Dave Lilly Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CDEE FFGG HIHJJ KKLL AAMM NNOO PPQQ| There's a brook on the side of Greylock that used to be full of trout | A |
| But there's nothing there now but minnows they say it is all fished out | A |
| I fished there many a Summer day some twenty years ago | B |
| And I never quit without getting a mess of a dozen or so | B |
| - | |
| There was a man Dave Lilly who lived on the North Adams road | C |
| And he spent all his time fishing while his neighbors reaped and sowed | D |
| He was the luckiest fisherman in the Berkshire hills I think | E |
| And when he didn't go fishing he'd sit in the tavern and drink | E |
| - | |
| Well Dave is dead and buried and nobody cares very much | F |
| They have no use in Greylock for drunkards and loafers and such | F |
| But I always liked Dave Lilly he was pleasant as you could wish | G |
| He was shiftless and good for nothing but he certainly could fish | G |
| - | |
| The other night I was walking up the hill from Williamstown | H |
| And I came to the brook I mentioned | I |
| and I stopped on the bridge and sat down | H |
| I looked at the blackened water with its little flecks of white | J |
| And I heard it ripple and whisper in the still of the Summer night | J |
| - | |
| And after I'd been there a minute it seemed to me I could feel | K |
| The presence of someone near me and I heard the hum of a reel | K |
| And the water was churned and broken and something was brought to land | L |
| By a twist and flirt of a shadowy rod in a deft and shadowy hand | L |
| - | |
| I scrambled down to the brookside and hunted all about | A |
| There wasn't a sign of a fisherman there wasn't a sign of a trout | A |
| But I heard somebody chuckle behind the hollow oak | M |
| And I got a whiff of tobacco like Lilly used to smoke | M |
| - | |
| It's fifteen years they tell me since anyone fished that brook | N |
| And there's nothing in it but minnows that nibble the bait off your hook | N |
| But before the sun has risen and after the moon has set | O |
| I know that it's full of ghostly trout for Lilly's ghost to get | O |
| - | |
| I guess I'll go to the tavern and get a bottle of rye | P |
| And leave it down by the hollow oak where Lilly's ghost went by | P |
| I meant to go up on the hillside and try to find his grave | Q |
| And put some flowers on it but this will be better for Dave | Q |
Joyce Kilmer
(1)
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