A Cherished Relic Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDD EEFFGHDD IIAAJKDD LLMMNNDD OPDDQQDD RRSSEEDD TTUUVVDD WWXXYYDD| In the attic unused there they put it away | A |
| The old oaken frame has begun to decay | A |
| What iron's about it is eaten with rust | B |
| And upon and around it are cobwebs and dust | B |
| The dear loving hands that on it have spun | C |
| With labor and toil forever are done | C |
| And long is the time since I saw them unreel | D |
| The threads snowy white from the old spinning wheel | D |
| - | |
| It stood on a porch where the Summer sunshine | E |
| Sifted down to the floor through a clambering vine | E |
| Whose tendrils about the lattice work clung | F |
| Like my heart strings round her and the song that she sung | F |
| And the pictures of fancy I con o'er and o'er | G |
| Till raptured I see the dear features once more | H |
| And thrill with the touch when her lips set the seal | D |
| Of her love as she spun on the old spinning wheel | D |
| - | |
| Then through the shadows and mists of many long years | I |
| The old cottage home to the vision appears | I |
| And though youth it has fled and the hair it is gray | A |
| I'm a bare footed boy returned to his play | A |
| Forgetting the present to dream once again | J |
| That life had no anguish no sorrow no pain | K |
| And sweetly the bells of the memory peal | D |
| When communing up there with the old spinning wheel | D |
| - | |
| And back from the past with its grief and its joy | L |
| Come the tones of a voice I heard when a boy | L |
| And I see once again as it moved to and fro | M |
| A form that now rests where the wild roses blow | M |
| And the sentinel stars their love vigils keep | N |
| Above the dear one in her long dreamless sleep | N |
| But memories sweet to a heart that can feel | D |
| Still cluster around the old spinning wheel | D |
| - | |
| Some spokes from the rim are broken and gone | O |
| And it stands there forsaken neglected alone | P |
| It knows naught of language but a story can tell | D |
| With a charm that for me time cannot dispel | D |
| And often I climb the old attic stair | Q |
| The love of my childhood with it to share | Q |
| And emotions possess me I cannot conceal | D |
| When fondly I gaze on the old spinning wheel | D |
| - | |
| The distaff is worn and smooth with the touch | R |
| Of the now folded hands that used it so much | R |
| And lingering there I clearly can trace | S |
| The sweet smile of love from a well cherished face | S |
| Which sheds round about it a halo divine | E |
| When thus I am kneeling at memory's shrine | E |
| And hallows the thoughts which on the mind steal | D |
| When up there alone with the old spinning wheel | D |
| - | |
| 'Tis then that I see her in saintly guise | T |
| Through the fast welling tears that come to my eyes | T |
| A vision arrayed in raiment white | U |
| That beckons to me from the regions of light | U |
| And illumines the way that my footsteps may tread | V |
| Unerringly where her love for me led | V |
| Along the straight path that she tried to reveal | D |
| As she taught me and spun on the old spinning wheel | D |
| - | |
| Yes the finger of Time has furrowed the brow | W |
| And silvered the hair yet I dream of her now | W |
| As when long ago I heard as a child | X |
| The words of her love that my sorrows beguiled | X |
| And this relic she used but brings back anew | Y |
| The morning of life that was fresh with the dew | Y |
| Distilled from the heart as she taught me to kneel | D |
| Right down by her side and the old spinning wheel | D |
George W. Doneghy
(1)
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