The Hill-top Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABACAC DEFEGHGH HHHHIJIJ AHAKALAL MNMOPEPE BABAQRQR ASASAAAA TUT LHLH VWVWGAGA XYXZA2AA2AThe burly driver at my side | A |
We slowly climbed the hill | B |
Whose summit in the hot noontide | A |
Seemed rising rising still | B |
At last our short noon shadows bid | A |
The top stone bare and brown | C |
From whence like Gizeh's pyramid | A |
The rough mass slanted down | C |
- | |
I felt the cool breath of the North | D |
Between me and the sun | E |
O'er deep still lake and ridgy earth | F |
I saw the cloud shades run | E |
Before me stretched for glistening miles | G |
Lay mountain girdled Squam | H |
Like green winged birds the leafy isles | G |
Upon its bosom swam | H |
- | |
And glimmering through the sun haze warm | H |
Far as the eye could roam | H |
Dark billows of an earthquake storm | H |
Beflecked with clouds like foam | H |
Their vales in misty shadow deep | I |
Their rugged peaks in shine | J |
I saw the mountain ranges sweep | I |
The horizon's northern line | J |
- | |
There towered Chocorua's peak and west | A |
Moosehillock's woods were seem | H |
With many a nameless slide scarred crest | A |
And pine dark gorge between | K |
Beyond them like a sun rimmed cloud | A |
The great Notch mountains shone | L |
Watched over by the solemn browed | A |
And awful face of stone | L |
- | |
'A good look off ' the driver spake | M |
'About this time last year | N |
I drove a party to the Lake | M |
And stopped at evening here | O |
'T was duskish down below but all | P |
These hills stood in the sun | E |
Till dipped behind yon purple wall | P |
He left them one by one | E |
- | |
'A lady who from Thornton hill | B |
Had held her place outside | A |
And as a pleasant woman will | B |
Had cheered the long dull ride | A |
Besought me with so sweet a smile | Q |
That though I hate delays | R |
I could not choose but rest awhile | Q |
These women have such ways | R |
- | |
'On yonder mossy ledge she sat | A |
Her sketch upon her knees | S |
A stray brown lock beneath her hat | A |
Unrolling in the breeze | S |
Her sweet face in the sunset light | A |
Upraised and glorified | A |
I never saw a prettier sight | A |
In all my mountain ride | A |
- | |
'As good as fair it seemed her joy | T |
To comfort and to give | U |
My poor sick wife and cripple boy | T |
Will bless her while they live ' | - |
The tremor in the driver's tone | L |
His manhood did not shame | H |
'I dare say sir you may have known' | L |
He named a well known name | H |
- | |
Then sank the pyramidal mounds | V |
The blue lake fled away | W |
For mountain scope a parlor's bounds | V |
A lighted hearth for day | W |
From lonely years and weary miles | G |
The shadows fell apart | A |
Kind voices cheered sweet human smiles | G |
Shone warm into my heart | A |
- | |
We journeyed on but earth and sky | X |
Had power to charm no more | Y |
Still dreamed my inward turning eye | X |
The dream of memory o'er | Z |
Ah human kindness human love | A2 |
To few who seek denied | A |
Too late we learn to prize above | A2 |
The whole round world beside | A |
John Greenleaf Whittier
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