The Swimmer Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD EEEEE EEEEE EEE E FFFF GHH HH IIII| IN dog days plowmen quit their toil | A |
| And frog ponds in the meadow boil | A |
| And grasses on the upland broil | A |
| And all the coiling things uncoil | A |
| And eggs and meats and Christians spoil | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| A mile away the valley breaks | B |
| So all good valleys do and makes | B |
| A cool green water for hot heads' sakes | B |
| And sundry sullen dog days' aches | B |
| - | |
| - | |
| The swimmer's body is white and clean | C |
| It is washed by a water of deepest green | C |
| The color of leaves in a starlight scene | C |
| And it is as white as the stars between | C |
| - | |
| - | |
| But the swimmer's soul is a thing possessed | D |
| His soul is naked as his breast | D |
| Remembers not its east and west | D |
| And ponders this way I have guessed | D |
| - | |
| - | |
| I have no home in the cruel heat | E |
| On alien soil that blisters feet | E |
| This water is my native seat | E |
| And more than ever cool and sweet | E |
| So long by forfeiture escheat | E |
| - | |
| - | |
| O my forgiving element | E |
| I gash you to my heart's content | E |
| And never need be penitent | E |
| So light you float me when breath is spent | E |
| And close again where my rude way went | E |
| - | |
| - | |
| And now you close above my head | E |
| And I lie low in a soft green bed | E |
| That dog days never have visited | E |
| 'By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread ' | - |
| The garden's curse is at last unsaid | E |
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| - | |
| What do I need of senses five | F |
| Why eat or drink or sweat or wive | F |
| What do we strive for when we strive | F |
| What do we live for when alive | F |
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| - | |
| And what if I do not rise again | G |
| Never to goad a heated brain | H |
| To hotter excesses of joy and pain | H |
| - | |
| - | |
| Why should it be against the grain | H |
| To lie so cold and still and sane | H |
| - | |
| - | |
| Water bugs play shimmer shimmer | I |
| Naked body's just a glimmer | I |
| Watch ticks every second grimmer | I |
| Come to the top O wicked swimmer | I |
John Crowe Ransom
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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