tell you	P
To night yes more than I dare to remember	G
And then well the music stopped There are moments	I2
In all men's lives when it stops I fancy	D
Or seems to stop till it comes to cheer them	D2
Again with a larger sound The curtain	A
Of life just then is lifted a little	S
To give to their sight new joys new sorrows	J2
Or nothing at all sometimes I was watching	M
The slow sweet scenes of a golden picture	G
Flushed and alive with a long delusion	A
That made the murmur of home when I shuddered	Y
And felt like a knife that awful silence	X
That comes when the music goes forever	G
The truth came over my life like a darkness	A2
Over a forest where one man wanders	B2
Worse than alone For a time I staggered	Y
And stumbled on with a weak persistence	X
After the phantom of hope that darted	Y
And dodged like a frightened thing before me	D
To quit me at last and vanish Nothing	M
Was left me then but the curse of living	M
And bearing through all my days the fever	G
And thirst of a poisoned love Were I stronger	G
Or weaker perhaps my scorn had saved me	D
Given me strength to crush my sorrow	F
With hate for her and the world that praised her	G
To have left her then and there to have conquered	Y
That old false life with a new and a wiser	G
Such things are easy in words You listen	A
And frown I suppose that I never mention	A
That beautiful word forgive I forgave her	G
First of all and I praised kind Heaven	A
That I was a brave clean man to do it	Y
And then I tried to forget Forgiveness	A2
What does it mean when the one forgiven	A
Shivers and weeps and clings and kisses	K2
The credulous fool that holds her and tells him	Q
A thousand things of a good man's mercy	D
And then slips off with a laugh and plunges	Z
Back to the sin she has quit for a season	A
To tell him that hell and the world are better	G
For her than a prophet's heaven Believe me	D
The love that dies ere its flames are wasted	Y
In search of an alien soul is better	G
Better by far than the lonely passion	A
That burns back into the heart that feeds it	Y
For I loved her still and the more she mocked me	D
Fooled with her endless pleading promise	A2
Of future faith the more I believed her	G
The penitent thing she seemed and the stronger	G
Her choking arms and her small hot kisses	K2
Bound me and burned my brain to pity	D
The more she grew to the heavenly creature	G
That brightened the life I had lost forever	G
The truth was gone somehow for the moment	Y
The curtain fell for a time and I fancied	Y
We were again like gods together	G
Loving again with the old glad rapture	G
But scenes like these too often repeated	Y
Failed at last and her guile was wasted	Y
I made an end of her shrewd caresses	Z
And told her a few straight words She took them	D2
Full at their worth and the farce was over	G
	-
At first my dreams of the past upheld me	D
But they were a short support the present	Y
Pushed them away and I fell The mission	A
Of life whatever it was was blasted	Y
My game was lost And I met the winner	G
Of that foul deal as a sick slave gathers	B2
His painful strength at the sight of his master	G
And when he was past I cursed him fearful	S
Of that strange chance which makes us mighty	D
Or mean or both I cursed him and hated	Y
The stones he pressed with his heel I followed	Y
His easy march with a backward envy	D
And cursed myself for the beast within me	D
But pride is the master of love and the vision	A
Of those old days grew faint and fainter	G
The counterfeit wife my mercy sheltered	Y
Was nothing now but a woman a woman	A
Out of my way and out of my nature	G
My battle with blinded love was over	G
My battle with aching pride beginning	M
If I was the loser at first I wonder	G
If I am the winner now I doubt it	Y
My life is a losing game and to morrow	F
To morrow Christ did I say to morrow	F
Is your brandy good for death There listen	A
	-
When love goes out and a man is driven	A
To shun mankind for the scars that make him	Q
A joke for all chattering tongues he carries	J
A double burden The woes I suffered	Y
After that hard betrayal made me	D
Pity at first all breathing creatures	B2
On this bewildered earth I studied	Y
Their faces and made for myself the story	D
Of all their scattered lives Like brothers	B2
And sisters they seemed to me then and I nourished	Y
A stranger friendship wrought in my fancy	D
Between those people and me But somehow	L2
As time went on there came queer glances	Z
Out of their eyes and the shame that stung me	D
Harassed my pride with a crazed impression	A
That every face in the surging city	D
Was turned to me and I saw sly whispers	B2
Now and then as I walked and wearied	Y
My wasted life twice over in bearing	M
With all my sorrow the sorrows of others	B2
Till I found myself their fool Then I trembled	Y
A poor scared thing and their prying faces	K2
Told me the ghastly truth they were laughing	M
At me and my fate My God I could feel it	Y
That laughter And then the children caught it	Y
And I like a struck dog crept and listened	Y
And then when I met the man who had weakened	Y
A woman's love to his own desire	G
It seemed to me that all hell were laughing	M
In fiendish concert I was their victim	R
And his and hate's And there was the struggle	S
As long as the earth we tread holds something	M
A tortured heart can love the meaning	M
Of life is not wholly blurred but after	G
The last loved thing in the world has left us	A2
We know the triumph of hate The glory	D
Of good goes out forever the beacon	A
Of sin is the light that leads us downward	Y
