Mad River, In The White Mountains Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABAA CDCCD AEDEED AFGFFG AHIHHI JKJJL MIMMI NINNI GOGGO GGGGG PQPPQ RIRRITRAVELLER | A |
Why dost thou wildly rush and roar | B |
Mad River O Mad River | A |
Wilt thou not pause and cease to pour | B |
Thy hurrying headlong waters o'er | A |
This rocky shelf forever | A |
- | |
What secret trouble stirs thy breast | C |
Why all this fret and flurry | D |
Dost thou not know that what is best | C |
In this too restless world is rest | C |
From over work and worry | D |
- | |
THE RIVER | A |
What wouldst thou in these mountains seek | E |
O stranger from the city | D |
Is it perhaps some foolish freak | E |
Of thine to put the words I speak | E |
Into a plaintive ditty | D |
- | |
TRAVELLER | A |
Yes I would learn of thee thy song | F |
With all its flowing numbers | G |
And in a voice as fresh and strong | F |
As thine is sing it all day long | F |
And hear it in my slumbers | G |
- | |
THE RIVER | A |
A brooklet nameless and unknown | H |
Was I at first resembling | I |
A little child that all alone | H |
Comes venturing down the stairs of stone | H |
Irresolute and trembling | I |
- | |
Later by wayward fancies led | J |
For the wide world I panted | K |
Out of the forest dark and dread | J |
Across the open fields I fled | J |
Like one pursued and haunted | L |
- | |
I tossed my arms I sang aloud | M |
My voice exultant blending | I |
With thunder from the passing cloud | M |
The wind the forest bent and bowed | M |
The rush of rain descending | I |
- | |
I heard the distant ocean call | N |
Imploring and entreating | I |
Drawn onward o'er this rocky wall | N |
I plunged and the loud waterfall | N |
Made answer to the greeting | I |
- | |
And now beset with many ills | G |
A toilsome life I follow | O |
Compelled to carry from the hills | G |
These logs to the impatient mills | G |
Below there in the hollow | O |
- | |
Yet something ever cheers and charms | G |
The rudeness of my labors | G |
Daily I water with these arms | G |
The cattle of a hundred farms | G |
And have the birds for neighbors | G |
- | |
Men call me Mad and well they may | P |
When full of rage and trouble | Q |
I burst my banks of sand and clay | P |
And sweep their wooden bridge away | P |
Like withered reeds or stubble | Q |
- | |
Now go and write thy little rhyme | R |
As of thine own creating | I |
Thou seest the day is past its prime | R |
I can no longer waste my time | R |
The mills are tired of waiting | I |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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