Mr. Hammond's Parable Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBC D DEFEFDDGG BBHHHDIIDI DGGDGJJDDDD DDDDKKCCDD GLGLMMKK NDNDODODPQRRGGCC SSDDDDKK T KKUUV KKGGK KKWWC DDDDDDDXXWW| THE DREAMER | A |
| - | |
| I | - |
| - | |
| He was a Dreamer of the Days | B |
| Indolent as a lazy breeze | C |
| Of midsummer in idlest ways | B |
| Lolling about in the shade of trees | C |
| The farmer turned as he passed him by | - |
| Under the hillside where he kneeled | D |
| Plucking a flower with scornful eye | - |
| And rode ahead in the harvest field | D |
| Muttering Lawz ef that air shirk | E |
| Of a boy was mine fer a week er so | F |
| He'd quit dreamin' and git to work | E |
| And airn his livin' er Well I know | F |
| And even kindlier rumor said | D |
| Tapping with finger a shaking head | D |
| Got such a curious kind o' way | G |
| Wouldn't surprise me much I say | G |
| - | |
| Lying limp with upturned gaze | B |
| Idly dreaming away his days | B |
| No companions Yes a book | H |
| Sometimes under his arm he took | H |
| To read aloud to a lonesome brook | H |
| And school boys truant once had heard | D |
| A strange voice chanting faint and dim | I |
| Followed the echoes and found it him | I |
| Perched in a tree top like a bird | D |
| Singing clean from the highest limb | I |
| And fearful and awed they all slipped by | - |
| To wonder in whispers if he could fly | - |
| Let him alone his father said | D |
| When the old schoolmaster came to say | G |
| He took no part in his books to day | G |
| Only the lesson the readers read | D |
| His mind seems sadly going astray | G |
| Let him alone came the mournful tone | J |
| And the father's grief in his sad eyes shone | J |
| Hiding his face in his trembling hand | D |
| Moaning Would I could understand | D |
| But as heaven wills it I accept | D |
| Uncomplainingly So he wept | D |
| - | |
| Then went The Dreamer as he willed | D |
| As uncontrolled as a light sail filled | D |
| Flutters about with an empty boat | D |
| Loosed from its moorings and afloat | D |
| Drifted out from the busy quay | K |
| Of dull school moorings listlessly | K |
| Drifted off on the talking breeze | C |
| All alone with his reveries | C |
| Drifted on as his fancies wrought | D |
| Out on the mighty gulfs of thought | D |
| - | |
| - | |
| II | - |
| - | |
| The farmer came in the evening gray | G |
| And took the bars of the pasture down | L |
| Called to the cows in a coaxing way | G |
| Bess and Lady and Spot and Brown | L |
| While each gazed with a wide eyed stare | M |
| As though surprised at his coming there | M |
| Till another tone in a higher key | K |
| Brought their obeyance lothfully | K |
| - | |
| Then as he slowly turned and swung | N |
| The topmost bar to its proper rest | D |
| Something fluttered along and clung | N |
| An instant shivering at his breast | D |
| A wind scared fragment of legal cap | O |
| Which darted again as he struck his hand | D |
| On his sounding chest with a sudden slap | O |
| And hurried sailing across the land | D |
| But as it clung he had caught the glance | P |
| Of a little penciled countenance | Q |
| And a glamour of written words and hence | R |
| A minute later over the fence | R |
| Here and there and gone astray | G |
| Over the hills and far away | G |
| He chased it into a thicket of trees | C |
| And took it away from the captious breeze | C |
| - | |
| A scrap of paper with a rhyme | S |
| Scrawled upon it of summertime | S |
| A pencil sketch of a dairy maid | D |
| Under a farmhouse porch's shade | D |
| Working merrily and was blent | D |
| With her glad features such sweet content | D |
| That a song she sung in the lines below | K |
| Seemed delightfully apropos | K |
| - | |
| SONG | T |
| - | |
| Why do I sing Tra la la la la | K |
| Glad as a King Tra la la la la | K |
| Well since you ask | U |
| I have such a pleasant task | U |
| I can not help but sing | V |
| - | |
| Why do I smile Tra la la la la | K |
| Working the while Tra la la la la | K |
| Work like this is play | G |
| So I'm playing all the day | G |
| I can not help but smile | K |
| - | |
| So If you please Tra la la la la | K |
| Live at your ease Tra la la la la | K |
| You've only got to turn | W |
| And you see its bound to churn | W |
| I can not help but please | C |
| - | |
| The farmer pondered and scratched his head | D |
| Reading over each mystic word | D |
| Some o' the Dreamer's work he said | D |
| Ah here's more and name and date | D |
| In his hand write' And the good man read | D |
| 'Patent applied for July third | D |
| Eighteen hundred and forty eight' | D |
| The fragment fell from his nerveless grasp | X |
| His awed lips thrilled with the joyous gasp | X |
| I see the p'int to the whole concern | W |
| He's studied out a patent churn | W |
James Whitcomb Riley
(1)
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Mr. Hammond's Parable is a poem by James Whitcomb Riley. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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