The Countess - To E. W. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFFGHIJKKLLMN OOPQRRSSSTTUUVVWWXXY YYZZA2A2RRB2C2D2C2D2 E2F2E2G2 H2I2H2I2 J2I2J2I2 I2PI2P YK2YK2 L2M2L2M2 A2SA2S N2O2N2O2 P2Q2P2Q2 R2S2R2S2 T2U2T2V2 W2X2W2X2 Y2Z2Y2Z2 A3RA3R ES2ES2 RRRR RB3RB3 C3X2C3X2 RRRR RX2RX2 D3X2D3X2 A3I2E3I2 UF3UG3 I2T2I2T2 C3RC3R H3X2H3X2 I2T2I2T2 I3X2I3X2 X2J3X2J3 X2RX2R K3DK3D

I know not Time and Space so interveneA
Whether still waiting with a trust sereneA
Thou bearest up thy fourscore years and tenB
Or called at last art now Heaven's citizenC
But here or there a pleasant thought of theeD
Like an old friend all day has been with meD
The shy still boy for whom thy kindly handE
Smoothed his hard pathway to the wonder landE
Of thought and fancy in gray manhood yetF
Keeps green the memory of his early debtF
To day when truth and falsehood speak their wordsG
Through hot lipped cannon and the teeth of swordsH
Listening with quickened heart and ear intentI
To each sharp clause of that stern argumentJ
I still can hear at times a softer noteK
Of the old pastoral music round me floatK
While through the hot gleam of our civil strifeL
Looms the green mirage of a simpler lifeL
As at his alien post the sentinelM
Drops the old bucket in the homestead wellN
And hears old voices in the winds that tossO
Above his head the live oak's beard of mossO
So in our trial time and under skiesP
Shadowed by swords like Islam's paradiseQ
I wait and watch and let my fancy strayR
To milder scenes and youth's Arcadian dayR
And howsoe'er the pencil dipped in dreamsS
Shades the brown woods or tints the sunset streamsS
The country doctor in the foreground seemsS
Whose ancient sulky down the village lanesT
Dragged like a war car captive ills and painsT
I could not paint the scenery of my songU
Mindless of one who looked thereon so longU
Who night and day on duty's lonely roundV
Made friends o' the woods and rocks and knew the soundV
Of each small brook and what the hillside treesW
Said to the winds that touched their leafy keysW
Who saw so keenly and so well could paintX
The village folk with all their humors quaintX
The parson ambling on his wall eyed roanY
Grave and erect with white hair backward blownY
The tough old boatman half amphibious grownY
The muttering witch wife of the gossip's taleZ
And the loud straggler levying his blackmailZ
Old customs habits superstitions fearsA2
All that lies buried under fifty yearsA2
To thee as is most fit I bring my layR
And grateful own the debt I cannot payR
B2
Over the wooded northern ridgeC2
Between its houses brownD2
To the dark tunnel of the bridgeC2
The street comes straggling downD2
-
You catch a glimpse through birch and pineE2
Of gable roof and porchF2
The tavern with its swinging signE2
The sharp horn of the churchG2
-
The river's steel blue crescent curvesH2
To meet in ebb and flowI2
The single broken wharf that servesH2
For sloop and gundelowI2
-
With salt sea scents along its shoresJ2
The heavy hay boats crawlI2
The long antennae of their oarsJ2
In lazy rise and fallI2
-
Along the gray abutment's wallI2
The idle shad net driesP
The toll man in his cobbler's stallI2
Sits smoking with closed eyesP
-
You hear the pier's low undertoneY
Of waves that chafe and gnawK2
You start a skipper's horn is blownY
To raise the creaking drawK2
-
At times a blacksmith's anvil soundsL2
With slow and sluggard beatM2
Or stage coach on its dusty roundsL2
Wakes up the staring streetM2
-
A place for idle eyes and earsA2
A cobwebbed nook of dreamsS
Left by the stream whose waves are yearsA2
The stranded village seemsS
-
And there like other moss and rustN2
The native dweller clingsO2
And keeps in uninquiring trustN2
The old dull round of thingsO2
-
The fisher drops his patient linesP2
The farmer sows his grainQ2
Content to hear the murmuring pinesP2
Instead of railroad trainQ2
-
Go where along the tangled steepR2
That slopes against the westS2
The hamlet's buried idlers sleepR2
In still profounder restS2
-
Throw back the locust's flowery plumeT2
The birch's pale green scarfU2
And break the web of brier and bloomT2
From name and epitaphV2
-
A simple muster roll of deathW2
Of pomp and romance shornX2
The dry old names that common breathW2
Has cheapened and outwornX2
-
Yet pause by one low mound and partY2
The wild vines o'er it lacedZ2
And read the words by rustic artY2
Upon its headstone tracedZ2
-
Haply yon white haired villagerA3
Of fourscore years can sayR
What means the noble name of herA3
Who sleeps with common clayR
-
An exile from the Gascon landE
Found refuge here and restS2
And loved of all the village bandE
Its fairest and its bestS2
-
He knelt with her on Sabbath mornsR
He worshipped through her eyesR
And on the pride that doubts and scornsR
Stole in her faith's surpriseR
-
Her simple daily life he sawR
By homeliest duties triedB3
In all things by an untaught lawR
Of fitness justifiedB3
-
For her his rank aside he laidC3
He took the hue and toneX2
Of lowly life and toil and madeC3
Her simple ways his ownX2
-
Yet still in gay and careless easeR
To harvest field or danceR
He brought the gentle courtesiesR
The nameless grace of FranceR
-
And she who taught him love not lessR
From him she loved in turnX2
Caught in her sweet unconsciousnessR
What love is quick to learnX2
-
Each grew to each in pleased accordD3
Nor knew the gazing townX2
If she looked upward to her lordD3
Or he to her looked downX2
-
How sweet when summer's day was o'erA3
His violin's mirth and wailI2
The walk on pleasant Newbury's shoreE3
The river's moonlit sailI2
-
Ah life is brief though love be longU
The altar and the bierF3
The burial hymn and bridal songU
Were both in one short yearG3
-
Her rest is quiet on the hillI2
Beneath the locust's bloomT2
Far off her lover sleeps as stillI2
Within his scutcheoned tombT2
-
The Gascon lord the village maidC3
In death still clasp their handsR
The love that levels rank and gradeC3
Unites their severed landsR
-
What matter whose the hillside graveH3
Or whose the blazoned stoneX2
Forever to her western waveH3
Shall whisper blue GaronneX2
-
O Love so hallowing every soilI2
That gives thy sweet flower roomT2
Wherever nursed by ease or toilI2
The human heart takes bloomT2
-
Plant of lost Eden from the sodI3
Of sinful earth unrivenX2
White blossom of the trees of GodI3
Dropped down to us from heavenX2
-
This tangled waste of mound and stoneX2
Is holy for thy sakeJ3
A sweetness which is all thy ownX2
Breathes out from fern and brakeJ3
-
And while ancestral pride shall twineX2
The Gascon's tomb with flowersR
Fall sweetly here O song of mineX2
With summer's bloom and showersR
-
And let the lines that severed seemK3
Unite again in theeD
As western wave and Gallic streamK3
Are mingled in one seaD

John Greenleaf Whittier



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