The Coward Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAACCDEDDEEFGFFGGHI HHJIKLKMLLNCNNCBOMOO MMEPQQPPKRKKRRSTUSVV

He found the road so long and loneA
That he was fain to turn againB
The bird's faint note the bee's low droneA
Seemed to his heart to monotoneA
The unavailing and the vainC
And dirge the dreams that life had slainC
And for a while he sat him thereD
Beside the way and bared his headE
He felt the hot sun on his hairD
And weed warm odors everywhereD
Waked memories forgot or deadE
Of days when love this way had ledE
To that old house beside the roadF
With white board fence and picket gateG
And garden plot that gleamed and glowedF
With color and that overflowedF
With fragrance where both soon and lateG
She 'mid the flowers used to waitG
Was it the same or had it changedH
As he and she with months and yearsI
How long now had they been estrangedH
How far away their lives had rangedH
Since that last meeting filled with tearsJ
And boyish hopes and maiden fearsI
He closed his eyes and seemed to seeK
That parting now The moon aboveL
The old house and its locust treeK
The moths that glimmered drowsilyM
From flower to flower the scent whereofL
Seemed portion of that oldtime loveL
Her face was lifted pale and wetN
Her body tense as if with painC
He stooped yes he could see it yetN
A moment and their young lips metN
And then There in the lonely laneC
He seemed to live it o'er againB
Why had he gone 'Twas for her sakeO
But what had come of all his toilM
The City like some monster snakeO
Had dragged him down down half awakeO
Crushing him in its grimy coilM
Whence none escapes without a soilM
He was not clean yet She would readE
Failure vice written in his faceP
But haply now she had no needQ
Of him whose life like some wild weedQ
Full grown with evil would replaceP
The love in her heart's garden spaceP
He could not bear to look and seeK
The question in those virgin eyesR
What answer for that look had heK
He thought it out It could not beK
He could not live a life of liesR
Better to break all oldtime tiesR
And then he rose The house was nearS
There where the road turned from the woodT
Whose voice was that he seemed to hearU
Then heart and soul were seized with fearS
And turning as if death pursuedV
He fled into the solitudeV

Madison Julius Cawein



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