The Homestead Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KJKJ LCLC CICI MBMB NIOI PCPC QRQR LSLS TUTU VCVC KDKD WXYX ZA2A2A2 VVVVAGAINST the wooded hills it stands | A |
Ghost of a dead home staring through | B |
Its broken lights on wasted lands | A |
Where old time harvests grew | B |
- | |
Unploughed unsown by scythe unshorn | C |
The poor forsaken farm fields lie | D |
Once rich and rife with golden corn | C |
And pale green breadths of rye | D |
- | |
Of healthful herb and flower bereft | E |
The garden plot no housewife keeps | F |
Through weeds and tangle only left | E |
The snake its tenant creeps | F |
- | |
A lilac spray still blossom clad | G |
Sways slow before the empty rooms | H |
Beside the roofless porch a sad | G |
Pathetic red rose blooms | H |
- | |
His track in mould and dust of drouth | I |
On floor and hearth the squirrel leaves | J |
And in the fireless chimney's mouth | I |
His web the spider weaves | J |
- | |
The leaning barn about to fall | K |
Resounds no more on husking eves | J |
No cattle low in yard or stall | K |
No thresher beats his sheaves | J |
- | |
So sad so drear It seems almost | L |
Some haunting Presence makes its sign | C |
That down yon shadowy lane some ghost | L |
Might drive his spectral kine | C |
- | |
O home so desolate and lorn | C |
Did all thy memories die with thee | I |
Were any wed were any born | C |
Beneath this low roof tree | I |
- | |
Whose axe the wall of forest broke | M |
And let the waiting sunshine through | B |
What goodwife sent the earliest smoke | M |
Up the great chimney flue | B |
- | |
Did rustic lovers hither come | N |
Did maidens swaying back and forth | I |
In rhythmic grace at wheel and loom | O |
Make light their toil with mirth | I |
- | |
Did child feet patter on the stair | P |
Did boyhood frolic in the snow | C |
Did gray age in her elbow chair | P |
Knit rocking to and fro | C |
- | |
The murmuring brook the sighing breeze | Q |
The pine's slow whisper cannot tell | R |
Low mounds beneath the hemlock trees | Q |
Keep the home secrets well | R |
- | |
Cease mother land to fondly boast | L |
Of sons far off who strive and thrive | S |
Forgetful that each swarming host | L |
Must leave an emptier hive | S |
- | |
O wanderers from ancestral soil | T |
Leave noisome mill and chaffering store | U |
Gird up your loins for sturdier toil | T |
And build the home once more | U |
- | |
Come back to bayberry scented slopes | V |
And fragrant fern and ground nut vine | C |
Breathe airs blown over holt and copse | V |
Sweet with black birch and pine | C |
- | |
What matter if the gains are small | K |
That life's essential wants supply | D |
Your homestead's title gives you all | K |
That idle wealth can buy | D |
- | |
All that the many dollared crave | W |
The brick walled slaves of 'Change and mart | X |
Lawns trees fresh air and flowers you have | Y |
More dear for lack of art | X |
- | |
Your own sole masters freedom willed | Z |
With none to bid you go or stay | A2 |
Till the old fields your fathers tilled | A2 |
As manly men as they | A2 |
- | |
With skill that spares your toiling hands | V |
And chemic aid that science brings | V |
Reclaim the waste and outworn lands | V |
And reign thereon as kings | V |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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