To My Old Schoolmaster Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDBBEEFFGGHHEE IIJJCCCCKKLLMMCCNNNN NOOEPCCPPQQRRSSTTUV CCWWDDMMXXPP FFYYZZA2A2WWB2B2C2C2 D2D2 PPWWWWCCE2E2E2E2F2F2 WW WWWWWWWWG2G2WWCCWWCC CCCCWWWW GGGWWH2I2CCJ2J2QQTTE 2E2IIK2L2KKIW E2E2TTJJNNWWVVH2I2J2 M2E2E2WWWG2N2O2O2WWP PJJWWWWIINNP2P2Q2J2| AN EPISTLE NOT AFTER THE MANNER OF HORACE | A |
| - | |
| Old friend kind friend lightly down | B |
| Drop time's snow flakes on thy crown | B |
| Never be thy shadow less | C |
| Never fail thy cheerfulness | C |
| Care that kills the cat may plough | D |
| Wrinkles in the miser's brow | D |
| Deepen envy's spiteful frown | B |
| Draw the mouths of bigots down | B |
| Plague ambition's dream and sit | E |
| Heavy on the hypocrite | E |
| Haunt the rich man's door and ride | F |
| In the gilded coach of pride | F |
| Let the fiend pass what can he | G |
| Find to do with such as thee | G |
| Seldom comes that evil guest | H |
| Where the conscience lies at rest | H |
| And brown health and quiet wit | E |
| Smiling on the threshold sit | E |
| - | |
| I the urchin unto whom | I |
| In that smoked and dingy room | I |
| Where the district gave thee rule | J |
| O'er its ragged winter school | J |
| Thou didst teach the mysteries | C |
| Of those weary A B C's | C |
| Where to fill the every pause | C |
| Of thy wise and learned saws | C |
| Through the cracked and crazy wall | K |
| Came the cradle rock and squall | K |
| And the goodman's voice at strife | L |
| With his shrill and tipsy wife | L |
| Luring us by stories old | M |
| With a comic unction told | M |
| More than by the eloquence | C |
| Of terse birchen arguments | C |
| Doubtful gain I fear to look | N |
| With complacence on a book | N |
| Where the genial pedagogue | N |
| Half forgot his rogues to flog | N |
| Citing tale or apologue | N |
| Wise and merry in its drift | O |
| As was Phaedrus' twofold gift | O |
| Had the little rebels known it | E |
| Risum et prudentiam monet | P |
| I the man of middle years | C |
| In whose sable locks appears | C |
| Many a warning fleck of gray | P |
| Looking back to that far day | P |
| And thy primal lessons feel | Q |
| Grateful smiles my lips unseal | Q |
| As remembering thee I blend | R |
| Olden teacher present friend | R |
| Wise with antiquarian search | S |
| In the scrolls of State and Church | S |
| Named on history's title page | T |
| Parish clerk and justice sage | T |
| For the ferule's wholesome awe | U |
| Wielding now the sword of law | V |
| - | |
| Threshing Time's neglected sheaves | C |
| Gathering up the scattered leaves | C |
| Which the wrinkled sibyl cast | W |
| Careless from her as she passed | W |
| Twofold citizen art thou | D |
| Freeman of the past and now | D |
| He who bore thy name of old | M |
| Midway in the heavens did hold | M |
| Over Gibeon moon and sun | X |
| Thou hast bidden them backward run | X |
| Of to day the present ray | P |
| Flinging over yesterday | P |
| - | |
| Let the busy ones deride | F |
| What I deem of right thy pride | F |
| Let the fools their treadmills grind | Y |
| Look not forward nor behind | Y |
| Shuffle in and wriggle out | Z |
| Veer with every breeze about | Z |
| Turning like a windmill sail | A2 |
| Or a dog that seeks his tail | A2 |
| Let them laugh to see thee fast | W |
| Tabernacled in the Past | W |
| Working out with eye and lip | B2 |
| Riddles of old penmanship | B2 |
| Patient as Belzoni there | C2 |
| Sorting out with loving care | C2 |
| Mummies of dead questions stripped | D2 |
| From their sevenfold manuscript | D2 |
| - | |
| Dabbling in their noisy way | P |
| In the puddles of to day | P |
| Little know they of that vast | W |
| Solemn ocean of the past | W |
| On whose margin wreck bespread | W |
| Thou art walking with the dead | W |
| Questioning the stranded years | C |
| Waking smiles by turns and tears | C |
| As thou callest up again | E2 |
| Shapes the dust has long o'erlain | E2 |
| Fair haired woman bearded man | E2 |
| Cavalier and Puritan | E2 |
