The Waif Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD BEFE BGBG BBBB FHFH IJIJ KLKL MNON PAPA BBBB BHBH BBBB BQBR NBNB STST NGNG UBUB VWVW BXBX YBYB| I sit in my luxurious chair | A |
| Soft rugs caress my slippered feet | B |
| Within a balmy summer air | A |
| Without a wintry storm of sleet | B |
| - | |
| A favorite book is in my hands | C |
| A thousand others line the walls | D |
| Some souvenir of distant lands | C |
| In every nook the Past recalls | D |
| - | |
| Upon a Turkish tabouret | B |
| In Dresden cups of peerless blue | E |
| Gleams on a pretty Cashmere tray | F |
| The fragrant Mocha's ebon hue | E |
| - | |
| Two dainty hands prepare the draught | B |
| While loving glances meet my own | G |
| Two lips repeat the coffee quaffed | B |
| To night 'tis sweet to be alone | G |
| - | |
| Hark in the court my faithful hound | B |
| Breaks rudely on our tete a tete | B |
| Too well I understand that sound | B |
| A mendicant is at my gate | B |
| - | |
| Admit him Yes for none shall say | F |
| That he who seeks in want my door | H |
| Is ever harshly turned away | F |
| His plea is heard if nothing more | H |
| - | |
| I leave my comforts with a sigh | I |
| And passing to the outer hall | J |
| Behold a wanderer doomed to die | I |
| So ill I look to see him fall | J |
| - | |
| I know his story ere he speaks | K |
| And listening to his labored breath | L |
| I trace with tears upon my cheeks | K |
| His long and hopeless fight with death | L |
| - | |
| A poor storm beaten lonely waif | M |
| Lured southward from a colder clime | N |
| By hope and that unfailing faith | O |
| That health will come again in time | N |
| - | |
| Alas too late the dread disease | P |
| Hath fixed its roots too firmly there | A |
| And now sick friendless at my knees | P |
| He pours forth his heart breaking prayer | A |
| - | |
| What are his needs Before all food | B |
| Hot soup bread wine until at last | B |
| A sense of human brotherhood | B |
| Obliterates his cruel past | B |
| - | |
| Yet not for long for though well fed | B |
| With warmer garments than before | H |
| He hath no place to lay his head | B |
| On turning from my friendly door | H |
| - | |
| I slip some silver in his hand | B |
| 'Twill purchase shelter for the night | B |
| Then silent and remorseful stand | B |
| To watch his bent form out of sight | B |
| - | |
| On on he goes through snow and sleet | B |
| With nothing more of warmth and cheer | Q |
| From such a home to such a street | B |
| Ah should I not have kept him here | R |
| - | |
| My room is no less bright and warm | N |
| But all its charm and joy have fled | B |
| That lonely figure in the storm | N |
| Leaves both our hearts uncomforted | B |
| - | |
| For this is but one tiny wave | S |
| In life's vast shoreless sea of woe | T |
| One note in man's hoarse cry to save | S |
| Resounding o'er its ebb and flow | T |
| - | |
| I ask myself in blank dismay | N |
| Ought I my little wealth to own | G |
| Yet should I give it all away | N |
| 'Twere but a drop to ocean thrown | G |
| - | |
| Great God if what I dimly see | U |
| In this small section of mankind | B |
| Of pain and want and misery | U |
| Can thus bring anguish to my mind | B |
| - | |
| How canst Thou view the awful whole | V |
| As our ensanguined planet rolls | W |
| From unknown source to unknown goal | V |
| Its freight of suffering human souls | W |
| - | |
| Permitted pain the first and last | B |
| Of riddles that we strive to solve | X |
| More poignant ever and more vast | B |
| As man's mentalities evolve | X |
| - | |
| I hear thy victims' ceaseless wails | Y |
| I view the path my race hath trod | B |
| And at the sight my spirit quails | Y |
| And cries in agony to God | B |
John L. Stoddard
(1)
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