Brother And Sister Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBD EFEF GHGH IJ A KLKL MNMN GOGP QQ A RSRS TUTU VWVW GG X YGYG ZWZW A2GA2G B2B2 X MC2MC2 GD2GD2 GXGX GG X GE2GE2 WBWB F2G2F2G2 XX W GGGG H2GH2G GGGG I2I2 W KXJ2X B2K2B2K2 GL2GL2 GG F2 M2NM2N WGW GF2GF2 XX F2 NN2NN2 O2P2O2P2 GNGN Q2Q2 X R2GS2G BT2BT2 U2F2U2F2 V2V2I | A |
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I cannot choose but think upon the time | B |
When our two lives grew like two buds that kiss | C |
At lightest thrill from the bee's swinging chime | B |
Because the one so near the other is | D |
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He was the elder and a little man | E |
Of forty inches bound to show no dread | F |
And I the girl that puppy like now ran | E |
Now lagged behind my brother's larger tread | F |
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I held him wise and when he talked to me | G |
Of snakes and birds and which God loved the best | H |
I thought his knowledge marked the boundary | G |
Where men grew blind though angels knew the rest | H |
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If he said 'Hush ' I tried to hold my breath | I |
Wherever he said 'Come ' I stepped in faith | J |
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II | A |
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Long years have left their writing on my brow | K |
But yet the freshness and the dew fed beam | L |
Of those young mornings are about me now | K |
When we two wandered toward the far off stream | L |
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With rod and line Our basket held a store | M |
Baked for us only and I thought with joy | N |
That I should have my share though he had more | M |
Because he was the elder and a boy | N |
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The firmaments of daisies since to me | G |
Have had those mornings in their opening eyes | O |
The bunch d cowslip's pale transparency | G |
Carries that sunshine of sweet memories | P |
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And wild rose branches take their finest scent | Q |
From those blest hours of infantine content | Q |
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III | A |
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Our mother bade us keep the trodden ways | R |
Stroked down my tippet set my brother's frill | S |
Then with the benediction of her gaze | R |
Clung to us lessening and pursued us still | S |
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Across the homestead to the rookery elms | T |
Whose tall old trunks had each a grassy mound | U |
So rich for us we counted them as realms | T |
With varied products here were earth nuts found | U |
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And here the Lady fingers in deep shade | V |
Here sloping toward the Moat the rushes grew | W |
The large to split for pith the small to braid | V |
While over all the dark rooks cawing flew | W |
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And made a happy strange solemnity | G |
A deep toned chant from life unknown to me | G |
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IV | X |
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Our meadow path had memorable spots | Y |
One where it bridged a tiny rivulet | G |
Deep hid by tangled blue Forget me nots | Y |
And all along the waving grasses met | G |
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My little palm or nodded to my cheek | Z |
When flowers with upturned faces gazing drew | W |
My wonder downward seeming all to speak | Z |
With eyes of souls that dumbly heard and knew | W |
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Then came the copse where wild things rushed unseen | A2 |
And black scathed grass betrayed the past abode | G |
Of mystic gypsies who still lurked between | A2 |
Me and each hidden distance of the road | G |
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A gypsy once had startled me at play | B2 |
Blotting with her dark smile my sunny day | B2 |
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V | X |
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Thus rambling we were schooled in deepest lore | M |
And learned the meanings that give words a soul | C2 |
The fear the love the primal passionate store | M |
Whose shaping impulses make manhood whole | C2 |
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Those hours were seed to all my after good | G |
My infant gladness through eye ear and touch | D2 |
Took easily as warmth a various food | G |
To nourish the sweet skill of loving much | D2 |
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For who in age shall roam the earth and find | G |
Reasons for loving that will strike out love | X |
With sudden rod from the hard year pressed mind | G |
Were reasons sown as thick as stars above | X |
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'Tis love must see them as the eye sees light | G |
Day is but Number to the darkened sight | G |
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VI | X |
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Our brown canal was endless to my thought | G |
And on its banks I sat in dreamy peace | E2 |
Unknowing how the good I loved was wrought | G |
Untroubled by the fear that it would cease | E2 |
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Slowly the barges floated into view | W |
