The Common Question Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEF GGHG EIJI KLGM NOPO QFBF RSTU VQW| Behind us at our evening meal | A |
| The gray bird ate his fill | B |
| Swung downward by a single claw | C |
| And wiped his hooked bill | B |
| - | |
| He shook his wings and crimson tail | D |
| And set his head aslant | E |
| And in his sharp impatient way | F |
| Asked 'What does Charlie want ' | - |
| - | |
| 'Fie silly bird ' I answered 'tuck | G |
| Your head beneath your wing | G |
| And go to sleep ' but o'er and o'er | H |
| He asked the self same thing | G |
| - | |
| Then smiling to myself I said | E |
| How like are men and birds | I |
| We all are saying what he says | J |
| In action or in words | I |
| - | |
| The boy with whip and top and drum | K |
| The girl with hoop and doll | L |
| And men with lands and houses ask | G |
| The question of Poor Poll | M |
| - | |
| However full with something more | N |
| We fain the bag would cram | O |
| We sigh above our crowded nets | P |
| For fish that never swam | O |
| - | |
| No bounty of indulgent Heaven | Q |
| The vague desire can stay | F |
| Self love is still a Tartar mill | B |
| For grinding prayers alway | F |
| - | |
| The dear God hears and pities all | R |
| He knoweth all our wants | S |
| And what we blindly ask of Him | T |
| His love withholds or grants | U |
| - | |
| And so I sometimes think our prayers | V |
| Might well be merged in one | Q |
| And nest and perch and hearth and church | W |
| Repeat 'Thy will be done ' | - |
John Greenleaf Whittier
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