Cousin Rufus' Story Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDEFGG HIHJKLFHHMGMK NOPQHRSTUV WXYZHA2B2C2D2HC2HE2B 2F2QG2D2H2B2D2D2D2D2 I2J2HC2D2D2D2D2D2K2D 2D2IL2M2D2C2 N2HE2O2KD2IVP2D2GD2C 2Q2R2 CS2T2U2D2V2W2D2UD2D2 D2O2D2HX2HD2Y2Z2A3D2 Z2B3D2D2D2HC3 WTHHZD2HD3A3VID2H2H2 E3ZIH2V F3H HG3D2D2H2W D2D2S2H2HD2D2D2H3G3H 2H2D2VI3HMy little story Cousin Rufus said | A |
Is not so much a story as a fact | B |
It is about a certain willful boy | C |
An aggrieved unappreciated boy | C |
Grown to dislike his own home very much | D |
By reason of his parents being not | E |
At all up to his rigid standard and | F |
Requirements and exactions as a son | G |
And disciplinarian | G |
- | |
So sullenly | H |
He brooded over his disheartening | I |
Environments and limitations till | H |
At last well knowing that the outside world | J |
Would yield him favors never found at home | K |
He rose determinedly one July dawn | L |
Even before the call for breakfast and | F |
Climbing the alley fence and bitterly | H |
Shaking his clenched fist at the woodpile he | H |
Evanished down the turnpike Yes he had | M |
Once and for all put into execution | G |
His long low muttered threatenings He had | M |
Run off He had had run away from home | K |
- | |
His parents at discovery of his flight | N |
Bore up first rate especially his Pa | O |
Quite possibly recalling his own youth | P |
And therefrom predicating by high noon | Q |
The absent one was very probably | H |
Disporting his nude self in the delights | R |
Of the old swimmin' hole some hundred yards | S |
Below the slaughter house just east of town | T |
The stoic father too in his surmise | U |
Was accurate For lo the boy was there | V |
- | |
And there too he remained throughout the day | W |
Save at one starving interval in which | X |
He clad his sunburnt shoulders long enough | Y |
To shy across a wheatfield shadow like | Z |
And raid a neighboring orchard bitterly | H |
And with spasmodic twitchings of the lip | A2 |
Bethinking him how all the other boys | B2 |
Had homes to go to at the dinner hour | C2 |
While he alas he had no home At least | D2 |
These very words seemed rising mockingly | H |
Until his every thought smacked raw and sour | C2 |
And green and bitter as the apples he | H |
In vain essayed to stay his hunger with | E2 |
Nor did he join the glad shouts when the boys | B2 |
Returned rejuvenated for the long | F2 |
Wet revel of the feverish afternoon | Q |
Yet bravely as his comrades splashed and swam | G2 |
And spluttered in their weltering merriment | D2 |
He tried to laugh too but his voice was hoarse | H2 |
And sounded to him like some other boy's | B2 |
And then he felt a sudden poking sort | D2 |
Of sickness at the heart as though some cold | D2 |
And scaly pain were blindly nosing it | D2 |
Down in the dreggy darkness of his breast | D2 |
The tensioned pucker of his purple lips | I2 |
Grew ever chillier and yet more tense | J2 |
The central hurt of it slow spreading till | H |
It did possess the little face entire | C2 |
And then there grew to be a knuckled knot | D2 |
An aching kind of core within his throat | D2 |
An ache all dry and swallowless which seemed | D2 |
To ache on just as bad when he'd pretend | D2 |
He didn't notice it as when he did | D2 |
It was a kind of a conceited pain | K2 |
An overbearing self assertive and | D2 |
Barbaric sort of pain that clean outhurt | D2 |
A boy's capacity for suffering | I |
So many times the little martyr needs | L2 |
Must turn himself all suddenly and dive | M2 |
From sight of his hilarious playmates and | D2 |
Surreptitiously weep under water | C2 |
- | |
Thus | N2 |
He wrestled with his awful agony | H |
Till almost dark and then at last then with | E2 |
The very latest lingering group of his | O2 |
Companions he moved turgidly toward home | K |
Nay rather oozed that way so slow he went | D2 |
With lothful hesitating loitering | I |
