Snow-bound: A Winter Idyl Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB C C DEFGHIJKL MMNNDCOOPPQRRQSSFF TTUUVVWUXXYY ZZLLA2A2B2B2C2C2 D2GE2E2F2F2G2G2G2YYF 2F2H2H2YYYYYYI2I2F2F 2 J2K2L2L2M2F2F2M2YYYN 2N2H2H2O2O2YYYYYYP2P 2YY SSG2G2G2Q2Q2R2S2YYYY T2U2YYV2V2W2W2G2G2 YYX2X2Y2Y2Z2Z2YYA3A3 B3B3C3C3B2B2CCYYF2F2 CCC YYYD3D3D3Y2Y2YYF2F2 YYSSYYYYYYYYF2F2YYF2 F2YY YYF2F2MME3D2F3F3D2G2 F2F2FTo the Memory of the Household It Describes | A |
This Poem is Dedicated by the Author | B |
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As the Spirits of Darkness be stronger in the dark so Good Spirits which be Angels of Light are augmented not only by the Divine lightof the Sun but also by our common Wood Fire and as the CelestialFire drives away dark spirits so also this our Fire of Wood doth thesame Cor Agrippa Occult Philosophy | C |
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Book I ch v | C |
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Announced by all the trumpets of the sky | D |
Arrives the snow and driving o'er the fields | E |
Seems nowhere to alight the whited air | F |
Hides hills and woods the river and the heaven | G |
And veils the farm house at the garden's end | H |
The sled and traveller stopped the courier's feet | I |
Delayed all friends shut out the housemates sit | J |
Around the radiant fireplace enclosed | K |
In a tumultuous privacy of Storm EMERSON The Snow Storm | L |
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The sun that brief December day | M |
Rose cheerless over hills of gray | M |
And darkly circled gave at noon | N |
A sadder light than waning moon | N |
Slow tracing down the thickening sky | D |
Its mute and ominous prophecy | C |
A portent seeming less than threat | O |
It sank from sight before it set | O |
A chill no coat however stout | P |
Of homespun stuff could quite shut out | P |
A hard dull bitterness of cold | Q |
That checked mid vein the circling race | R |
Of life blood in the sharpened face | R |
The coming of the snow storm told | Q |
The wind blew east we heard the roar | S |
Of Ocean on his wintry shore | S |
And felt the strong pulse throbbing there | F |
Beat with low rhythm our inland air | F |
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Meanwhile we did our nightly chores | T |
Brought in the wood from out of doors | T |
Littered the stalls and from the mows | U |
Raked down the herd's grass for the cows | U |
Heard the horse whinnying for his corn | V |
And sharply clashing horn on horn | V |
Impatient down the stanchion rows | W |
The cattle shake their walnut bows | U |
While peering from his early perch | X |
Upon the scaffold's pole of birch | X |
The cock his crested helmet bent | Y |
And down his querulous challenge sent | Y |
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Unwarmed by any sunset light | Z |
The gray day darkened into night | Z |
A night made hoary with the swarm | L |
And whirl dance of the blinding storm | L |
As zigzag wavering to and fro | A2 |
Crossed and recrossed the wing d snow | A2 |
And ere the early bedtime came | B2 |
The white drift piled the window frame | B2 |
And through the glass the clothes line posts | C2 |
Looked in like tall and sheeted ghosts | C2 |
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So all night long the storm roared on | D2 |
The morning broke without a sun | G |
In tiny spherule traced with lines | E2 |
Of Nature's geometric signs | E2 |
In starry flake and pellicle | F2 |
All day the hoary meteor fell | F2 |
And when the second morning shone | G2 |
We looked upon a world unknown | G2 |
On nothing we could call our own | G2 |
Around the glistening wonder bent | Y |
The blue walls of the firmament | Y |
No cloud above no earth below | F2 |
A universe of sky and snow | F2 |
The old familiar sights of ours | H2 |
Took marvellous shapes strange domes and towers | H2 |
Rose up where sty or corn crib stood | Y |
Or garden wall or belt of wood | Y |
A smooth white mound the brush pile showed | Y |
A fenceless drift what once was road | Y |
The bridle post an old man sat | Y |
With loose flung coat and high cocked hat | Y |
The well curb had a Chinese roof | I2 |
And even the long sweep high aloof | I2 |
In its slant spendor seemed to tell | F2 |
Of Pisa's leaning miracle | F2 |
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A prompt decisive man no breath | J2 |
Our father wasted Boys a path | K2 |
Well pleased for when did farmer boy | L2 |
Count such a summons less than joy | L2 |
Our buskins on our feet we drew | M2 |
With mittened hands and caps drawn low | F2 |
To guard our necks and ears from snow | F2 |
We cut the solid whiteness through | M2 |
And where the drift was deepest made | Y |
A tunnel walled and overlaid | Y |
With dazzling crystal we had read | Y |
Of rare Aladdin's wondrous cave | N2 |
And to our own his name we gave | N2 |
