Orlie Wilde Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABB CDCDD CCEE CFCGCCGGFFCCHH EEBBIICCJJ GGKKLLKMNNMCCCCCOPQC ORRCCSSCCBB PPCCTTUVW L XFFXXCCLLYYZZA2 CCCCB2LB2LL BC2C2BUD2CLLCCCCCC LLLL E2BKKCCE2E2B2B2KKTTW WF2F2CCCG2G2E2E2CCH2 KCCKKHHCC KKI2I2KKKKKK KKJ2J2BB CCCCE2CKKKKK2K2 KKK2KKKKB2B2KKC2CCC2

A goddess with a siren's graceA
A sun haired girl on a craggy placeA
Above a bay where fish boats layB
Drifting about like birds of preyB
-
Wrought was she of a painter's dreamC
Wise only as are artists wiseD
My artist friend Rolf HerschkelhiemC
With deep sad eyes of oversizeD
And face of melancholy guiseD
-
I pressed him that he tell to meC
This masterpiece's historyC
He turned REturned and thus beguiledE
Me with the tale of Orlie WildeE
-
We artists live ideallyC
We breed our firmest facts of airF
We make our own realityC
We dream a thing and it is soG
The fairest scenes we ever seeC
Are mirages of memoryC
The sweetest thoughts we ever knowG
We plagiarize from Long AgoG
And as the girl on canvas thereF
Is marvelously rare and fairF
'Tis only inasmuch as sheC
Is dumb and may not speak to meC
He tapped me with his mahlstick thenH
The picture and went on againH
-
Orlie Wilde the fisher's childE
I see her yet as fair and mildE
As ever nursling summer dayB
Dreamed on the bosom of the bayB
For I was twenty then and wentI
Alone and long haired all contentI
With promises of sounding nameC
And fantasies of future fameC
And thoughts that now my mind discardsJ
As editor a fledgling bard'sJ
-
At evening once I chanced to goG
With pencil and portfolioG
Adown the street of silver sandK
That winds beneath this craggy landK
To make a sketch of some old scurfL
Of driftage nosing through the surfL
A splintered mast with knarl and strandK
Of rigging rope and tattered threadsM
Of flag and streamer and of sailN
That fluttered idly in the galeN
Or whipped themselves to sadder shredsM
The while I wrought half listlesslyC
On my dismantled subject cameC
A sea bird settling on the sameC
With plaintive moan as though that heC
Had lost his mate upon the seaC
And with my melancholy trendO
It brought dim dreams half understoodP
It wrought upon my morbid moodQ
I thought of my own voyagingsC
That had no end that have no endO
And like the sea bird I made moanR
That I was loveless and aloneR
And when at last with weary wingsC
It went upon its wanderingsC
With upturned face I watched its flightS
Until this picture met my sightS
A goddess with a siren's graceC
A sun haired girl on a craggy placeC
Above a bay where fish boats layB
Drifting about like birds of preyB
-
In airy poise she gazing stoodP
A machless form of womanhoodP
That brought a thought that if for meC
Such eyes had sought across the seaC
I could have swum the widest tideT
That ever mariner defiedT
And at the shore could on have goneU
To that high crag she stood uponV
To there entreat and say 'My SweetW
Behold thy servant at thy feet '-
And to my soul I said 'AboveL
There stands the idol of thy love '-
-
In this rapt awed ecstatic stateX
I gazed till lo I was awareF
A fisherman had joined her thereF
A weary man with halting gaitX
Who toiled beneath a basket's weightX
Her father as I guessed for sheC
Had run to meet him gleefullyC
And ta'en his burden to herselfL
That perched upon her shoulder's shelfL
So lightly that she tripping nearedY
A jutting crag and disappearedY
But she left the echo of a songZ
That thrills me yet and will as longZ
As I have beingA2
-
-
Evenings cameC
And went but each the same the sameC
She watched above and even soC
I stood there watching from belowC
Till grown so bold at last I sungB2
What matter now the theme thereofL
It brought an answer from her tongueB2
Faint as the murmur of a doveL
Yet all the more the song of loveL
-
I turned and looked upon the bayB
With palm to forehead eyes a blurC2
In the sea's smile meant but for herC2
I saw the fish boats far awayB
In misty distance lightly drawnU
In chalk dots on the horizonD2
Looked back at her long wistfullyC
And pushing off an empty skiffL
I beckoned her to quit the cliffL
And yield me her rare companyC
Upon a little pleasure cruiseC
She stood as loathful to refuseC
To muse for full a moment's timeC
Then answered back in pantomimeC
'She feared some danger from the seaC
Were she discovered thus with me '-
I motioned then to ask her ifL
I might not join her on the cliffL
And back again with graceful waveL
Of lifted arm she anwer gaveL
'She feared some danger from the sea '-
-
Impatient piqued impetuous IE2
Sprang in the boat and flung 'Good by'B
From pouted mouth with angry handK
And madly pulled away from landK
With lusty stroke despite that sheC
Held out her hands entreatinglyC
And when far out with covert eyeE2
I shoreward glanced I saw her flyE2
In reckless haste adown the cragB2
Her hair a flutter like a flagB2
Of gold that danced across the strandK
In little mists of silver sandK
All curious I pausing triedT
To fancy what it all impliedT
When suddenly I found my feetW
Were wet and underneath the seatW
On which I sat I heard the soundF2
Of gurgling waters and I foundF2
The boat aleak alarminglyC
I turned and looked upon the seaC
Whose every wave seemed mocking meC
I saw the fishers' sails once moreG2
In dimmer distance than beforeG2
I saw the sea bird wheeling byE2
With foolish wish that I could flyE2
I thought of firm earth home and friendsC
I thought of everything that tendsC
To drive a man to frenzy andH2
To wholly lose his own commandK
I thought of all my waywardnessC
Thought of a mother's deep distressC
Of youthful follies yet unpurgedK
Sins as the seas about me surgedK
Thought of the printer's ready penH
To morrow drowning me againH
A million things without a nameC
I thought of everything but FameC
-
A memory yet is in my mindK
So keenly clear and sharp definedK
I picture every phase and lineI2
Of life and death and neither mineI2
While some fair seraph golden hairedK
Bends over me with white arms baredK
That strongly plait themselves aboutK
My drowning weight and lift me outK
With joy too great for words to stateK
Or tongue to dare articulateK
-
And this seraphic ocean childK
And heroine was Orlie WildeK
And thus it was I came to hearJ2
Her voice's music in my earJ2
Ay thus it was Fate paved the wayB
That I walk desolate to dayB
-
The artist paused and bowed his faceC
Within his palms a little spaceC
While reverently on his formC
I bent my gaze and marked a stormC
That shook his frame as wrathfullyE2
As some typhoon of agonyC
And fraught with sobs the more profoundK
For that peculiar laughing soundK
We hear when strong men weep I leantK
With warmest sympathy I bentK
To stroke with soothing hand his browK2
He murmuring Tis over nowK2
-
And shall I tie the silken threadK
Of my frail romance Yes I saidK
He faintly smiled and then with browK2
In kneading palm as one in dreadK
His tasseled cap pushed from his headK
'Her voice's music ' I repeatK
He said 'twas sweet O passing sweetK
Though she herself in utteringB2
Its melody proved not the thingB2
Of loveliness my dreams made meetK
For me there yearning at her feetK
Prone at her feet a worshiperC2
For lo she spake a tongue moaned heC
Unknown to me unknown to meC
As mine to her as mine to herC2

James Whitcomb Riley



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