Heat-lightning Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFGHHIJAAKK LM NON PPAQKKKKKKKKN KKAAKKAAKKRR AAA KK| There was a curious quiet for a space | A |
| Directly following and in the face | A |
| Of one rapt listener pulsed the flush and glow | B |
| Of the heat lightning that pent passions throw | B |
| Long ere the crash of speech He broke the spell | C |
| The host The Traveler's story told so well | C |
| He said had wakened there within his breast | D |
| A yearning as it were to know the rest | D |
| That all unwritten sequence that the Lord | E |
| Of Righteousness must write with flame and sword | E |
| Some awful session of His patient thought | F |
| Just then it was his good old mother caught | G |
| His blazing eye so that its fire became | H |
| But as an ember though it burned the same | H |
| It seemed to her she said that she had heard | I |
| It was the Heavenly Parent never erred | J |
| And not the earthly one that had such grace | A |
| 'Therefore my son ' she said with lifted face | A |
| And eyes 'let no one dare anticipate | K |
| The Lord's intent While He waits we will wait' | K |
| And with a gust of reverence genuine | L |
| Then Uncle Mart was aptly ringing in | M |
| - | |
| '' If the darkened heavens lower | N |
| Wrap thy cloak around thy form | O |
| Though the tempest rise in power | N |
| God is mightier than the storm '' | - |
| - | |
| Which utterance reached the restive children all | P |
| As something humorous And then a call | P |
| For him to tell a story or to 'say | A |
| A funny piece ' His face fell right away | Q |
| He knew no story worthy Then he must | K |
| Declaim for them In that he could not trust | K |
| His memory And then a happy thought | K |
| Struck some one who reached in his vest and brought | K |
| Some scrappy clippings into light and said | K |
| There was a poem of Uncle Mart's he read | K |
| Last April in ' The Sentinel ' He had | K |
| It there in print and knew all would be glad | K |
| To hear it rendered by the author | N |
| - | |
| And | K |
| All reasons for declining at command | K |
| Exhausted the now helpless poet rose | A |
| And said 'I am discovered I suppose | A |
| Though I have taken all precautions not | K |
| To sign my name to any verses wrought | K |
| By my transcendent genius yet you see | A |
| Fame wrests my secret from me bodily | A |
| So I must needs confess I did this deed | K |
| Of poetry red handed nor can plead | K |
| One whit of unintention in my crime | R |
| My guilt of rhythm and my glut of rhyme | R |
| - | |
| 'Maenides rehearsed a tale of arms | A |
| And Naso told of curious metat mur phoses | A |
| Unnumbered pens have pictured woman's charms | A |
| While crazy I 've made poetry on purposes ' | - |
| - | |
| In other words I stand convicted need | K |
| I say by my own doing as I read | K |
James Whitcomb Riley
(1)
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About Heat-lightning
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