With many a wish the luck were ours | H2 |
To test his lamp's supernal powers | H2 |
We reached the barn with merry din | O2 |
And roused the prisoned brutes within | O2 |
The old horse thrust his long head out | Y |
And grave with wonder gazed about | Y |
The cock his lusty greeting said | Y |
And forth his speckled harem led | Y |
The oxen lashed their tails and hooked | Y |
And mild reproach of hunger looked | Y |
The horn d patriarch of the sheep | P2 |
Like Egypt's Amun roused from sleep | P2 |
Shook his sage head with gesture mute | Y |
And emphasized with stamp of foot | Y |
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All day the gusty north wind bore | S |
The loosening drift its breath before | S |
Low circling round its southern zone | G2 |
The sun through dazzling snow mist shone | G2 |
No church bell lent its Christian tone | G2 |
To the savage air no social smoke | Q2 |
Curled over woods of snow hung oak | Q2 |
A solitude made more intense | R2 |
By dreary voic d elements | S2 |
The shrieking of the mindless wind | Y |
The moaning tree boughs swaying blind | Y |
And on the glass the unmeaning beat | Y |
Of ghostly finger tips of sleet | Y |
Beyond the circle of our hearth | T2 |
No welcome sound of toil or mirth | U2 |
Unbound the spell and testified | Y |
Of human life and thought outside | Y |
We minded that the sharpest ear | V2 |
The buried brooklet could not hear | V2 |
The music of whose liquid lip | W2 |
Had been to us companionship | W2 |
And in our lonely life had grown | G2 |
To have an almost human tone | G2 |
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As night drew on and from the crest | Y |
Of wooded knolls that ridged the west | Y |
The sun a snow blown traveller sank | X2 |
From sight beneath the smothering bank | X2 |
We piled with care our nightly stack | Y2 |
Of wood against the chimney back | Y2 |
The oaken log green huge and thick | Z2 |
And on its top the stout back stick | Z2 |
The knotty forestick laid apart | Y |
And filled between with curious art | Y |
The ragged brush then hovering near | A3 |
We watched the first red blaze appear | A3 |
Heard the sharp crackle caught the gleam | B3 |
On whitewashed wall and sagging beam | B3 |
Until the old rude furnished room | C3 |
Burst flower like into rosy bloom | C3 |
While radiant with a mimic flame | B2 |
Outside the sparkling drift became | B2 |
And through the bare boughed lilac tree | C |
Our own warm hearth seemed blazing free | C |
The crane and pendent trammels showed | Y |
The Turks' heads on the andirons glowed | Y |
While childish fancy prompt to tell | F2 |
The meaning of the miracle | F2 |
Whispered the old rhyme Under the tree | C |
When fire outdoors burns merrily | C |
There the witches are making tea | C |
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The moon above the eastern wood | Y |
Shone at its full the hill range stood | Y |
Transfigured in the silver flood | Y |
Its blown snows flashing cold and keen | D3 |
Dead white save where some sharp ravine | D3 |
Took shadow or the sombre green | D3 |
Of hemlocks turned to pitchy black | Y2 |
Against the whiteness at their back | Y2 |
For such a world and such a night | Y |
Most fitting that unwarming light | Y |
Which only seemed where'er it fell | F2 |
To make the coldness visible | F2 |
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Shut in from all the world without | Y |
We sat the clean winged hearth about | Y |
Content to let the north wind roar | S |
In baffled rage at pane and door | S |
While the red logs before us beat | Y |
The frost line back with tropic heat | Y |
And ever when a louder blast | Y |
Shook beam and rafter as it passed | Y |
The merrier up its roaring draught | Y |
The great throat of the chimney laughed | Y |
The house dog on his paws outspread | Y |
Laid to the fire his drowsy head | Y |
The cat's dark silhouette on the wall | F2 |
A couchant tiger's seemed to fall | F2 |
And for the winter fireside meet | Y |
Between the andirons' straddling feet | Y |
The mug of cider simmered slow | F2 |
The apples sputtered in a row | F2 |
And close at hand the basket stood | Y |
With nuts from brown October's wood | Y |
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What matter how the night behaved | Y |
What matter how the north wind raved | Y |
Blow high blow low not all its snow | F2 |
Could quench our hearth fire's ruddy glow | F2 |
O Time and Change with hair as gray | M |
As was my sire's that winter day | M |
How strange it seems with so much gone | E3 |
Of life and love to still live on | D2 |
Ah brother only I and thou | F3 |
Are left of all that circle now | F3 |
The dear home faces whereupon | D2 |
That fitful firelight paled and shone | G2 |
Henceforward listen as we will | F2 |
The voices of that hearth are still | F2 |
Look where | F |
John Greenleaf Whittier
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