The Postern Gate Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEAE AFGF HIJI HKLK MEHE HHHH HNHN NNNN HEJE CHHH MOHO MFNF AHHH CPHP NNCN MQJQ ANEN NRHR HECE STAT NNNN| I chose me a lovely garden | A |
| Beneath whose ivied wall | B |
| A lake's blue wavelets murmur | C |
| As evening shadows fall | B |
| - | |
| A garden whose leafy windows | D |
| Frame visions of Alpine snow | E |
| On peaks that burn to crimson | A |
| In sunset's afterglow | E |
| - | |
| And there in its sweet seclusion | A |
| I built me a mansion fair | F |
| With many a classic statue | G |
| And Eastern relic rare | F |
| - | |
| And volumes whose precious pages | H |
| Hold all that the wise have said | I |
| The latest among the living | J |
| The greatest among the dead | I |
| - | |
| And I sat in those fragrant arbors | H |
| Of laurel and palm and pine | K |
| And held in the tranquil twilight | L |
| My darling's hand in mine | K |
| - | |
| And said We will here be happy | M |
| And let the mad world go | E |
| Its gold no longer tempts us | H |
| Still less do its pomp and show | E |
| - | |
| No more shall its cares annoy us | H |
| And under these stately trees | H |
| With Nature and Art and Letters | H |
| Our souls shall take their ease | H |
| - | |
| But a brood of griefs pursued us | H |
| Like evil birds of prey | N |
| They lodged in the trees' tall branches | H |
| They shadowed the cloudless day | N |
| - | |
| They flew to the darkened casement | N |
| And beat on the wind swept shade | N |
| And oft in the sleepless midnight | N |
| We listened and were afraid | N |
| - | |
| And daily came the tidings | H |
| Of folly and crime and woe | E |
| And one by one kept dying | J |
| The friends of long ago | E |
| - | |
| For the Past is ever one's master | C |
| And Memory mocks at space | H |
| And Trouble travels with us | H |
| However swift our pace | H |
| - | |
| And envy is always envy | M |
| Though called by a foreign name | O |
| And perfidy greed and malice | H |
| Are everywhere the same | O |
| - | |
| I thought I had left behind me | M |
| That gloomy realm of care | F |
| But really one never leaves it | N |
| Its shadow is everywhere | F |
| - | |
| So I learned at last the lesson | A |
| That walls and gates and keys | H |
| Can never exclude life's sorrows | H |
| They enter as they please | H |
| - | |
| And if we ever acquire | C |
| The perfect life we crave | P |
| A subtle warning tells us | H |
| Its background is the grave | P |
| - | |
| Perhaps I have almost reached it | N |
| For when I am walking late | N |
| I see a shrouded stranger | C |
| Beside my postern gate | N |
| - | |
| And a sudden chill creeps o'er me | M |
| At sight of that figure grim | Q |
| For I fancy that he is waiting | J |
| For me in the twilight dim | Q |
| - | |
| And I know he will one day beckon | A |
| With gesture of command | N |
| And I shall follow him mutely | E |
| Away to the Silent Land | N |
| - | |
| And all that I here have treasured | N |
| In fountain and tree and stone | R |
| Will pass to the hands of others | H |
| Whom I have never known | R |
| - | |
| Hence over his sombre features | H |
| There flickers a ghostly smile | E |
| As if he would say What matter | C |
| Your cares are not worth while | E |
| - | |
| The trouble which gives you anguish | S |
| The woes o'er which you weep | T |
| Will all be soon forgotten | A |
| In my long dreamless sleep | T |
| - | |
| Enjoy the fleeting moment | N |
| I cannot always wait | N |
| And the glow of the coming sunset | N |
| Is gilding the postern gate | N |
John L. Stoddard
(1)
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About The Postern Gate
The Postern Gate is a poem by John L. Stoddard. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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