| In an age whose eager view | F2 |
| Seeks but present things and new | F2 |
| Mad for party sect and gold | W |
| Teaching reverence for the old | W |
| - | |
| On that shore with fowler's tact | W |
| Coolly bagging fact on fact | W |
| Naught amiss to thee can float | W |
| Tale or song or anecdote | W |
| Village gossip centuries old | W |
| Scandals by our grandams told | W |
| What the pilgrim's table spread | W |
| Where he lived and whom he wed | W |
| Long drawn bill of wine and beer | G2 |
| For his ordination cheer | G2 |
| Or the flip that wellnigh made | W |
| Glad his funeral cavalcade | W |
| Weary prose and poet's lines | C |
| Flavored by their age like wines | C |
| Eulogistic of some quaint | W |
| Doubtful puritanic saint | W |
| Lays that quickened husking jigs | C |
| Jests that shook grave periwigs | C |
| When the parson had his jokes | C |
| And his glass like other folks | C |
| Sermons that for mortal hours | C |
| Taxed our fathers' vital powers | C |
| As the long nineteenthlies poured | W |
| Downward from the sounding board | W |
| And for fire of Pentecost | W |
| Touched their beards December's frost | W |
| - | |
| Time is hastening on and we | G |
| What our fathers are shall be | G |
| Shadow shapes of memory | G |
| Joined to that vast multitude | W |
| Where the great are but the good | W |
| And the mind of strength shall prove | H2 |
| Weaker than the heart of love | I2 |
| Pride of graybeard wisdom less | C |
| Than the infant's guilelessness | C |
| And his song of sorrow more | J2 |
| Than the crown the Psalmist wore | J2 |
| Who shall then with pious zeal | Q |
| At our moss grown thresholds kneel | Q |
| From a stained and stony page | T |
| Reading to a careless age | T |
| With a patient eye like thine | E2 |
| Prosing tale and limping line | E2 |
| Names and words the hoary rime | I |
| Of the Past has made sublime | I |
| Who shall work for us as well | K2 |
| The antiquarian's miracle | L2 |
| Who to seeming life recall | K |
| Teacher grave and pupil small | K |
| Who shall give to thee and me | I |
| Freeholds in futurity | W |
| - | |
| Well whatever lot be mine | E2 |
| Long and happy days be thine | E2 |
| Ere thy full and honored age | T |
| Dates of time its latest page | T |
| Squire for master State for school | J |
| Wisely lenient live and rule | J |
| Over grown up knave and rogue | N |
| Play the watchful pedagogue | N |
| Or while pleasure smiles on duty | W |
| At the call of youth and beauty | W |
| Speak for them the spell of law | V |
| Which shall bar and bolt withdraw | V |
| And the flaming sword remove | H2 |
| From the Paradise of Love | I2 |
| Still with undimmed eyesight pore | J2 |
| Ancient tome and record o'er | M2 |
| Still thy week day lyrics croon | E2 |
| Pitch in church the Sunday tune | E2 |
| Showing something in thy part | W |
| Of the old Puritanic art | W |
| Singer after Sternhold's heart | W |
| In thy pew for many a year | G2 |
| Homilies from Oldbug hear | N2 |
| Who to wit like that of South | O2 |
| And the Syrian's golden mouth | O2 |
| Doth the homely pathos add | W |
| Which the pilgrim preachers had | W |
| Breaking like a child at play | P |
| Gilded idols of the day | P |
| Cant of knave and pomp of fool | J |
| Tossing with his ridicule | J |
| Yet in earnest or in jest | W |
| Ever keeping truth abreast | W |
| And when thou art called at last | W |
| To thy townsmen of the past | W |
| Not as stranger shalt thou come | I |
| Thou shalt find thyself at home | I |
| With the little and the big | N |
| Woollen cap and periwig | N |
| Madam in her high laced ruff | P2 |
| Goody in her home made stuff | P2 |
| Wise and simple rich and poor | Q2 |
| Thou hast known them all before | J2 |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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About To My Old Schoolmaster
To My Old Schoolmaster is a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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