Life's Stages. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEFGGFF FFHHIIJKFFLLMMNN OOPPQIPPAARRFFQQ STUUVVOOFF AAWWXXYYZZFFA2A2B2B2 AAII| To the heart of trusting childhood life is all a gilded way | A |
| Wherein a beam of sunny bliss forever seems to play | A |
| It roams about delightedly through pleasure's roseate bower | B |
| And gaily makes a playmate too of every bird and flower | B |
| Holds with the rushing of the winds companionship awhile | C |
| And on the tempest's darkest brow discerns a brightening smile | C |
| Converses with the babbling waves as on their way they wend | D |
| And sees in everything it meets the features of a friend | D |
| To day is full of rosy joy to morrow is not here | E |
| When for an uncreated hour was childhood known to fear | F |
| Not until hopes warm hopes its heart a treasure house have made | G |
| Like summer flowers to bloom awhile like them alas to fade | G |
| Cherished too fondly and too long for ah the rich parterre | F |
| Crushed in its brightest blossoming leaves but a desert there | F |
| - | |
| This is life's second stage the gloss of springtime has passed o'er | F |
| The trusting bosom is deceived but still it trusts the more | F |
| Its young affections are bound up within a mother's love | H |
| And oh if blessings ever yet descended from above | H |
| And rested on an earthly tie to mark approval given | I |
| A mother's love assuredly is sanctioned thus by Heaven | I |
| But soon the ruthless spoiler comes and all its trust is vain | J |
| The eye that beamed so kindly once will ne'er unclose again | K |
| The voice of love that still could soothe when all its hopes were o'er | F |
| Alas those sweetly sacred tones are hushed forever more | F |
| The smile that lingered round its path when other lights had fled | L |
| Oh can it be that blessed smile is buried with the dead | L |
| Then what is left the orphan heart thus mournfully bereft | M |
| To call its crushed affections home and count the treasures left | M |
| With trembling fear to count them o'er and bitterly to sigh | N |
| Remembering they are earthly too they too alas must die | N |
| - | |
| Perchance of its remaining joys its fondly garnered things | O |
| One may be dearer than the rest to that it fondly clings | O |
| And resting thus confidingly it half forgets the woe | P |
| Which changed the orphan's joyous tones to cadence sad and low | P |
| And can the stern destroyer find naught else to call his own | Q |
| That he has stamped his fearful mark upon this chosen one | I |
| It boots not to inquire the cause the why it must be so | P |
| It is his victim this alone is pain enough to know | P |
| What's left thee now poor orphan heart that entered life so gay | A |
| And fondly dreamed 'twould all have proved a bright and cloudless way | A |
| Where are the joys that wreathed thee round in childhood's reckless hours | R |
| 'Twas thine to watch them droop and fall like pale decaying flowers | R |
| Where is thy home of love Ah well that thought may cloud thy brow | F |
| The dear loved home that sheltered thee is claimed by strangers now | F |
| And does that echoing hall repeat no well remembered tone | Q |
| The stranger's voice the stranger's step have there familiar grown | Q |
| - | |
| And where the joyous faces now that circled round the hearth | S |
| Gone Are all gone Then changed indeed fearfully changed is earth | T |
| Alas poor desolated heart what more remains for thee | U |
| A sad and solitary wreck on life's tempestuous sea | U |
| What but to feel destroying Time indeed has roughly past | V |
| And blighted fairest dreams of bliss oh too too fair to last | V |
| What but to muse on perished joys to which sad memory clings | O |
| While pleasure's wrecked and ruined hopes a mournful band she brings | O |
| Death's trophies which proclaim his shaft at treasured bliss he threw | F |
| And oh which mournfully disclose his fearful victory too | F |
| - | |
| Yes this is life but life it is without that heavenly ray | A |
| Which ever throws its purest light upon the stormiest way | A |
| Which sweetly gilds the darkest sky and comes like angel voice | W |
| E'en 'mid the wreck of dearest hopes to bid the heart rejoice | W |
| Which flings a smile on sorrow's brow and sunshine on the tomb | X |
| And scatters o'er the bed of death bright buds of deathless bloom | X |
| 'Tis true the parting hour will come the loved it cannot save | Y |
| But it can teach us with a smile to yield them to the grave | Y |
| To watch with chastened sober bliss the spirit's calm release | Z |
| Trusting though life have storms for us all with the dead is peace | Z |
| And even while the bosom aches aches to its inmost core | F |
| This heavenly beam can bid it joy that earthly ties are o'er | F |
| For oh our covenant Lord who ne'er his sacred promise breaks | A2 |
| Has sweetly said when all the world the changing world forsakes | A2 |
| He will be all the world to us then freely may the heart | B2 |
| Resign the fondly coffered bliss that clogs the immortal part | B2 |
| In holy trust 'twill all be ours when earth has passed away | A |
| And calmly wait the unclouded dawn of an eternal day | A |
| Conscious while God is near earth's best and purest joy is given | I |
| For 'tis His holy presence makes the perfect bliss of Heaven | I |
Eliza Paul Kirkbride Gurney
(1)
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Life's Stages. is a poem by Eliza Paul Kirkbride Gurney. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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