Reluctant late election returns air | V |
Heightened somewhat by the conscience made resolve | P2 |
Of chopping a double armful of wood | D2 |
As he went in by rear way of the kitchen | G |
And this resolve he executed yet | D2 |
The hired girl made no comment whatsoever | C2 |
But went on washing up the supper things | Q2 |
Crooning the unutterably sad song ' Then think | R2 |
Oh think how lonely this heart must ever be ' | - |
Still with affected carelessness the boy | C |
Ranged through the pantry but the cupboard door | S2 |
Was locked He sighed then like a wet fore stick | T2 |
And went out on the porch At least the pump | U2 |
He prophesied would meet him kindly and | D2 |
Shake hands with him and welcome his return | V2 |
And long he held the old tin dipper up | W2 |
And oh how fresh and pure and sweet the draught | D2 |
Over the upturned brim with grateful eyes | U |
He saw the back yard in the gathering night | D2 |
Vague dim and lonesome but it all looked good | D2 |
The lightning bugs against the grape vines blinked | D2 |
A sort of sallow gladness over his | O2 |
Home coming with this softening of the heart | D2 |
He did not leave the dipper carelessly | H |
In the milk trough No he hung it back upon | X2 |
Its old nail thoughtfully even tenderly | H |
All slowly then he turned and sauntered toward | D2 |
The rain barrel at the corner of the house | Y2 |
And pausing peered into it at the few | Z2 |
Faint stars reflected there Then moved by some | A3 |
Strange impulse new to him he washed his feet | D2 |
He then went in the house straight on into | Z2 |
The very room where sat his parents by | B3 |
The evening lamp The father all intent | D2 |
Reading his paper and the mother quite | D2 |
As intent with her sewing Neither looked | D2 |
Up at his entrance even reproachfully | H |
And neither spoke | C3 |
- | |
The wistful runaway | W |
Drew a long quavering breath and then sat down | T |
Upon the extreme edge of a chair And all | H |
Was very still there for a long long while | H |
Yet everything someway seemed restful like | Z |
And homey and old fashioned good and kind | D2 |
And sort of kin to him Only too still | H |
If somebody would say something just speak | D3 |
Or even rise up suddenly and come | A3 |
And lift him by the ear sheer off his chair | V |
Or box his jaws Lord bless 'em any thing | I |
Was he not there to thankfully accept | D2 |
Any reception from parental source | H2 |
Save this incomprehensible voicelessness | H2 |
O but the silence held its very breath | E3 |
If but the ticking clock would only strike | Z |
And for an instant drown the whispering | I |
Lisping sifting sound the katydids | H2 |
Made outside in the grassy nowhere | V |
- | |
Far | F3 |
Down some back street he heard the faint halloo | H |
Of boys at their night game of 'Town fox ' | - |
But now with no desire at all to be | H |
Participating in their sport No no | G3 |
Never again in this world would he want | D2 |
To join them there he only wanted just | D2 |
To stay in home of nights Always always | H2 |
Forever and a day | W |
- | |
He moved and coughed | D2 |
Coughed hoarsely too through his rolled tongue and yet | D2 |
No vaguest of parental notice or | S2 |
Solicitude in answer no response | H2 |
No word no look O it was deathly still | H |
So still it was that really he could not | D2 |
Remember any prior silence that | D2 |
At all approached it in profundity | D2 |
And depth and density of utter hush | H3 |
He felt that he himself must break it So | G3 |
Summoning every subtle artifice | H2 |
Of seeming nonchalance and native ease | H2 |
And naturalness of utterance to his aid | D2 |
And gazing raptly at the house cat where | V |
She lay curled in her wonted corner of | I3 |
The hearth rug dozing he spoke airily | H |
And said 'I see you've got the same old cat ' | - |
James Whitcomb Riley
(1)
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