Maurine: Part 06 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABBCAD EEDDFDFGHHG IIJJKKLCLCMDMDNOBNOB D PPQQDEER SDTTUHAHUASDV WDWHXHYYXKZZ IZKA2PIPA2 B2B2NNB2 DDDEPPED UIID HHUC2C2MM D2D2KE2 F2F2PPG2G2 DDH2I2MMJ2J2 IIMMDDE2 E2 EK2K2A ERRPPA L2F2MDM2 L2F2MDN2O2P2P2DDD DAQ2Q2ADDR2R2 CDDDDDDICCIQQS2IS2 T2T2U2U2E2KV2V2YYW2X 2SSDDY2DDDT2DY2T2R2D DR2BBM Z2Z2PPMHH KKB2UUS2S2DDB2C2C2Q2 Q2Q2Q2A3 DDBB3B3DDBC3C3 D3D3Q2Q2LXLXLLQ2YE3T 2E3 T2F3YZF3T2G3G3HHZAAH 3H3XQ2XI3Q2DDQ2Q2I3J 3J3 DDDMDGDGMI3DI3Q2 LQ2DLDDDQ2 F3HHF3T2T2Z K3Q2K3Q2LL LLSSZZ B2C3C3PB2 BQQPB2BL3L3HHDDM3M3D DK3K3DDDDLL DDPN3PN3O3HHO3B3B3 P3P3QQQ3Q3 T2T2L G3DDLG3LL LB3B3R3T2T2S3S3Q2R3T 3 RB2B2RPPU3U3

There was a week of bustle and of hurry	A
A stately home echoed to voices sweet	B
Calling replying and to tripping feet	B
Of busy bridesmaids running to and fro	C
With all that girlish fluttering and flurry	A
Preceding such occasions	D
	-
Helen's room	E
Was like a lily garden all in bloom	E
Decked with the dainty robes of her trousseau	D
My robe was fashioned by swift skilful hands	D
A thing of beauty elegant and rich	F
A mystery of loopings puffs and bands	D
And as I watched it growing stitch by stitch	F
I felt as one might feel who should behold	G
With vision trance like where his body lay	H
In deathly slumber simulating clay	H
His grave cloth sewed together fold on fold	G
	-
I lived with ev'ry nerve upon the strain	I
As men go into battle and the pain	I
That more and more to my sad heart revealed	J
Grew ghastly with its horrors was concealed	J
From mortal eyes by superhuman power	K
That God bestowed upon me hour by hour	K
What night the Old Year gave unto the New	L
The key of human happiness and woe	C
The pointed stars upon their field of blue	L
Shone white and perfect o'er a world below	C
Of snow clad beauty all the trees were dressed	M
In gleaming garments decked with diadems	D
Each seeming like a bridal bidden guest	M
Coming o'erladen with a gift of gems	D
The bustle of the dressing room the sound	N
Of eager voices in discourse the clang	O
Of sweet bells jangled thud of steel clad feet	B
That beat swift music on the frozen ground	N
All blent together in my brain and rang	O
A medley of strange noises incomplete	B
And full of discords	D
	-
Then out on the night	P
Streamed from the open vestibule a light	P
That lit the velvet blossoms which we trod	Q
With all the hues of those that deck the sod	Q
The grand cathedral windows were ablaze	D
With gorgeous colours through a sea of bloom	E
Up the long aisle to join the waiting groom	E
The bridal cortege passed	R
	-
As some lost soul	S
Might surge on with the curious crowd to gaze	D
Upon its coffined body so I went	T
With that glad festal throng The organ sent	T
Great waves of melody along the air	U
That broke and fell in liquid drops like spray	H
On happy hearts that listened But to me	A
It sounded faintly as if miles away	H
A troubled spirit sitting in despair	U
Beside the sad and ever moaning sea	A
Gave utterance to sighing sounds of dole	S
We paused before the altar Framed in flowers	D
The white robed man of God stood forth	V
	-
I heard	W
The solemn service open through long hours	D
I seemed to stand and listen while each word	W
Fell on my ear as falls the sound of clay	H
Upon the coffin of the worshipped dead	X
The stately father gave the bride away	H
The bridegroom circled with a golden band	Y
The taper finger of her dainty hand	Y
The last imposing binding words were said	X
What God has joined let no man put asunder	K
And all my strife with self was at an end	Z
My lover was the husband of my friend	Z
	-
How strangely in some awful hour of pain	I
External trifles with our sorrows blend	Z
I never hear the mighty organ's thunder	K
I never catch the scent of heliotrope	A2
Nor see stained windows all ablaze with light	P
Without that dizzy whirling of the brain	I
And all the ghastly feeling of that night	P
When my sick heart relinquished love and hope	A2
	-
The pain we feel so keenly may depart	B2
And e'en its memory cease to haunt the heart	B2
But some slight thing a perfume or a sound	N
Will probe the closed recesses of the wound	N
And for a moment bring the old time smart	B2
	-
Congratulations kisses tears and smiles	D
Good byes and farewells given then across	D
The snowy waste of weary wintry miles	D
Back to my girlhoods' home where through each room	E
For evermore pale phantoms of delight	P
Should aimless wander always in my sight	P
Pointing with ghostly fingers to the tomb	E
Wet with the tears of living pain and loss	D
