Sweet Fern Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF CGCG HIHI JKJK LMLM NONO PGPG QRQR| The subtle power in perfume found | A |
| Nor priest nor sibyl vainly learned | B |
| On Grecian shrine or Aztec mound | A |
| No censer idly burned | B |
| - | |
| That power the old time worships knew | C |
| The Corybantes' frenzied dance | D |
| The Pythian priestess swooning through | C |
| The wonderland of trance | D |
| - | |
| And Nature holds in wood and field | E |
| Her thousand sunlit censers still | F |
| To spells of flower and shrub we yield | E |
| Against or with our will | F |
| - | |
| I climbed a hill path strange and new | C |
| With slow feet pausing at each turn | G |
| A sudden waft of west wind blew | C |
| The breath of the sweet fern | G |
| - | |
| That fragrance from my vision swept | H |
| The alien landscape in its stead | I |
| Up fairer hills of youth I stepped | H |
| As light of heart as tread | I |
| - | |
| I saw my boyhood's lakelet shine | J |
| Once more through rifts of woodland shade | K |
| I knew my river's winding line | J |
| By morning mist betrayed | K |
| - | |
| With me June's freshness lapsing brook | L |
| Murmurs of leaf and bee the call | M |
| Of birds and one in voice and look | L |
| In keeping with them all | M |
| - | |
| A fern beside the way we went | N |
| She plucked and smiling held it up | O |
| While from her hand the wild sweet scent | N |
| I drank as from a cup | O |
| - | |
| O potent witchery of smell | P |
| The dust dry leaves to life return | G |
| And she who plucked them owns the spell | P |
| And lifts her ghostly fern | G |
| - | |
| Or sense or spirit Who shall say | Q |
| What touch the chord of memory thrills | R |
| It passed and left the August day | Q |
| Ablaze on lonely hills | R |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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About Sweet Fern
Sweet Fern is a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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