The Iron Horse Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAACD AAEFAGAG HIJHKLKLLM AAANNAOPQPARRA AFFASGSGTT LLUUVWXXCCAYAY| No song is mine of Arab steed | A |
| My courser is of nobler blood | B |
| And cleaner limb and fleeter speed | A |
| And greater strength and hardihood | A |
| Than ever cantered wild and free | C |
| Across the plains of Araby | D |
| - | |
| Go search the level desert land | A |
| From Sana on to Samarcand | A |
| Wherever Persian prince has been | E |
| Or Dervish Sheik or Bedouin | F |
| And I defy you there to point | A |
| Me out a steed the half so fine | G |
| From tip of ear to pastern joint | A |
| As this old iron horse of mine | G |
| - | |
| You do not know what beauty is | H |
| You do not know what gentleness | I |
| His answer is to my caress | J |
| Why look upon this gait of his | H |
| A touch upon his iron rein | K |
| He moves with such a stately grace | L |
| The sunlight on his burnished mane | K |
| Is barely shaken in its place | L |
| And at a touch he changes pace | L |
| And gliding backward stops again | M |
| - | |
| And talk of mettle Ah my friend | A |
| Such passion smolders in his breast | A |
| That when awakened it will send | A |
| A thrill of rapture wilder than | N |
| E'er palpitated heart of man | N |
| When flaming at its mightiest | A |
| And there's a fierceness in his ire | O |
| A maddened majesty that leaps | P |
| Along his veins in blood of fire | Q |
| Until the path his vision sweeps | P |
| Spins out behind him like a thread | A |
| Unraveled from the reel of time | R |
| As wheeling on his course sublime | R |
| The earth revolves beneath his tread | A |
| - | |
| Then stretch away my gallant steed | A |
| Thy mission is a noble one | F |
| Thou bear'st the father to the son | F |
| And sweet relief to bitter need | A |
| Thou bear'st the stranger to his friends | S |
| Thou bear'st the pilgrim to the shrine | G |
| And back again the prayer he sends | S |
| That God will prosper me and mine | G |
| The star that on thy forehead gleams | T |
| Has blossomed in our brightest dreams | T |
| - | |
| Then speed thee on thy glorious race | L |
| The mother waits thy ringing pace | L |
| The father leans an anxious ear | U |
| The thunder of thy hooves to hear | U |
| The lover listens far away | V |
| To catch thy keen exultant neigh | W |
| And where thy breathings roll and rise | X |
| The husband strains his eager eyes | X |
| And laugh of wife and baby glee | C |
| Ring out to greet and welcome thee | C |
| Then stretch away and when at last | A |
| The master's hand shall gently check | Y |
| Thy mighty speed and hold thee fast | A |
| The world will pat thee on the neck | Y |
James Whitcomb Riley
(1)
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