Grace Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAC DEAFGEHEAEIEJE K L MNANJNONPN QRSRPRAR JRARKRFRAR ATAT TUCUAUAUVW AAVA AAXAAAY ZAAA AAA2AB2A C2AD2AE2A F2AG2A H2I2AI2AI2XI2AI2 AJ2AK2L2K2 M2KN2K

WHO is it beams the merriestA
At killing a man the laughing oneB
You are the one I nominateA
God of the rivers of BabylonC
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A hundred times I've taken the mulesD
And started early through the laneE
And come to the broken gate and lookedA
And there my partner was againF
Sitting on top of a sorrel horseG
And picking the burrs from its matted maneE
Saying he thought he'd help me workH
That field of corn before the rainE
And I never spoke of the dollar a dayA
It's no use causing hired men painE
But slipped it into his hand at darkI
While he undid the coupling chainE
And whistled a gospel tune and knewJ
He'd join in strong on the refrainE
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For I would pitch the treble highK
'Down at the cross where my Savior died '-
And then he rolled along the bassL
'There did I bury my sin and pride '-
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Sinful pride of a hired manM
Out of a hired woman bornN
I'm thinking now how he was savedA
One day while plowing in the cornN
We plowed that steamy morning throughJ
I with the mule whose side was tornN
And keeping an eye on the mule I sawO
That the sun looked high and the man looked wornN
I would take him home to dinner with meP
And there my father's dinner hornN
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The sun blazed after dinner soQ
We sat a while by the maple treesR
Thinking of mother's pickles and piesS
And smoking a friendly pipe at easeR
I broached a point of pietyP
For pious men are quick to teaseR
Was it really true John dipped his crowdA
Down in the muddy Jordan's leesR
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And couldn't the Baptists backslide tooJ
If only they went on Methodist spreesR
And finally back to the field we wentA
The corn was well above my kneesR
The weeds were more than ankle highK
And dangerous customers were theseR
We went to work in the heat againF
I hoped we'd get a bit of breezeR
And thought the hired man was usedA
To God's most blazing crueltiesR
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Sundays the hired man would prayA
To live in the sunshine of his faceT
Now here was answer come completeA
Rather an overdose of graceT
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He fell in the furrow an honest placeT
And an easy place for a man to fallU
His horse went marching blindly onC
In a beautiful dream of a great fat stallU
And God shone on in merry moodA
For it was a foolish kind of sprawlU
And I found a hulk of heaving meatA
That wouldn't answer me at allU
And a fresh breeze made the young corn danceV
To a bright green glorious carnivalW
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And really is it not a giftA
To smile and be divinely gayA
To rise above a circumstanceV
And smile distressing scenes awayA
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But this was a thing that I had saidA
I was so forward and untamedA
'I will not worship wickednessX
Though it be God's I am ashamedA
For all his mercies God be thankedA
But for his tyrannies be blamedA
He shall not have my love aloneY
With loathing too his name is named '-
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I caught him up with all my strengthZ
And with a silly stumbling treadA
I dragged him over the soft brown dirtA
And dumped him down beside the shedA
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I thought of the prayers the fool had prayedA
To his God and I was seeing redA
When all of a sudden he gave a heaveA2
And then with shuddering vomitedA
And God who had just received full thanksB2
For all his kindly daily breadA
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Now called it back again perhapsC2
To see that his birds of the air were fedA
Not mother's dainty dinner nowD2
A rather horrible mess insteadA
Yet all of it God required of himE2
Before the fool was duly deadA
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Even of deaths there is a choiceF2
I've seen you give a good one GodA
But he in his vomit laid him downG2
Denied the decency of bloodA
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If silence from the dead I sworeH2
There shall be cursing from the quickI2
But I began to vomit tooA
Cursing and vomit ever so thickI2
The dead lay down and I did tooA
Two ashy idiots take your pickI2
A little lower than angels he made usX
Hear his excellent rhetoricI2
A credit we were to him half of us deadA
The other half of us lying sickI2
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The little clouds came Sunday dressedA
To do a holy reverenceJ2
The young corn smelled its sweetest tooA
And made him goodly frankincenseK2
The thrushes offered music upL2
Choired in the wood beyond the fenceK2
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And while his praises filled the earthM2
A solitary crow sailed byK
And while the whole creation sangN2
He cawed not knowing how to sighK

John Crowe Ransom



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