The Poet's Town Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBC DEDE FGFG A HIHJ DKDK LILI MNCN A COCO FHFH FPFP QCQC MPMP BRBR CRCR RSRS R TUTU FRFO MRMR RORO RVRV MRMR R R FWHW FRFR RWRW RXRX FYFY FZRZ HRRR TH H A2RA2R FRB2R R C2HC2H FHFH C2D2C2D2 R RRRR FFRF HIE2I TRHR R R R FF2FF2 FHFH R RC2RC2 C2FC2F FRHR R BRBR RRRRI | A |
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'Mid glad green miles of tillage | B |
And fields where cattle graze | C |
A prosy little village | B |
You drowse away the days | C |
- | |
And yet a wakeful glory | D |
Clings round you as you doze | E |
One living lyric story | D |
Makes music of your prose | E |
- | |
Here once returning never | F |
The feet of song have trod | G |
And flashed Oh once forever | F |
The singing Flame of God | G |
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II | A |
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These were his fields Elysian | H |
With mystic eyes he saw | I |
The sowers planting vision | H |
The reapers gleaning awe | J |
- | |
Serfs to a sordid duty | D |
He saw them with his heart | K |
Priests of the Ultimate Beauty | D |
Feeding the flame of art | K |
- | |
The weird untempled Makers | L |
Pulsed in the things he saw | I |
The wheat through its virile acres | L |
Billowed the Song of Law | I |
- | |
The epic roll of the furrow | M |
Flung from the writing plow | N |
The dactyl phrase of the green rowed maize | C |
Measured the music of Now | N |
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III | A |
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Sipper of ancient flagons | C |
Often the lonesome boy | O |
Saw in the farmers' wagons | C |
The chariots hurled at Troy | O |
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Trundling in dust and thunder | F |
They rumbled up and down | H |
Laden with princely plunder | F |
Loot of the tragic Town | H |
- | |
And once when the rich man's daughter | F |
Smiled on the boy at play | P |
Sword storms giddy with slaughter | F |
Swept back the ancient day | P |
- | |
War steeds shrieked in the quiet | Q |
Far and hoarse were the cries | C |
And Oh through the din and the riot | Q |
The music of Helen's eyes | C |
- | |
Stabbed with the olden Sorrow | M |
He slunk away from the play | P |
For the Past and the vast To morrow | M |
Were wedded in his To day | P |
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IV | - |
- | |
Rich with the dreamer's pillage | B |
An idle and worthless lad | R |
Least in a prosy village | B |
And prince in Allahabad | R |
- | |
Lover of golden apples | C |
Munching a daily crust | R |
Haunter of dream built chapels | C |
Worshipping in the dust | R |
- | |
Dull to the worldly duty | R |
Less to the town he grew | S |
And more to the God of Beauty | R |
Than even the grocer knew | S |
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V | R |
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Corn for the buyers and cattle | T |
But what could the dreamer sell | U |
Echoes of cloudy battle | T |
Music from heaven and hell | U |
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Spices and bales of plunder | F |
Argosied over the sea | R |
Tapestry woven of wonder | F |
And myrrh from Araby | O |
- | |
None of your dream stuffs Fellow | M |
Looter of Samarcand | R |
Gold is heavy and yellow | M |
And value is weighed in the hand | R |
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VI | - |
- | |
And yet when the years had humbled | R |
The Kings in the Realm of the Boy | O |
Song built bastions crumbled | R |
Ash heaps smothering Troy | O |
- | |
Thirsting for shattered flagons | R |
Quaffing a brackish cup | V |
With all of his chariots wagons | R |
He never could quite grow up | V |
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The debt to the ogre To morrow | M |
He never could comprehend | R |
Why should the borrowers borrow | M |
Why should the lenders lend | R |
- | |
Never an oak tree borrowed | R |
But took for its needs and gave | - |
Never an oak tree sorrowed | R |
Debt was the mark of the slave | - |
- | |
