What The Wind Said Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCB BDBDBD EFEFGF HCHCCC CBCBGB IJIJCJ KLKLBL HCHCBC MNMNBN OCOCCC GAGOOA BBBBBB PQPQRQ BDBDBD STSTGT CCCCCC BCBCUC CACABA BVBVGV OWOWOW BBBBBB UAUAB BDBDBD XOXOY| 'I muse to day in a listless way | A |
| In the gleam of a summer land | B |
| I close my eyes as a lover may | A |
| At the touch of his sweetheart's hand | B |
| And I hear these things in the whisperings | C |
| Of the zephyrs round me fanned' | B |
| - | |
| I am the Wind and I rule mankind | B |
| And I hold a sovereign reign | D |
| Over the lands as God designed | B |
| And the waters they contain | D |
| Lo the bound of the wide world round | B |
| Falleth in my domain | D |
| - | |
| I was born on a stormy morn | E |
| In a kingdom walled with snow | F |
| Whose crystal cities laugh to scorn | E |
| The proudest the world can show | F |
| And the daylight's glare is frozen there | G |
| In the breath of the blasts that blow | F |
| - | |
| Life to me was a jubilee | H |
| From the first of my youthful days | C |
| Clinking my icy toys with glee | H |
| Playing my childish plays | C |
| Filling my hands with the silver sands | C |
| To scatter a thousand ways | C |
| - | |
| Chasing the flakes that the Polar shakes | C |
| From his shaggy coat of white | B |
| Or hunting the trace of the track he makes | C |
| And sweeping it from sight | B |
| As he turned to glare from the slippery stair | G |
| Of the iceberg's farthest height | B |
| - | |
| Till I grew so strong that I strayed ere long | I |
| From my home of ice and chill | J |
| With an eager heart and a merry song | I |
| I traveled the snows until | J |
| I heard the thaws in the ice crag's jaws | C |
| Crunched with a hungry will | J |
| - | |
| And the angry crash of the waves that dash | K |
| Themselves on the jagged shore | L |
| Where the splintered masts of the ice wrecks flash | K |
| And the frightened breakers roar | L |
| In wild unrest on the ocean's breast | B |
| For a thousand leagues or more | L |
| - | |
| And the grand old sea invited me | H |
| With a million beckoning hands | C |
| And I spread my wings for a flight as free | H |
| As ever a sailor plans | C |
| When his thoughts are wild and his heart beguiled | B |
| With the dreams of foreign lands | C |
| - | |
| I passed a ship on its homeward trip | M |
| With a weary and toil worn crew | N |
| And I kissed their flag with a welcome lip | M |
| And so glad a gale I blew | N |
| That the sailors quaffed their grog and laughed | B |
| At the work I made them do | N |
| - | |
| I drifted by where sea groves lie | O |
| Like brides in the fond caress | C |
| Of the warm sunshine and the tender sky | O |
| Where the ocean passionless | C |
| And tranquil lies like a child whose eyes | C |
| Are blurred with drowsiness | C |
| - | |
| I drank the air and the perfume there | G |
| And bathed in a fountain's spray | A |
| And I smoothed the wings and the plumage rare | G |
| Of a bird for his roundelay | O |
| And fluttered a rag from a signal crag | O |
| For a wretched castaway | A |
| - | |
| With a sea gull resting on my breast | B |
| I launched on a madder flight | B |
| And I lashed the waves to a wild unrest | B |
| And howled with a fierce delight | B |
| Till the daylight slept and I wailed and wept | B |
| Like a fretful babe all night | B |
| - | |
| For I heard the boom of a gun strike doom | P |
| And the gleam of a blood red star | Q |
| Glared at me through the mirk and gloom | P |
| From the lighthouse tower afar | Q |
| And I held my breath at the shriek of death | R |
| That came from the harbor bar | Q |
| - | |
| For I am the Wind and I rule mankind | B |
| And I hold a sovereign reign | D |
| Over the lands as God designed | B |
| And the waters they contain | D |
| Lo the bound of the wide world round | B |
| Falleth in my domain | D |
| - | |
| I journeyed on when the night was gone | S |
| O'er a coast of oak and pine | T |
| And I followed a path that a stream had drawn | S |
| Through a land of vale and vine | T |
| And here and there was a village fair | G |
| In a nest of shade and shine | T |
| - | |
| I passed o'er lakes where the sunshine shakes | C |
| And shivers his golden lance | C |
| On the glittering shield of the wave that breaks | C |
| Where the fish boats dip and dance | C |
| And the trader sails where the mist unveils | C |
| The glory of old romance | C |
| - | |
| I joyed to stand where the jeweled hand | B |
| Of the maiden morning lies | C |
| On the tawny brow of the mountain land | B |
| Where the eagle shrieks and cries | C |
| And holds his throne to himself alone | U |
| From the light of human eyes | C |
| - | |
| Adown deep glades where the forest shades | C |
| Are dim as the dusk of day | A |
| Where only the foot of the wild beast wades | C |
| Or the Indian dares to stray | A |
| As the blacksnakes glide through the reeds and hide | B |
| In the swamp depths grim and gray | A |
| - | |
| And I turned and fled from the place of dread | B |
| To the far off haunts of men | V |
| 'In the city's heart is rest ' I said | B |
| But I found it not and when | V |
| I saw but care and vice reign there | G |
| I was filled with wrath again | V |
| - | |
| And I blew a spark in the midnight dark | O |
| Till it flashed to an angry flame | W |
| And scarred the sky with a lurid mark | O |
| As red as the blush of shame | W |
| And a hint of hell was the dying yell | O |
| That up from the ruins came | W |
| - | |
| The bells went wild and the black smoke piled | B |
| Its pillars against the night | B |
| Till I gathered them like flocks defiled | B |
| And scattered them left and right | B |
| While the holocaust's red tresses tossed | B |
| As a maddened Fury's might | B |
| - | |
| 'Ye overthrown ' did I jeer and groan | U |
| 'Ho who is your master say | A |
| Ye shapes that writhe in the slag and moan | U |
| Your slow charred souls away | A |
| Ye worse than worst of things accurst | B |
| Ye dead leaves of a day ' | - |
| - | |
| I am the Wind and I rule mankind | B |
| And I hold a sovereign reign | D |
| Over the lands as God designed | B |
| And the waters they contain | D |
| Lo the bound of the wide world round | B |
| Falleth in my domain | D |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| 'I wake as one from a dream half done | X |
| And gaze with a dazzled eye | O |
| On an autumn leaf like a scrap of sun | X |
| That the wind goes whirling by | O |
| While afar I hear with a chill of fear | Y |
| The winter storm king sigh ' | - |
James Whitcomb Riley
(1)
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About What The Wind Said
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