The Problem Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFGHHIJKKLL MMNNOOPPQQMBRRSSDDTT UUVVWWXXVVYYZZA2A2B2 B2UC2| Not to win thy favor maiden not to steal away thy heart | A |
| Have I ever sought thy presence ever stooped to any art | A |
| Thou wast but a wildering problem which I aimed to solve and then | B |
| Make it matter for my note book or a picture for my pen | B |
| So I daily conned thee over thinking it no dangerous task | C |
| Peeping underneath thy lashes peering underneath thy mask | C |
| For thou wear'st one no denial there is much within thine eyes | D |
| But those stars have other secrets than are patent in their skies | D |
| And I read thee read thee closely every grace and every sin | E |
| Looked behind the outward seeming to the strange wild world within | E |
| Where thy future self is forming where I saw no matter what | F |
| There was something less than angel there was many an earthly spot | G |
| Yet so beautiful thy errors that I had no heart for blame | H |
| And thy virtues made thee dearer than my dearest hopes of fame | H |
| All so blended that in wishing one peculiar trait removed | I |
| We indeed might make thee better but less lovely and less loved | J |
| All my mind was in the study so two thrilling fortnights passed | K |
| All my mind was in the study till my heart was touched at last | K |
| Well and then the book was finished the absorbing task was done | L |
| I awoke as one who had been dreaming in a noon day sun | L |
| With a fever on my forehead and a throbbing in my brain | M |
| In my soul delirious wishes in my heart a lasting pain | M |
| Yet so hopeless yet so cureless as in every great despair | N |
| I was very calm and silent and I never stooped to prayer | N |
| Like a sick man unattended reckless of the coming death | O |
| Only for he knows it certain and he feels no sister's breath | O |
| All the while as by an Atle with no pity in her face | P |
| Yet with eyes of witching beauty and with form of matchless grace | P |
| I was haunted by thy presence oh for weary nights and days | Q |
| I was haunted by thy spirit I was troubled by thy gaze | Q |
| And the question which to answer I had taxed a subtle brain | M |
| What thou art and what thou wilt be came again and yet again | B |
| With its opposite deductions it recurred a thousand times | R |
| Like a coward's apprehensions like a madman's favorite rhymes | R |
| But to night my thoughts flow calmer in thy room I think I stand | S |
| See a fair white page before thee and a pen within thy hand | S |
| And thy fingers sweep the paper and a light is in thine eyes | D |
| Whilst I read thy secret fancies whilst I hear thy secret sighs | D |
| What they are I will not whisper those are lovely these are deep | T |
| But one name is left unwritten that is only breathed in sleep | T |
| Is it wonder that my passion bursts at once from out its nest | U |
| I have bent my knee before thee and my love is all confessed | U |
| Though I knew that name unwritten was another name than mine | V |
| Though I felt those sighs half murmured what I could but half divine | V |
| Aye I hear thy haughty answer Aye I see thy proud lip curl | W |
| 'What presumption and what folly ' why I only love a girl | W |
| With some very winning graces with some very noble traits | X |
| But no better than a thousand who have bent to humbler fates | X |
| That I ask not I have maiden just as haught a soul as thine | V |
| If thou think'st thy place above me thou shalt never stoop to mine | V |
| Yet as long as blood runs redly yet as long as mental worth | Y |
| Is a nobler gift than fortune is a holier thing than birth | Y |
| I will claim the right to utter to the high and to the low | Z |
| That I love them or I hate them that I am a friend or foe | Z |
| Nor shall any slight unman me I have yet some little strength | A2 |
| Yet my song shall sound as sweetly yet a power be mine at length | A2 |
| Then oh then but moans are idle hear me pitying saints above | B2 |
| With a chaplet on my forehead I will justify my love | B2 |
| And perhaps when thou art leaning on some less devoted breast | U |
| Thou shalt murmur 'He was worthier than my blinded spirit guessed ' | C2 |
Henry Timrod
(1)
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