Cousin Rufus' Story Poem Rhyme Scheme

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My 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

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