Our Willie Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAACCBDDEFFEGGHIIJK LKLMCMCNNOPQORRSRS TUVTVUWUXIIYGGYZZA2B 2A2B2C2D2C2D2KE2E2KF 2G2F2G2H2H2H2CI2I2I2 J2J2B2B2CK2K2L2L2K2M 2M2N2N2E2E2M2E2O2P2Q 2ZZR2R2R2E2Q2S2Q2S2K KE2E2

'T was merry Christmas when he cameA
Our little boy beneath the sodB
And brighter burned the Christmas flameA
And merrier sped the Christmas gameA
Because within the house there layC
A shape as tiny as a fayC
The Christmas gift of GodB
In wreaths and garlands on the wallsD
The holly hung its ruby ballsD
The mistletoe its pearlsE
And a Christmas tree's fantastic fruitsF
Woke laughter like a choir of flutesF
From happy boys and girlsE
For the mirth which else had swelled as shrillG
As a school let loose to its errant willG
Was softened by the thoughtH
That in a dim hushed room aboveI
A mother's pains in a mother's loveI
Were only just forgotJ
The jest the tale the toast the gleeK
All took a sober toneL
We spoke of the babe upstairs as weK
Held festival for him aloneL
When the bells rang in the Christmas mornM
It scarcely seemed a sin to sayC
That they rang because that babe was bornM
Not less than for the sacred dayC
Ah Christ forgive us for the crimeN
Which drowned the memories of the timeN
In a merely mortal blissO
We owned the error when the mirthP
Of another Christmas lit the hearthQ
Of every home but thisO
When in that lonely burial groundR
With every Christmas sight and soundR
Removed or shunned we keptS
A mournful Christmas by the moundR
Where little Willie sleptS
-
Ah hapless mother darling wifeT
I might say nothing moreU
And the dull cold world would holdV
The story of that precious lifeT
As amply toldV
Shall we shall you and I beforeU
That world's unsympathetic eyesW
Lay other relics from our storeU
Of tender memoriesX
What could it know of the joy and loveI
That throbbed and smiled and wept aboveI
An unresponsive thingY
And who could share the ecstatic thrillG
With which we watched the upturned billG
Of our bird at its living springY
Shall we tell how in the time gone byZ
Beneath all changes of the skyZ
And in an ordinary homeA2
Amid the city's dinB2
Life was to us a crystal domeA2
Our babe the flame thereinB2
Ah this were jargon on the martC2
And though some gentle friendD2
And many and many a suffering heartC2
Would weep and comprehendD2
Yet even these might fail to seeK
What we saw daily in the childE2
Not the mere creature undefiledE2
But the winged cherub soon to beK
That wandering hand which seemed to reachF2
At angel finger tipsG2
And that murmur like a mystic speechF2
Upon the rosy lipsG2
That something in the serious faceH2
Holier than even its infant graceH2
And that rapt gaze on empty spaceH2
Which made us half believing sayC
Ah little wide eyed seer who knowsI2
But that for you this chamber glowsI2
With stately shapes and solemn showsI2
Which touched us too with vague alarmsJ2
Lest in the circle of our armsJ2
We held a being less akinB2
To his parents in a world of sinB2
Than to beings not of clayC
How could we speak in human phraseK2
Of such scarce earthly traits and waysK2
What would not seemL2
A doting dreamL2
In the creed of these sordid daysK2
No let us keepM2
Deep deepM2
In sorrowing heart and aching brainN2
This story hidden with the painN2
Which since that blue October nightE2
When Willie vanished from our sightE2
Must haunt us even in our sleepM2
In the gloom of the chamber where he diedE2
And by that grave which through our careO2
From Yule to Yule of every yearP2
Is made like Spring to bloomQ2
And where at times we catch the sighZ
As of an angel floating nighZ
Who longs but has not power to tellR2
That in that violet shrouded cellR2
Lies nothing better than the shellR2
Which he had cast asideE2
By that sweet grave in that dark roomQ2
We may weave at will for each other's earS2
Of that life and that love and that early doomQ2
The tale which is shadowed hereS2
To us alone it will always beK
As fresh as our own miseryK
But enough alas for the world is saidE2
In the brief Here lieth of the deadE2

Henry Timrod



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