The Mill Stream. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDDEEAAFFGGHHF FIJ KKAABBLLMMCCAAAAAABB AANNFFAAAAAACC FFMMBBOOFFDDJOAAPPQQ FFAA RRCSCCCCCTTQQUUHHVVW W CCFFBBCXYY| One of a hundred little rills | A |
| Born in the hills | A |
| Nourished with dews by the earth and with tears by the sky | B |
| Sang Who so mighty as I | B |
| The farther I flow | C |
| The bigger I grow | C |
| I who was born but a little rill | D |
| Now turn the big wheel of the mill | D |
| Though the surly slave would rather stand still | D |
| Old and weed hung and grim | E |
| I am not afraid of him | E |
| For when I come running and dance on his toes | A |
| With a creak and a groan the monster goes | A |
| And turns faster and faster | F |
| As he learns who is master | F |
| Round and round | G |
| Till the corn is ground | G |
| And the miller smiles as he stands on the bank | H |
| And knows he has me to thank | H |
| Then when he swings the fine sacks of flour | F |
| I feel my power | F |
| But when the children enjoy their food | I |
| I know I'm not only great but good | J |
| - | |
| Furthermore sang the brook | K |
| Who loves the beautiful let him look | K |
| Garlanding me in shady spots | A |
| The Forget me nots | A |
| Are blue as the summer sky | B |
| Who so lovely as I | B |
| My King cups of gold | L |
| Shine from the shade of the alders old | L |
| Stars of the stream | M |
| At the water rat's threshold they gleam | M |
| From below | C |
| The Frog bit spreads me its blossoms of snow | C |
| And in masses | A |
| The Willow herb the flags and the grasses | A |
| Reeds rushes and sedges | A |
| Flower and fringe and feather my edges | A |
| To be beautiful is not amiss | A |
| But to be loved is more than this | A |
| And who more sought than I | B |
| By all that run or swim or crawl or fly | B |
| Sober shell fish and frivolous gnats | A |
| Tawny eyed water rats | A |
| The poet with rippling rhymes so fluent | N |
| Boys with boats playing truant | N |
| Cattle wading knee deep for water | F |
| And the flower plucking parson's daughter | F |
| Down in my depths dwell creeping things | A |
| Who rise from my bosom on rainbow wings | A |
| For too swift for a school boy's prize | A |
| Hither and thither above me dart the prismatic hued dragon flies | A |
| At my side the lover lingers | A |
| And with lack a daisical fingers | A |
| The Weeping Willow woe begone | C |
| Strives to stay me as I run on | C |
| - | |
| There came an hour | F |
| When all this beauty and love and power | F |
| Did seem | M |
| But a small thing to that Mill Stream | M |
| And then his cry | B |
| Was Why oh why | B |
| Am I thus surrounded | O |
| With checks and limits and bounded | O |
| By bank and border | F |
| To keep me in order | F |
| Against my will | D |
| I who was born to be free and unfettered a mountain rill | D |
| But for these jealous banks the good | J |
| Of my gracious and fertilizing flood | O |
| Might spread to the barren highways | A |
| And fill with Forget me nots countless neglected byways | A |
| Why should the rough barked Willow for ever lave | P |
| Her feet in my cooling wave | P |
| When the tender and beautiful Beech | Q |
| Faints with midsummer heat in the meadow just out of my reach | Q |
| Could I but rush with unchecked power | F |
| The miller might grind a day's corn in an hour | F |
| And what are the ends | A |
| Of life but to serve one's friends | A |
| - | |
| A day did dawn at last | R |
| When the spirits of the storm and the blast | R |
| Breaking the bands of the winter's frost and snow | C |
| Swept from the mountain source of the stream and flooded the | S |
| valley below | C |
| Dams were broken and weirs came down | C |
| Cottage and mill country and town | C |
| Shared in the general inundation | C |
| And the following desolation | C |
| Then the Mill Stream rose in its might | T |
| And burst out of bounds to left and to right | T |
| Rushed to the beautiful Beech | Q |
| In the meadow far out of reach | Q |
| But with such torrents the poor tree died | U |
| Torn up by the roots and laid on its side | U |
| The cattle swam till they sank | H |
| Trying to find a bank | H |
| Never more shall the broken water wheel | V |
| Grind the corn to make the meal | V |
| To make the children's bread | W |
| The miller was dead | W |
| - | |
| When the setting sun | C |
| Looked to see what the Mill Stream had done | C |
| In its hour | F |
| Of unlimited power | F |
| And what was left when that had passed by | B |
| Behold the channel was stony and dry | B |
| In uttermost ruin | C |
| The Mill Stream had been its own undoing | X |
| Furthermore it had drowned its friend | Y |
| This was the end | Y |
Juliana Horatia Ewing
(1)
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