The Huskers Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEFGGHHIIJJJJKK IIFFLMNNAAOOPPQRCCSS TTUVWWXXYYZZ| IT was late in mild October and the long autumnal rain | A |
| Had left the summer harvest fields all green with grass again | B |
| The first sharp frosts had fallen leaving all the woodlands gay | C |
| With the hues of summer's rainbow or the meadow flowers of May | C |
| Through a thin dry mist that morning the sun rose broad and red | D |
| At first a rayless disk of fire he brightened as he sped | D |
| Yet even his noontide glory fell chastened and subdued | E |
| On the cornfields and the orchards and softly pictured wood | F |
| And all that quiet afternoon slow sloping to the night | G |
| He wove with golden shuttle the haze with yellow light | G |
| Slanting through the painted beeches he glorified the hill | H |
| And beneath it pond and meadow lay brighter greener still | H |
| And shouting boys in woodland haunts caught glimpses of that sky | I |
| Flecked by the many tinted leaves and laughed they knew not why | I |
| And school girls gay with aster flowers beside the meadow brooks | J |
| Mingled the glow of autumn with the sunshine of sweet looks | J |
| From spire and barn looked westerly the patient weathercocks | J |
| But even the birches on the hill stood motionless as rocks | J |
| No sound was in the woodlands save the squirrel's dropping shell | K |
| And the yellow leaves among the boughs low rustling as they fell | K |
| The summer grains were harvested the stubblefields lay dry | I |
| Where June winds rolled in light and shade the pale green waves of rye | I |
| But still on gentle hill slopes in valleys fringed with wood | F |
| Ungathered bleaching in the sun the heavy corn crop stood | F |
| Bent low by autumn's wind and rain through husks that dry and sere | L |
| Unfolded from their ripened charge shone out the yellow ear | M |
| Beneath the turnip lay concealed in many a verdant fold | N |
| And glistened in the slanting light the pumpkin's sphere of gold | N |
| There wrought the busy harvesters and many a creaking wain | A |
| Bore slowly to the long barn floor is load of husk and grain | A |
| Till broad and red as when he rose the sun sank down at last | O |
| And like a merry guest's farewell the day in brightness passed | O |
| And lo as through the western pines on meadow stream and pond | P |
| Flamed the red radiance of a sky set all afire beyond | P |
| Slowly o'er the eastern sea bluffs a milder glory shone | Q |
| And the sunset and the moonrise were mingled into one | R |
| As thus into the quiet night the twilight lapsed away | C |
| And deeper in the brightening moon the tranquil shadows lay | C |
| From many a brown old farm house and hamlet without name | S |
| Their milking and their home tasks done the merry huskers came | S |
| Swung o'er the heaped up harvest from pitchforks in the mow | T |
| Shone dimly down the lanterns on the pleasant scene below | T |
| The growing pile of husks behind the golden ears before | U |
| And laughing eyes and busy hands and brown cheeks glimmering o'er | V |
| Half hidden in a quiet nook serene of look and heart | W |
| Talking their old times over the old men sat apart | W |
| While up and down the unhusked pile or nestling in its shade | X |
| At hide and seek with laugh and shout the happy children played | X |
| Urged by the good host's daughter a maiden young and fair | Y |
| Lifting to light her sweet blue eyes and pride of soft brown hair | Y |
| The master of the village school sleek of hair and smooth of tongue | Z |
| To the quaint tune of some old psalm a husking ballad sung | Z |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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