He Called Her In Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BAACCDDAAEEFFB GHIIJKBKJLMMNEOE OPQRORRSSTTHHKKQKQUV VWW AXXY A BHHZZBOOA2A2OB2B2FFC 2D2C2D2RRJJFFE2F2E2F 2FB A BGBGHG2G2EEH2H2H2I2E I2EP QJ2J2K2K2K2L2CCBCBM2 N2YI | A |
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He called her in from me and shut the door | B |
And she so loved the sunshine and the sky | A |
She loved them even better yet than I | A |
That ne'er knew dearth of them my mother dead | C |
Nature had nursed me in her lap instead | C |
And I had grown a dark and eerie child | D |
That rarely smiled | D |
Save when shut all alone in grasses high | A |
Looking straight up in God's great lonesome sky | A |
And coaxing Mother to smile back on me | E |
'Twas lying thus this fair girl suddenly | E |
Came to me nestled in the fields beside | F |
A pleasant seeming home with doorway wide | F |
The sunshine beating in upon the floor | B |
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Like golden rain | G |
O sweet sweet face above me turn again | H |
And leave me I had cried but that an ache | I |
Within my throat so gripped it I could make | I |
No sound but a thick sobbing Cowering so | J |
I felt her light hand laid | K |
Upon my hair a touch that ne'er before | B |
Had tamed me thus all soothed and unafraid | K |
It seemed the touch the children used to know | J |
When Christ was here so dear it was so dear | L |
At once I loved her as the leaves love dew | M |
In midmost summer when the days are new | M |
Barely an hour I knew her yet a curl | N |
Of silken sunshine did she clip for me | E |
Out of the bright May morning of her hair | O |
And bound and gave it to me laughingly | E |
And caught my hands and called me ' Little girl ' | - |
Tiptoeing as she spoke to kiss me there | O |
And I stood dazed and dumb for very stress | P |
Of my great happiness | Q |
She plucked me by the gown nor saw how mean | R |
The raiment drew me with her everywhere | O |
Smothered her face in tufts of grasses green | R |
Put up her dainty hands and peeped between | R |
Her fingers at the blossoms crooned and talked | S |
To them in strange glad whispers as we walked | S |
Said this one was her angel mother this | T |
Her baby sister come back for a kiss | T |
Clean from the Good World smiled and kissed them then | H |
Closed her soft eyes and kissed them o'er again | H |
And so did she beguile me so we played | K |
She was the dazzling Shine I the dark Shade | K |
And we did mingle like to these and thus | Q |
Together made | K |
The perfect summer pure and glorious | Q |
So blent we till a harsh voice broke upon | U |
Our happiness She startled as a fawn | V |
Cried 'Oh 'tis Father ' all the blossoms gone | V |
From out her cheeks as those from out her grasp | W |
Harsher the voice came She could only gasp | W |
Affrightedly 'Good bye good bye good bye ' | - |
And lo I stood alone with that harsh cry | A |
Ringing a new and unknown sense of shame | X |
Through soul and frame | X |
And with wet eyes repeating o'er and o'er | Y |
'He called her in from me and shut the door ' | - |
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II | A |
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He called her in from me and shut the door | B |
And I went wandering alone again | H |
So lonely O so very lonely then | H |
I thought no little sallow star alone | Z |
In all a world of twilight e'er had known | Z |
Such utter loneliness But that I wore | B |
Above my heart that gleaming tress of hair | O |
To lighten up the night of my despair | O |
I think I might have groped into my grave | A2 |
Nor cared to wave | A2 |
The ferns above it with a breath of prayer | O |
And how I hungered for the sweet sweet face | B2 |
That bent above me in my hiding place | B2 |
That day amid the grasses there beside | F |
Her pleasant home 'Her pleasant home ' I sighed | F |
Remembering then shut my teeth and feigned | C2 |
The harsh voice calling me then clinched my nails | D2 |
So deeply in my palms the sharp wounds pained | C2 |
And tossed my face toward heaven as one who pales | D2 |
In splendid martyrdom with soul serene | R |
As near to God as high the guillotine | R |
And I had envied her Not that O no | J |
But I had longed for some sweet haven so | J |
Wherein the tempest beaten heart might ride | F |
Sometimes at peaceful anchor and abide | F |
Where those that loved me touched me with their hands | E2 |
And looked upon me with glad eyes and slipped | F2 |
Smooth fingers o'er my brow and lulled the strands | E2 |
Of my wild tresses as they backward tipped | F2 |
My yearning face and kissed it satisfied | F |
Then bitterly I murmured as before | B |
'He called her in from me and shut the door ' | - |
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III | A |
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He called her in from me and shut the door | B |
After long struggling with my pride and pain | G |
A weary while it seemed in which the more | B |
I held myself from her the greater fain | G |
Was I to look upon her face again | H |
At last at last half conscious where my feet | G2 |
Were faring I stood waist deep in the sweet | G2 |
Green grasses there where she | E |
First came to me | E |
The very blossoms she had plucked that day | H2 |
And at her father's voice had cast away | H2 |
Around me lay | H2 |
Still bright and blooming in these eyes of mine | I2 |
And as I gathered each one eagerly | E |
I pressed it to my lips and drank the wine | I2 |
Her kisses left there for the honey bee | E |
Then after I had laid them with the tress | P |
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Of her bright hair with lingering tenderness | Q |
I turning crept on to the hedge that bound | J2 |
Her pleasant seeming home but all around | J2 |
Was never sign of her The windows all | K2 |
Were blinded and I heard no rippling fall | K2 |
Of her glad laugh nor any harsh voice call | K2 |
But clutching to the tangled grasses caught | L2 |
A sound as though a strong man bowed his head | C |
And sobbed alone unloved uncomforted | C |
And then straightway before | B |
My tearless eyes all vividly was wrought | C |
A vision that is with me evermore | B |
A little girl that lies asleep nor hears | M2 |
Nor heeds not any voice nor fall of tears | N2 |
And I sit singing o'er and o'er and o'er | Y |
'God called her in from him and shut the door ' | - |
James Whitcomb Riley
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