A Backward Look Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAABCDCC EFEEFCGCG CHCCHIJIJ FKFFKLMMM NMNNMMFMF OPMMQRCRC| As I sat smoking alone yesterday | A |
| And lazily leaning back in my chair | B |
| Enjoying myself in a general way | A |
| Allowing my thoughts a holiday | A |
| From weariness toil and care | B |
| My fancies doubtless for ventilation | C |
| Left ajar the gates of my mind | D |
| And Memory seeing the situation | C |
| Slipped out in street of Auld Lang Syne | C |
| - | |
| Wandering ever with tireless feet | E |
| Through scenes of silence and jubilee | F |
| Of long hushed voices and faces sweet | E |
| Were thronging the shadowy side of the street | E |
| As far as the eye could see | F |
| Dreaming again in anticipation | C |
| The same old dreams of our boyhood's days | G |
| That never come true from the vague sensation | C |
| Of walking asleep in the world's strange ways | G |
| - | |
| Away to the house where I was born | C |
| And there was the selfsame clock that ticked | H |
| From the close of dusk to the burst of morn | C |
| When life warm hands plucked the golden corn | C |
| And helped when the apples were picked | H |
| And the chany dog on the mantel shelf | I |
| With the gilded collar and yellow eyes | J |
| Looked just as at first when I hugged myself | I |
| Sound asleep with the dear surprise | J |
| - | |
| And down to the swing in the locust tree | F |
| Where the grass was worn from the trampled ground | K |
| And where Eck Skinner Old Carr and three | F |
| Or four such other boys used to be | F |
| Doin' sky scrapers or whirlin' round | K |
| And again Bob climbed for the bluebird's nest | L |
| And again had shows in the buggy shed | M |
| Of Guymon's barn where still unguessed | M |
| The old ghosts romp through the best days dead | M |
| - | |
| And again I gazed from the old school room | N |
| With a wistful look of a long June day | M |
| When on my cheek was the hectic bloom | N |
| Caught of Mischief as I presume | N |
| He had such a partial way | M |
| It seemed toward me And again I thought | M |
| Of a probable likelihood to be | F |
| Kept in after school for a girl was caught | M |
| Catching a note from me | F |
| - | |
| And down through the woods to the swimming hole | O |
| Where the big white hollow old sycamore grows | P |
| And we never cared when the water was cold | M |
| And always clucked the boy that told | M |
| On the fellow that tied the clothes | Q |
| When life went so like a dreamy rhyme | R |
| That it seems to me now that then | C |
| The world was having a jollier time | R |
| Than it ever will have again | C |
James Whitcomb Riley
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About A Backward Look
A Backward Look is a poem by James Whitcomb Riley. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about A Backward Look poem by James Whitcomb Riley
Best Poems of James Whitcomb Riley