Almon Keefer Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AA BCDDEE FFGGHHIIJJJ KKLLJJMMJJGGNOJJPPQQ JJRRBBSSTTUU VWWJJ JJJXS YTJJZZA2A2JJJ B2B2C2C2JJB2B2B2B2B2 B2D2D2E2E2 A2A2QQB2B2E2E2 JJB2B2A2A2E2E2 E2E2MMB2B2E2E2

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Ah Almon Keefer what a boy you wereB
With your back tilted hat and careless hairC
And open honest fresh fair face and eyesD
With their all varying looks of pleased surpriseD
And joyous interest in flower and treeE
And poising humming bird and maundering beeE
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The fields and woods he knew the tireless trampF
With gun and dog and the night fisher's campF
No other boy save Bee Lineback had wonG
Such brilliant mastery of rod and gunG
Even in his earliest childhood had he shownH
These traits that marked him as his father's ownH
Dogs all paid Almon honor and bow wowedI
Allegiance let him come in any crowdI
Of rabbit hunting town boys even thoughJ
His own dog 'Sleuth' rebuked their acting soJ
With jealous snarls and growlingsJ
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But the bestK
Of Almon's virtues leading all the restK
Was his great love of books and skill as wellL
In reading them aloud and by the spellL
Thereof enthralling his mute listeners asJ
They grouped about him in the orchard grassJ
Hinging their bare shins in the mottled shineM
And shade as they lay prone or stretched supineM
Beneath their favorite tree with dreamy eyesJ
And Argo fandes voyaging the skiesJ
'Tales of the Ocean' was the name of oneG
Old dog's eared book that was surpassed by noneG
Of all the glorious list Its back was goneN
But its vitality went bravely onO
In such delicious tales of land and seaJ
As may not ever perish utterlyJ
Of still more dubious caste 'Jack Sheppard' drewP
Full admiration and 'Dick Turpin ' tooP
And painful as the fact is to conveyQ
In certain lurid tales of their own dayQ
These boys found thieving heroes and outlawsJ
They hailed with equal fervor of applauseJ
'The League of the Miami' why the nameR
Alone was fascinating is the sameR
In memory this venerable hourB
Of moral wisdom shorn of all its powerB
As it unblushingly reverts to whenS
The old barn was 'the Cave ' and hears againS
The signal blown outside the buggy shedT
The drowsy guard within uplifts his headT
And '' Who goes there '' is called in bated breathU
The challenge answered in a hush of deathU
'Sh ' Barney Gray '' And then '' What do you seek ''-
'' Stables of The League '' the voice comes spent and weakV
For ha the Law is on the 'Chieftain's' trailW
Tracked to his very lair Well what availW
The 'secret entrance' opens closes SoJ
The 'Robber Captain' thus outwits his foeJ
And safe once more within his 'cavern halls '-
He shakes his clenched fist at the warped plank wallsJ
And mutters his defiance through the cracksJ
At the balked Enemy's retreating backsJ
As the loud horde flees pell mell down the laneX
And Almon Keefer is himself againS
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Excepting few they were not books indeedY
Of deep import that Almon chose to readT
Less fact than fiction Much he favored thoseJ
If not in poetry in hectic proseJ
That made our native Indian a wildZ
Feathered and fine preened hero that a childZ
Could recommend as just about the thingA2
To make a god of or at least a kingA2
Aside from Almon's own books two or threeJ
His store of lore The Township LibraryJ
Supplied him weekly All the books with 'or'sJ
Sub titled lured him after 'Indian Wars '-
And 'Life of Daniel Boone ' not to includeB2
Some few books spiced with humor 'Robin Hood'B2
And rare 'Don Quixote ' And one time he tookC2
'Dadd's Cattle Doctor ' How he hugged the bookC2
And hurried homeward with internal gleeJ
And humorous spasms of expectancyJ
All this confession as he promptly madeB2
It the day later writhing in the shadeB2
Of the old apple tree with Johnty andB2
Bud Noey Bixler and The Hired HandB2
Was quite as funny as the book was notB2
O Wonderland of wayward Childhood whatB2
An easy breezy realm of summer calmD2
And dreamy gleam and gloom and bloom and balmD2
Thou art The Lotus Land the poet sungE2
It is the Child World while the heart beats youngE2
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While the heart beats young O the splendor of the SpringA2
With all her dewy jewels on is not so fair a thingA2
The fairest rarest morning of the blossom time of MayQ
Is not so sweet a season as the season of to dayQ
While Youth's diviner climate folds and holds us close caressedB2
As we feel our mothers with us by the touch of face and breastB2
Our bare feet in the meadows and our fancies up amongE2
The airy clouds of morning while the heart beats youngE2
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While the heart beats young and our pulses leap and danceJ
With every day a holiday and life a glad romanceJ
We hear the birds with wonder and with wonder watch their flightB2
Standing still the more enchanted both of hearing and of sightB2
When they have vanished wholly for in fancy wing to wingA2
We fly to Heaven with them and returning still we singA2
The praises of this lower Heaven with tireless voice and tongueE2
Even as the Master sanctions while the heart beats youngE2
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While the heart beats young While the heart beats youngE2
O green and gold old Earth of ours with azure overhungE2
And looped with rainbows grant us yet this grassy lap of thineM
We would be still thy children through the shower and the shineM
So pray we lisping whispering in childish love and trustB2
With our beseeching hands and faces lifted from the dustB2
By fervor of the poem all unwritten and unsungE2
Thou givest us in answer while the heart beats youngE2

James Whitcomb Riley



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