The Swan Song Of Parson Avery Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAB CCC DDD EEE FFF GGG HH FFF III JJJ KKK LLM NN OPP QQQ EEE RRR| When the reaper's task was ended and the summer wearing late | A |
| Parson Avery sailed from Newbury with his wife and children eight | A |
| Dropping down the river harbor in the shallop 'Watch and Wait ' | B |
| - | |
| Pleasantly lay the clearings in the mellow summer morn | C |
| With the newly planted orchards dropping their fruits first born | C |
| And the home roofs like brown islands amid a sea of corn | C |
| - | |
| Broad meadows reached out 'seaward the tided creeks between | D |
| And hills rolled wave like inland with oaks and walnuts green | D |
| A fairer home a goodlier land his eyes had never seen | D |
| - | |
| Yet away sailed Parson Avery away where duty led | E |
| And the voice of God seemed calling to break the living bread | E |
| To the souls of fishers starving on the rocks of Marblehead | E |
| - | |
| All day they sailed at nightfall the pleasant land breeze died | F |
| The blackening sky at midnight its starry lights denied | F |
| And far and low the thunder of tempest prophesied | F |
| - | |
| Blotted out were all the coast lines gone were rock and wood and sand | G |
| Grimly anxious stood the skipper with the rudder in his hand | G |
| And questioned of the darkness what was sea and what was land | G |
| - | |
| And the preacher heard his dear ones nestled round him weeping sore | H |
| 'Never heed my little children Christ is walking on before | H |
| To the pleasant land of heaven where the sea shall be no more ' | - |
| - | |
| All at once the great cloud parted like a curtain drawn aside | F |
| To let down the torch of lightning on the terror far and wide | F |
| And the thunder and the whirlwind together smote the tide | F |
| - | |
| There was wailing in the shallop woman's wail and man's despair | I |
| A crash of breaking timbers on the rocks so sharp and bare | I |
| And through it all the murmur of Father Avery's prayer | I |
| - | |
| From his struggle in the darkness with the wild waves and the blast | J |
| On a rock where every billow broke above him as it passed | J |
| Alone of all his household the man of God was cast | J |
| - | |
| There a comrade heard him praying in the pause of wave and wind | K |
| 'All my own have gone before me and I linger just behind | K |
| Not for life I ask but only for the rest Thy ransomed find | K |
| - | |
| 'In this night of death I challenge the promise of Thy word | L |
| Let me see the great salvation of which mine ears have heard | L |
| Let me pass from hence forgiven through the grace of Christ our Lord | M |
| - | |
| 'In the baptism of these waters wash white my every sin | N |
| And let me follow up to Thee my household and my kin | N |
| Open the sea gate of Thy heaven and let me enter in ' | - |
| - | |
| When the Christian sings his death song all the listening heavens draw near | O |
| And the angels leaning over the walls of crystal hear | P |
| How the notes so faint and broken swell to music in God's ear | P |
| - | |
| The ear of God was open to His servant's last request | Q |
| As the strong wave swept him downward the sweet hymn upward pressed | Q |
| And the soul of Father Avery went singing to its rest | Q |
| - | |
| There was wailing on the mainland from the rocks of Marblehead | E |
| In the stricken church of Newbury the notes of prayer were read | E |
| And long by board and hearthstone the living mourned the dead | E |
| - | |
| And still the fishers outbound or scudding from the squall | R |
| With grave and reverent faces the ancient tale recall | R |
| When they see the white waves breaking on the Rock of Avery's Fall | R |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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