	-
The sleepless nights of watching and of care	U
Followed by that one week of keenest pain	I
Taxing my weakened system and my brain	I
Brought on a ling'ring illness	D
	-
Day by day	H
In that strange apathetic state I lay	H
Of mental and of physical despair	U
I had no pain no fever and no chill	C2
But lay without ambition strength or will	C2
Knowing no wish for anything but rest	M
Which seemed of all God's store of gifts the best	M
	-
Physicians came and shook their heads and sighed	D2
And to their score of questions I replied	D2
With but one languid answer o'er and o'er	K
I am so weary weary nothing more	E2
	-
I slept and dreamed I was some feathered thing	F2
Flying through space with ever aching wing	F2
Seeking a ship called Rest all snowy white	P
That sailed and sailed before me just in sight	P
But always one unchanging distance kept	G2
And woke more weary than before I slept	G2
	-
I slept and dreamed I ran to win a prize	D
A hand from heaven held down before my eyes	D
All eagerness I sought it it was gone	H2
But shone in all its beauty farther on	I2
I ran and ran and ran in eager quest	M
Of that great prize whereon was written Rest	M
Which ever just beyond my reach did gleam	J2
And wakened doubly weary with my dream	J2
	-
I dreamed I was a crystal drop of rain	I
That saw a snow white lily on the plain	I
And left the cloud to nestle in her breast	M
I fell and fell but nevermore found rest	M
I fell and fell but found no stopping place	D
Through leagues and leagues of never ending space	D
While space illimitable stretched before	E2
	-
And all these dreams but wearied me the more	E2
	-
Familiar voices sounded in my room	E
Aunt Ruth's and Roy's and Helen's but they seemed	K2
A part of some strange fancy I had dreamed	K2
And now remembered dimly	A
	-
Wrapped in gloom	E
My mind o'ertaxed lost hold of time at last	R
Ignored its future and forgot its past	R
And groped along the present as a light	P
Carried uncovered through the fogs of night	P
Will flicker faintly	A
	-
But I felt at length	L2
When March winds brought vague rumours of the spring	F2
A certain sense of restlessness with rest	M
My aching frame was weary of repose	D
And wanted action	M2
	-
Then slow creeping strength	L2
Came back with Mem'ry hand in hand to bring	F2
And lay upon my sore and bleeding breast	M
Grim visaged Recollection's thorny rose	D
I gained and failed One day could ride and walk	N2
The next would find me prostrate while a flock	O2
Of ghostly thoughts like phantom birds would flit	P2
About the chambers of my heart or sit	P2
Pale spectres of the past with folded wings	D
Perched silently upon the voiceless strings	D
That once resounded to Hope's happy lays	D
	-
So passed the ever changing April days	D
When May came lightsome footed o'er the lea	A
Accompanied by kind Aunt Ruth and Roy	Q2
I bade farewell to home with secret joy	Q2
And turned my wan face eastward to the sea	A
Roy planned our route of travel for all lands	D
Were one to him Or Egypt's burning sands	D
Or Alps of Switzerland or stately Rome	R2
All were familiar as the fields of home	R2
	-
There was a year of wand'ring to and fro	C
Like restless spirits scaling mountain heights	D
Dwelling among the countless rare delights	D
Of lands historic turning dusty pages	D
Stamped with the tragedies of mighty ages	D
Gazing upon the scenes of bloody acts	D
Of kings long buried bare unvarnished facts	D
Surpassing wildest fictions of the brain	I
Rubbing against all people high and low	C
And by this contact feeling Self to grow	C
Smaller and less important and the vein	I
Of human kindness deeper seeing God	Q
Unto the humble delver of the sod	Q
And to the ruling monarch on the throne	S2
Has given hope ambition joy and pain	I
And that all hearts have feelings like our own	S2
	-
There is no school that disciplines the mind	T2
And broadens thought like contact with mankind	T2
The college prisoned graybeard who has burned	U2
The midnight lamp and book bound knowledge learned	U2
Till sciences or classics hold no lore	E2
He has not conned and studied o'er and o'er	K
Is but a babe in wisdom when compared	V2
With some unlettered wand'rer who has shared	V2
The hospitalities of every land	Y
Felt touch of brother in each proffered hand	Y
Made man his study and the world his college	W2
And gained this grand epitome of knowledge	X2
Each human being has a heart and soul	S
And self is but an atom of the whole	S
I hold he is best learned and most wise	D
Who best and most can love and sympathize	D
Book wisdom makes us vain and self contained	Y2
