The Town Down By The River Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCCBDEED DFFBDBDB GCCBHIIH HDDJFJFJ A BKKKEKKE EFFKCKFK KKKKHKKH HDDJLJLJ A KKKKCKKC CCCKMKMK KKKKHIIH HNNJHJHJ KKKKDKKD DEEKDKDK KEEKKCCK KHHKFKDKI | A |
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Said the Watcher by the Way | B |
To the young and the unladen | C |
To the boy and to the maiden | C |
God be with you both to day | B |
First your song came ringing | D |
Now you come you two | E |
Knowing naught of what you do | E |
Or of what your dreams are bringing | D |
- | |
O you children who go singing | D |
To the Town down the River | F |
Where the millions cringe and shiver | F |
Tell me what you know to day | B |
Tell me how far you are going | D |
Tell me how you find your way | B |
O you children who are dreaming | D |
Tell me what you dream to day | B |
- | |
He is old and we have heard him | G |
Said the boy then to the maiden | C |
He is old and heavy laden | C |
With a load we throw away | B |
Care may come to find us | H |
Age may lay us low | I |
Still we seek the light we know | I |
And the dead we leave behind us | H |
- | |
Did he think that he would blind us | H |
Into such a small believing | D |
As to live without achieving | D |
When the lights have led so far | J |
Let him watch or let him wither | F |
Shall he tell us where we are | J |
We know best who go together | F |
Downward onward and so far | J |
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II | A |
- | |
Said the Watcher by the Way | B |
To the fiery folk that hastened | K |
To the loud and the unchastened | K |
You are strong I see to day | K |
Strength and hope may lead you | E |
To the journey's end | K |
Each to be the other's friend | K |
If the Town should fail to need you | E |
- | |
And are ravens there to feed you | E |
In the Town down the River | F |
Where the gift appalls the giver | F |
And youth hardens day by day | K |
O you brave and you unshaken | C |
Are you truly on your way | K |
And are sirens in the River | F |
That you come so far to day | K |
- | |
You are old and we have listened | K |
Said the voice of one who halted | K |
You are sage and self exalted | K |
But your way is not our way | K |
You that cannot aid us | H |
Give us words to eat | K |
Be assured that they are sweet | K |
And that we are as God made us | H |
- | |
Not in vain have you delayed us | H |
Though the river still be calling | D |
Through the twilight that is falling | D |
And the Town be still so far | J |
By the whirlwind of your wisdom | L |
Leagues are lifted as leaves are | J |
But a king without a kingdom | L |
Fails us who have come so far | J |
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III | A |
- | |
Said the Watcher by the Way | K |
To the slower folk who stumbled | K |
To the weak and the world humbled | K |
Tell me how you fare to day | K |
Some with ardor shaken | C |
All with honor scarred | K |
Do you falter finding hard | K |
The far chance that you have taken | C |
- | |
Or do you at length awaken | C |
To an antic retribution | C |
Goading to a new confusion | C |
The drugged hopes of yesterday | K |
O you poor mad men that hobble | M |
Will you not return or stay | K |
Do you trust you broken people | M |
To a dawn without the day | K |
- | |
You speak well of what you know not | K |
Muttered one and then a second | K |
You have begged and you have beckoned | K |
But you see us on our way | K |
Who are you to scold us | H |
Knowing what we know | I |
Jeremiah long ago | I |
Said as much as you have told us | H |
- | |
As we are then you behold us | H |
Derelicts of all conditions | N |
Poets rogues and sick physicians | N |
Plodding forward from afar | J |
Forward now into the darkness | H |
Where the men before us are | J |
Forward onward out of grayness | H |
To the light that shone so far | J |
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IV | - |
- | |
Said the Watcher by the Way | K |
To some aged ones who lingered | K |
To the shrunken the claw fingered | K |
So you come for me to day | K |
Yes to give you warning | D |
You are old one said | K |
You have hairs on your head | K |
Fit for laurel not for scorning | D |
- | |
From the first of early morning | D |
We have toiled along to find you | E |
We as others have maligned you | E |
But we need your scorn to day | K |
By the light that we saw shining | D |
Let us not be lured alway | K |
Let us hear no River calling | D |
When to morrow is to day | K |
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But your lanterns are unlighted | K |
And the Town is far before you | E |
Let us hasten I implore you | E |
Said the Watcher by the Way | K |
Long have I waited | K |
Longer have I known | C |
That the Town would have its own | C |
And the call be for the fated | K |
- | |
In the name of all created | K |
Let us hear no more my brothers | H |
Are we older than all others | H |
Are the planets in our way | K |
Hark said one I hear the River | F |
Calling always night and day | K |
Forward then The lights are shining | D |
Said the Watcher by the Way | K |
Edwin Arlington Robinson
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