Down to the fiery end The road runs	F2
Right through hell and the souls that follow	F
The cursed ways where its windings lead them	D2
Suffer enough I say to merit	Y
All grace that a God can give The fashion	A
Of our belief is to lift all beings	M2
Born for a life that knows no struggle	S
In sin's tight snares to eternal glory	D
All apart from the branded millions	F2
Who carry through life their faces graven	A
With sure brute scars that tell the story	D
Of their foul fated passions Science	X
Has yet no salve to smooth or soften	A
The cradle scars of a tyrant's visage	T
No drug to purge from the vital essence	X
Of souls the sleeping venom Virtue	P
May flower in hell when its roots are twisted	Y
And wound with the roots of vice but the stronger	G
Never is known till there comes that battle	S
With sin to prove the victor Perilous	A2
Things are these demons we call our passions	F2
Slaves are we of their roving fancies	J
Fools of their devilish glee You think me	D
I know in this maundering way designing	M
To lighten the load of my guilt and cast it	Y
Half on the shoulders of God But hear me	D
I'm partly a man for all my weakness	A2
If weakness it were to stand and murder	G
Before men's eyes the man who had murdered	Y
Me and driven my burning forehead	Y
With horns for the world to laugh at Trust me	D
And try to believe my words but a portion	A
Of what God's purpose made me The coward	Y
Within me cries for this and I beg you	P
Now as I come to the end to remember	G
That women and men are on earth to travel	S
All on a different road Hereafter	G
The roads may meet I trust in something	M
I know not what	Y
	-
Well this was the way of it	Y
Stung with the shame and the secret fury	D
That comes to the man who has thrown his pittance	X
Of self at a traitor's feet I wandered	Y
Weeks and weeks in a baffled frenzy	D
Till at last the devil spoke I heard him	Q
And laughed at the love that strove to touch me	D
The dead lost love and I gripped the demon	A
Close to my breast and held him praising	M
The fates and the furies that gave me the courage	T
To follow his wild command Forgetful	S
Of all to come when the work was over	G
There came to me then no stony vision	A
Of these three hundred days I cherished	Y
An awful joy in my brain I pondered	Y
And weighed the thing in my mind and gloried	Y
In life to think that I was to conquer	G
Death at his own dark door and chuckled	Y
To think of it done so cleanly One evening	M
I knew that my time had come I shuddered	Y
A little but rather for doubt than terror	G
And followed him led by the nameless devil	S
I worshipped and called my brother The city	Y
Shone like a dream that night the windows	J2
Flashed with a piercing flame and the pavements	I2
Pulsed and swayed with a warmth or something	M
That seemed so then to my feet and thrilled me	Y
With a quick dizzy joy and the women	A
And men like marvellous things of magic	G2
Floated and laughed and sang by my shoulder	G
Sent with a wizard motion Through it	Y
And over and under it all there sounded	Y
A murmur of life like bees and I listened	Y
And laughed again to think of the flower	G
That grew blood red for me This fellow	F
Was one of the popular sort who flourish	N2
Unruffled where gods would fall For a conscience	X
He carried a snug deceit that made him	Q
The man of the time and the place whatever	G
The time or the place might be Were he sounding	M
With a genial craft that cloaked its purpose	A2
Nigh to itself the depth of a woman	A
Fooled with his brainless art or sending	M
The midnight home with songs and bottles	O2
The cad was there and his ease forever	G
Shone with the smooth and slippery polish	N2
That tells the snake That night he drifted	Y
Into an up town haunt and ordered	Y
Whatever it was with a soft assurance	X
That made me mad as I stood behind him	Q
Gripping his death and waited Coward	Y
I think is the name the world has given	A
To men like me but I'll swear I never	G
Thought of my own disgrace when I shot him	Q
Yes in the back I know it I know it	Y
Now but what if I do As I watched him	Q
Lying there dead in the scattered sawdust	Y
Wet with a day's blown froth I noted	Y
That things were still that the walnut tables	O2
Where men but a moment before were sitting	M
Were gone that a screen of something around me	Y
Shut them out of my sight But the gilded	Y
Signs of a hundred beers and whiskeys	J
Flashed from the walls above and the mirrors	B2
And glasses behind the bar were lighted	Y
In some strange way and into my spirit	Y
A thousand shafts of terrible fire	G
Burned like death and I fell The story	Y
Of what came then you know	F
	-
But tell me	Y
What does the whole thing mean What are we	Y
Slaves of an awful ignorance puppets	P2
Pulled by a fiend or gods without knowing it	Y
Do we shut from ourselves our own salvation	A
Or what do we do I tell you Dominie	A
There are times in the lives of us poor devils	O2
When heaven and hell get mixed Though conscience	X
May come like a whisper of Christ to warn us	A2
Away from our sins it is lost or laughed at	Y
And then we fall And for all who have fallen	A
Even for him I hold no malice	A2
Nor much compassion a mightier mercy	Y
Than mine must shrive him And I I am going	M
Into the light or into the darkness	A2
Why do I sit through these sickening hours	B2
And hope Good God are they hours hours	B2
Yes I am done with days And to morrow	F
We two may meet To morrow To morrow	F

Edwin Arlington Robinson

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