Our banded minds go round in little grooves	D
But constant friction with the world removes	D
These iron foes to freedom and we rise	D
To grander heights and all untrammelled find	T2
A better atmosphere and clearer skies	D
And through its broadened realm no longer chained	Y2
Thought travels freely leaving Self behind	T2
Where'er we chanced to wander or to roam	R2
Glad letters came from Helen happy things	D
Like little birds that followed on swift wings	D
Bringing their tender messages from home	R2
Her days were poems beautiful complete	B
The rhythm perfect and the burden sweet	B
She was so happy happy and so blest	M
	-
My heart had found contentment in that year	Z2
With health restored my life seemed full of cheer	Z2
The heart of youth turns ever to the light	P
Sorrow and gloom may curtain it like night	P
But in its very anguish and unrest	M
It beats and tears the pall like folds away	H
And finds again the sunlight of the day	H
	-
And yet despite the changes without measure	K
Despite sight seeing round on round of pleasure	K
Despite new friends new suitors still my heart	B2
Was conscious of a something lacking where	U
Love once had dwelt and afterward despair	U
Now love was buried and despair had flown	S2
Before the healthful zephyrs that had blown	S2
From heights serene and lofty and the place	D
Where both had dwelt was empty voiceless space	D
And so I took my long loved study art	B2
The dreary vacuum in my life to fill	C2
And worked and laboured with a right good will	C2
Aunt Ruth and I took rooms in Rome while Roy	Q2
Lingered in Scotland with his new found joy	Q2
A dainty little lassie Grace Kildare	Q2
Had snared him in her flossy flaxen hair	Q2
And made him captive	A3
	-
We were thrown by chance	D
In contact with her people while in France	D
The previous season she was wholly sweet	B
And fair and gentle so naive and yet	B3
So womanly she was at once the pet	B3
Of all our party and ere many days	D
Won by her fresh face and her artless ways	D
Roy fell a helpless captive at her feet	B
Her home was in the Highlands and she came	C3
Of good old stock of fair untarnished fame	C3
	-
Through all these months Roy had been true as steel	D3
And by his every action made me feel	D3
He was my friend and brother and no more	Q2
The same big souled and trusty friend of yore	Q2
Yet in my secret heart I wished I knew	L
Whether the love he felt one time was dead	X
Or only hidden for my sake from view	L
So when he came to me one day and said	X
The velvet blackness of his eyes ashine	L
With light of love and triumph Cousin mine	L
Congratulate me She whom I adore	Q2
Has pledged to me the promise of her hand	Y
Her heart I have already I was glad	E3
With double gladness for it freed my mind	T2
Of fear that he in secret might be sad	E3
	-
From March till June had left her moons behind	T2
And merged her rose red beauty in July	F3
There was no message from my native land	Y
Then came a few brief lines by Vivian penned	Z
Death had been near to Helen but passed by	F3
The danger was now over God was kind	T2
The mother and the child were both alive	G3
No other child was ever known to thrive	G3
As throve this one nurse had been heard to say	H
The infant was a wonder every way	H
And at command of Helen he would send	Z
A lock of baby's golden hair to me	A
And did I on my honour ever see	A
Such hair before Helen would write ere long	H3
She gained quite slowly but would soon be strong	H3
Stronger than ever so the doctors said	X
I took the tiny ringlet golden fair	Q2
Mayhap his hand had severed from the head	X
Of his own child and pressed it to my cheek	I3
And to my lips and kissed it o'er and o'er	Q2
All my maternal instincts seemed to rise	D
And clamour for their rights while my wet eyes	D
Rained tears upon the silken tress of hair	Q2
The woman struggled with her heart before	Q2
It was the mother in me now did speak	I3
Moaning like Rachel that her babes were not	J3
And crying out against her barren lot	J3
	-
Once I bemoaned the long and lonely years	D
That stretched before me dark with love's eclipse	D
And thought how my unmated heart would miss	D
The shelter of a broad and manly breast	M
The strong bold arm the tender clinging kiss	D
And all pure love's possessions manifold	G
But now I wept a flood of bitter tears	D
Thinking of little heads of shining gold	G
That would not on my bosom sink to rest	M
Of little hands that would not touch my cheek	I3
Of little lisping voices and sweet lips	D
That never in my list'ning ear would speak	I3
