Jessamine Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBC DDEEC FFAAC AAGGC HHAAC AAIJC KKLLC AAAAC MMNNC DDAAC FFOOC PPAAC DDAAC QQRRC PPAAC AAAACHere stands the great tree still with broad bent head | A |
And wide arms grown aweary yet outspread | A |
With their old blessing But wan memory weaves | B |
Strange garlands now amongst the darkening leaves | B |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
Beneath these glimmering arches Jessamine | D |
Walked with her lover long ago and in | D |
This moon made shade he questioned and she spoke | E |
Then on them both love's rarer radiance broke | E |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
Sweet Jessamine we called her for she shone | F |
Like blossoms that in sun and shade have grown | F |
Gathering from each alike a perfect white | A |
Whose rich bloom breaks opaque through darkest night | A |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
And for this sweetness Walt her lover sought | A |
To win her wooed her here his heart full fraught | A |
With fragrance of her being and gained his plea | G |
So We will wed they said beneath this tree | G |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
Was it unfaith or faith more full to her | H |
Made him for fame and fortune longing spur | H |
Into the world Far from his home he sailed | A |
And life paused while she watched joy vanish vailed | A |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
Oh better at the elm tree's sun browned feet | A |
If he had been content to let life fleet | A |
Its wonted way there rearing his small house | I |
Mowing and milking lord of corn and cows | J |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
For as against a snarling sea one steers | K |
Ever he battled with the beetling years | K |
And ever Jessamine must watch and pine | L |
Her vision bounded by the bleak sea line | L |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
At last she heard no more The neighbors said | A |
That Walt had married faithless or was dead | A |
Yet naught her trust could move the tryst she kept | A |
Each night still 'neath this tree before she slept | A |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
So circling years went by and in her face | M |
Slow melancholy wrought a tempered grace | M |
Of early joy with sorrow's rich alloy | N |
Refined rare no doom should e'er destroy | N |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
Sometimes at twilight when sweet Jessamine | D |
Slow footed weary eyed passed by to win | D |
The elm we smiled for pity of her and mused | A |
On love that so could live with love refused | A |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
Nor none could hope for her But she had grown | F |
Too high in love for hope and bloomed alone | F |
Aloft in pure sincerity secure | O |
For fortune's failures in her faith too sure | O |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
Oh well for Walt if he had known her soul | P |
Discouraged on disaster's changeful shoal | P |
Wrecking he rested starved on selfish pride | A |
Long years nor would obey love's homeward tide | A |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
But bitterly repenting of his sin | D |
Oh bitterly he learned to look within | D |
Sweet Jessamine's clear depth when the past dead | A |
Mocked him and wild waste years forever fled | A |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
Late late oh late beneath the tree stood two | Q |
In awe and anguish wondering Is it true | Q |
Two that were each most like to some wan wraith | R |
Yet each on each looked with a living faith | R |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
Even to the tree top sang the wedding bell | P |
Even to the tree top tolled the passing knell | P |
Beneath it Walt and Jessamine were wed | A |
Beneath it many a year she lieth dead | A |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
- | |
Here stands the great tree still But age has crept | A |
Through every coil while Walt each night has kept | A |
The tryst alone Hark with what windy might | A |
The boughs chant o'er her grave their burial rite | A |
And the moon hangs low in the elm | C |
George Parsons Lathrop
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