Rounding a grassy hill to me sublime | B |
With some Unknown beyond it whither flew | W |
The parting cuckoo toward a fresh spring time | B |
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The wide arched bridge the scented elder flowers | F2 |
The wondrous watery rings that died too soon | G2 |
The echoes of the quarry the still hours | F2 |
With white robe sweeping on the shadeless noon | G2 |
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Were but my growing self are part of me | X |
My present Past my root of piety | X |
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VII | W |
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Those long days measured by my little feet | G |
Had chronicles which yield me many a text | G |
Where irony still finds an image meet | G |
Of full grown judgments in this world perplext | G |
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One day my brother left me in high charge | H2 |
To mind the rod while he went seeking bait | G |
And bade me when I saw a nearing barge | H2 |
Snatch out the line lest he should come too late | G |
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Proud of the task I watched with all my might | G |
For one whole minute till my eyes grew wide | G |
Till sky and earth took on a strange new light | G |
And seemed a dream world floating on some tide | G |
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A fair pavilioned boat for me alone | I2 |
Bearing me onward through the vast unknown | I2 |
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VIII | W |
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But sudden came the barge's pitch black prow | K |
Nearer and angrier came my brother's cry | X |
And all my soul was quivering fear when lo | J2 |
Upon the imperilled line suspended high | X |
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A silver perch My guilt that won the prey | B2 |
Now turned to merit had a guerdon rich | K2 |
Of songs and praises and made merry play | B2 |
Until my triumph reached its highest pitch | K2 |
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When all at home were told the wondrous feat | G |
And how the little sister had fished well | L2 |
In secret though my fortune tasted sweet | G |
I wondered why this happiness befell | L2 |
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'The little lass had luck ' the gardener said | G |
And so I learned luck was with glory wed | G |
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IX | F2 |
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We had the self same world enlarged for each | M2 |
By loving difference of girl and boy | N |
The fruit that hung on high beyond my reach | M2 |
He plucked for me and oft he must employ | N |
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A measuring glance to guide my tiny shoe | W |
Where lay firm stepping stones or call to mind | G |
'This thing I like my sister may not do | W |
For she is little and I must be kind ' | - |
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Thus boyish Will the nobler mastery learned | G |
Where inward vision over impulse reigns | F2 |
Widening its life with separate life discerned | G |
A Like unlike a Self that self restrains | F2 |
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His years with others must the sweeter be | X |
For those brief days he spent in loving me | X |
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X | F2 |
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His sorrow was my sorrow and his joy | N |
Sent little leaps and laughs through all my frame | N2 |
My doll seemed lifeless and no girlish toy | N |
Had any reason when my brother came | N2 |
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I knelt with him at marbles marked his fling | O2 |
Cut the ringed stem and make the apple drop | P2 |
Or watched him winding close the spiral string | O2 |
That looped the orbits of the humming top | P2 |
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Grasped by such fellowship my vagrant thought | G |
Ceased with dream fruit dream wishes to fulfil | N |
My a ry picturing fantasy was taught | G |
Subjection to the harder truer skill | N |
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That seeks with deeds to grave a thought tracked line | Q2 |
And by 'What is ' 'What will be' to define | Q2 |
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XI | X |
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School parted us we never found again | R2 |
That childish world where our two spirits mingled | G |
Like scents from varying roses that remain | S2 |
One sweetness nor can evermore be singled | G |
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Yet the twin habit of that early time | B |
Lingered for long about the heart and tongue | T2 |
We had been natives of one happy clime | B |
And its dear accent to our utterance clung | T2 |
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Till the dire years whose awful name is Change | U2 |
Had grasped our souls still yearning in divorce | F2 |
And pitiless shaped them in two forms that range | U2 |
Two elements which sever their life's course | F2 |
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But were another childhood world my share | V2 |
I would be born a little sister there | V2 |
George Eliot
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