Rich Man, Poor Man Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCDBE B FFDGEDGEHIGEEEE JJJ KKLL MMBBKKBEENNKKOOPNPN JJJ KKQQQBB ENNE KKMMBEELLBBBBKKLL BBB BKLKKKRK NNKNQNN NKBK'Rich man Poor man Beggar man Thief Doctor Lawyer Merchant Chief ' | A |
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I | - |
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Highway stretched along the sun | B |
Highway thronged till day is done | B |
Where the drifting Face replaces | C |
Wave on wave on wave of faces | D |
And you count them one by one | B |
'Rich man Poor man Beggar man Thief | E |
Doctor Lawyer Merchant Chief ' | - |
Is it soothsay Is it fun | B |
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Young ones like as wave and wave | F |
Old ones like as grave and grave | F |
Tide on tide of human faces | D |
With what human undertow | G |
Rich man poor man beggar man thief | E |
Tell me of the eddying spaces | D |
Show me where the lost ones go | G |
Like and lost as leaf and leaf | E |
What's your secret grim refrain | H |
Back and forth and back again | I |
Once and now and always so | G |
Three days since and who was Thief | E |
Three days more and who'll be Chief | E |
Oh is that beyond belief | E |
Doctor Lawyer Merchant Chief | E |
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Down like grass before the mowing | J |
On like wind in its mad going | J |
Wind and dust forever blowing | J |
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Highway shrill with murderous pride | K |
Highway of the swarming tide | K |
Why should my way lead me deeper | L |
I am not my Brother's keeper | L |
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II | - |
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Byway ambushed with the dark | M |
Byway where the ears may hark | M |
Live and fierce when day is done | B |
You that do without the Sun | B |
What's this game you bring to nought | K |
Muttering like a thing distraught | K |
Reckoning like a simpleton | B |
Since the hearing must be brief | E |
Living or a dying thief | E |
Cobbled with the anguished stones | N |
That the thoroughfare disowns | N |
Stones they gave you for your bread | K |
Of the disinherited | K |
Where the Towers of Hunger loom | O |
Crowding in the dregs of doom | O |
Where the lost sky peering through | P |
Sees no more the grudging grass | N |
Only this mud mirrored blue | P |
Like some shattered looking glass | N |
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Under with the sorry reaping | J |
Underneath the stones of weeping | J |
For the Dark to have in keeping | J |
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Byway you so foully marred | K |
You whose sodden walls and scarred | K |
See no light but only where | Q |
Fevered lamps are set to stare | Q |
In the eyes of such despair | Q |
Tell me as a Byway can | B |
Was this Beggar once a Man | B |
'Rich man Poor man Beggar man Thief ' | - |
Like and lost as leaf and leaf | E |
Stammering out your wrongs and shames | N |
Must you cry their very names | N |
Must you sob your shame your grief | E |
'Poor man Poor man Beggar Thief ' | - |
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III | - |
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Highway where the Sun is wide | K |
Byway where the lost ones hide | K |
Byway where the Soul must hark | M |
Byway dreadful with the Dark | M |
Can you nothing do with Man | B |
Doctor Lawyer Merchant Chief | E |
Learns he nothing even of grief | E |
Must it still be all his wonder | L |
Some men soar while some go under | L |
He has heard and he has seen | B |
Make him know the thing you mean | B |
He has prayed since time began | B |
He's so curious of the Plan | B |
He will pray you till he die | K |
For the Whence and for the Why | K |
Mad for wisdom when 'tis cheaper | L |
'Why should my way lead me deeper | L |
Am I then my Brother's keeper ' | - |
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Show him Byway if you can | B |
Lest he end as he began | B |
Rich and poor this beggar Man | B |
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But we did walk in Eden | B |
Eden the garden of God | K |
There where no beckoning wonder | L |
Of all the paths we trod | K |
No choiring sun filled vineyard | K |
No voice of stream or bird | K |
But was some radiant oracle | R |
And flaming with the Word | K |
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Mine ears are dim with voices | N |
Mine eyes yet strive to see | N |
The black things here to wonder at | K |
The mirth the misery | N |
Beloved who wert with me there | Q |
How came these shames to be | N |
On what lost star are we | N |
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Men say The paths of gladness | N |
By men were never trod | K |
But we have walked in Eden | B |
Eden the garden of God | K |
Josephine Preston Peabody
(2)
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