Grass in the priceless weather | F |
Sucked from the paps of the Earth | W |
And the hills that were lean it fleshed with green | H |
Oh what is a lesson worth | W |
- | |
But still did the buyers barter | F |
And the sellers squint at the scales | R |
And price was the stake of the martyr | F |
And cost was the lock of the jails | R |
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VII | - |
- | |
Windflowers herald the Maytide | R |
Rendering worth for worth | W |
Ragweeds gladden the wayside | R |
Biting the dugs of the Earth | W |
- | |
Violets scattering glories | R |
Feed from the dewy gem | X |
But dreamers are fed by the living and dead | R |
And what is the gift from them | X |
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VIII | - |
- | |
Never a stalk of the Summer | F |
Dreams of its mission and doom | Y |
Only to hasten the Comer | F |
Martyrdom unto the Bloom | Y |
- | |
Ever the Mighty Chooser | F |
Plucks when the fruit is ripe | Z |
Scorning the mass and letting it pass | R |
Keen for the cryptic type | Z |
- | |
Greece in her growing season | H |
Troubled the lands and seas | R |
Plotted and fought and suffered and wrought | R |
Building a Sophocles | R |
- | |
Only a faultless temple | T |
Stands for the vassal's groan | H |
The harlot's strife and the faith of the wife | - |
Blend in a graven stone | H |
- | |
Ne'er do the stern gods cherish | A2 |
The hope of the million lives | R |
Always the Fact shall perish | A2 |
And only the Truth survives | R |
- | |
Gardens of roses wither | F |
Shaping the perfect rose | R |
And the poet's song shall live for the long | B2 |
Dumb aching years of prose | R |
- | |
IX | R |
- | |
King of a Realm of Magic | C2 |
He was the fool of the town | H |
Hiding the ache of the tragic | C2 |
Under the grin of the clown | H |
- | |
Worn with the vain endeavor | F |
To fit in the sordid plan | H |
Doomed to be poet forever | F |
He longed to be only a man | H |
- | |
To be freed from the god's enthralling | C2 |
Back with the reeds of the stream | D2 |
Deaf to the Vision calling | C2 |
And dead to the lash of the Dream | D2 |
- | |
X | R |
- | |
But still did the Mighty Makers | R |
Stir in the common sod | R |
The corn through its awful acres | R |
Trembled and thrilled with God | R |
- | |
More than a man was the sower | F |
Lured by a man's desire | F |
For a triune Bride walked close at his side | R |
Dew and Dust and Fire | F |
- | |
More than a man was the plowman | H |
Shouting his gee and haw | I |
For a something dim kept pace with him | E2 |
And ever the poet saw | I |
- | |
Till the winds of the cosmic struggle | T |
Made of his flesh a flute | R |
To echo the tune of a whirlwind rune | H |
Unto the million mute | R |
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XI | R |
- | |
Son of the Mother of mothers | R |
The womb and the tomb of Life | - |
With Fire and Air for brothers | R |
And a clinging Dream for a wife | - |
- | |
Ever the soul of the dreamer | F |
Strove with its mortal mesh | F2 |
And the lean flame grew till it fretted through | F |
The last thin links of flesh | F2 |
- | |
Oh rending the veil asunder | F |
He fled to mingle again | H |
With the dred Orestean thunder | F |
The Lear of the driven rain | H |
- | |
XII | R |
- | |
Once in a cycle the comet | R |
Doubles its lonesome track | C2 |
Enriched with the tears of a thousand years | R |
schylus wanders back | C2 |
- | |
Ever inweaving returning | C2 |
The near grows out of the far | F |
And Homer shall sing once more in a swing | C2 |
Of the austere Polar Star | F |
- | |
Then what of the lonesome dreamer | F |
With the lean blue flame in his breast | R |
And who was your clown for a day O Town | H |
The strange unbidden guest | R |
- | |
XIII | R |
- | |
'Mid glad green miles of tillage | B |
And fields where cattle graze | R |
A prosy little village | B |
You drowse away the days | R |
- | |
And yet a wakeful glory | R |
Clings round you as you doze | R |
One living lyric story | R |
Makes music of your prose | R |
John G. Neihardt
(1)
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