The blessed name of mother	Q2
	-
Oh in woman	L
How mighty is the love of offspring Ere	Q2
Unto her wond'ring untaught mind unfolds	D
The myst'ry that is half divine half human	L
Of life and birth the love of unborn souls	D
Within her and the mother yearning creeps	D
Through her warm heart and stirs its hidden deeps	D
And grows and strengthens with each riper year	Q2
	-
As storms may gather in a placid sky	F3
And spend their fury and then pass away	H
Leaving again the blue of cloudless day	H
E'en so the tempest of my grief passed by	F3
'Twas weak to mourn for what I had resigned	T2
With the deliberate purpose of my mind	T2
To my sweet friend	Z
	-
Relinquishing my love	K3
I gave my dearest hope of joy to her	Q2
If God from out His boundless store above	K3
Had chosen added blessings to confer	Q2
I would rejoice for her sake not repine	L
That th' immortal treasures were not mine	L
	-
Better my lonely sorrow than to know	L
My selfish joy had been another's woe	L
Better my grief and my strength to control	S
Than the despair of her frail bodied soul	S
Better to go on loveless to the end	Z
Than wear love's rose whose thorn had slain my friend	Z
	-
Work is the salve that heals the wounded heart	B2
With will most resolute I set my aim	C3
To enter on the weary race for Fame	C3
And if I failed to climb the dizzy height	P
To reach some point of excellence in art	B2
	-
E'en as the Maker held earth incomplete	B
Till man was formed and placed upon the sod	Q
The perfect living image of his God	Q
All landscape scenes were lacking in my sight	P
Wherein the human figure had no part	B2
In that all lines of symmetry did meet	B
All hues of beauty mingle So I brought	L3
Enthusiasm in abundance thought	L3
Much study and some talent day by day	H
To help me in my efforts to portray	H
The wond'rous power majesty and grace	D
Stamped on some form or looking from some face	D
This was to be my specialty To take	M3
Human emotion for my theme and make	M3
The unassisted form divine express	D
Anger or Sorrow Pleasure Pain Distress	D
And thus to build Fame's monument above	K3
The grave of my departed hope and love	K3
This is not Genius Genius spreads its wings	D
And soars beyond itself or selfish things	D
Talent has need of stepping stones some cross	D
Some cheated purpose some great pain or loss	D
Must lay the groundwork and arouse ambition	L
Before it labours onward to fruition	L
	-
But as the lark from beds of bloom will rise	D
And sail and sing among the very skies	D
Still mounting near and nearer to the light	P
Impelled wings to heights sublime	N3
Impelled alone by love of upward flight	P
So Genius soars it does not need to climb	N3
Some sportman's shot grazing the singer's throat	O3
Some venomous assault of birds of prey	H
May speed its flight toward the realm of day	H
And tinge with triumph every liquid note	O3
So deathless Genius mounts but higher yet	B3
When Strife and Envy think to slay or fret	B3
	-
There is no balking Genius Only death	P3
Can silence it or hinder While there's breath	P3
Or sense of feeling it will spurn the sod	Q
And lift itself to glory and to God	Q
The acorn sprouted weeds nor flowers can choke	Q3
The certain growth of th' upreaching oak	Q3
	-
Talent was mine not Genius and my mind	T2
Seemed bound by chains and would not leave behind	T2
Its selfish love and sorrow	L
	-
Did I strive	G3
To picture some emotion lo HIS eyes	D
Of emerald beauty dark as ocean dyes	D
Looked from the canvas and my buried pain	L
Rose from its grave and stood by me alive	G3
Whate'er my subject in some hue or line	L
The glorious beauty of his face would shine	L
	-
So for a time my labour seemed in vain	L
Since it but freshened and made keener yet	B3
The grief my heart was striving to forget	B3
While in his form all strength and magnitude	R3
With grace and supple sinews were entwined	T2
While in his face all beauties were combined	T2
Of perfect features intellect and truth	S3
With all that fine rich colouring of youth	S3
How could my brush portray aught good or fair	Q2
Wherein no fatal likeness should intrude	R3
Of him my soul had worshipped	T3
	-
But at last	R
Setting a watch upon my unwise heart	B2
That thus would mix its sorrow with my art	B2
I resolutely shut away the past	R
And made the toilsome present passing bright	P
With dreams of what was hidden from my sight	P
In the far distant future when the soil	U3
Should yield me golden fruit for all my toil	U3

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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