Autumn Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEDF GHIJK LMNOPQGARSTUUVWAUXUA UYD UZA2B2AUC2| For my Mother | A |
| - | |
| How memory cuts away the years | B |
| And how clean the picture comes | C |
| Of autumn days brisk and busy | D |
| Charged with keen sunshine | E |
| And you stirred with activity | D |
| The spirit of these energetic days | F |
| - | |
| There was our back yard | G |
| So plain and stripped of green | H |
| With even the weeds carefully pulled away | I |
| From the crooked red bricks that made the walk | J |
| And the earth on either side so black | K |
| - | |
| Autumn and dead leaves burning in the sharp air | L |
| And winter comforts coming in like a pageant | M |
| I shall not forget them | N |
| Great jars laden with the raw green of pickles | O |
| Standing in a solemn row across the back of the porch | P |
| Exhaling the pungent dill | Q |
| And in the very center of the yard | G |
| You tending the great catsup kettle of gleaming copper | A |
| Where fat red tomatoes bobbed up and down | R |
| Like jolly monks in a drunken dance | S |
| And there were bland banks of cabbages that came by the wagon load | T |
| Soon to be cut into delicate ribbons | U |
| Only to be crushed by the heavy wooden stompers | U |
| Such feathery whiteness to come to kraut | V |
| And after there were grapes that hid their brightness under a grey dust | W |
| Then gushed thrilling purple blood over the fire | A |
| And enamelled crab apples that tricked with their fragrance | U |
| But were bitter to taste | X |
| And there were spicy plums and ill shaped quinces | U |
| And long string beans floating in pans of clear water | A |
| Like slim green fishes | U |
| And there was fish itself | Y |
| Salted silver herring from the city | D |
| - | |
| And you moved among these mysteries | U |
| Absorbed and smiling and sure | Z |
| Stirring tasting measuring | A2 |
| With the precision of a ritual | B2 |
| I like to think of you in your years of power | A |
| You now so shaken and so powerless | U |
| High priestess of your home | C2 |
Jean Starr Untermeyer
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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