The North Shore Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCCBBBCBDEFDEF G H IFFIIFFIJKCJKC G F LMMLLNNLCFOCFO P B QBBQQBBQRSFRSF P H TFFTFFFFUVWUVW P F FFFFFFFFFFBFFI P X YZZYYFFYA2FB2A2FB2 P B2 FIIFFIIFFFC2FFU F I IB2B2IIB2B2IC2D2FUD2 F F B IBBIIBBIE2IB2E2IB2 F D2 IFFIIFFIIFF2IFF2 F F B2BBB2B2BBB2IIG2IIH2 F F FD2D2FFD2D2FD2FBD2FB P I FFFFFFFFD2PID2PISeptember On Cape Ann | A |
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The partridge berry flecks with flame the way | B |
That leads to ferny hollows where the bee | C |
Drones on the aster Far away the sea | C |
Points its deep sapphire with a gleam of grey | B |
Here from this height where clustered sweet the bay | B |
Clumps a green couch the haw and barberry | B |
Beading her hair sad Summer seemingly | C |
Has fallen asleep unmindful of the day | B |
The chipmunk barks upon the old stone wall | D |
And in the shadows like a shadow stirs | E |
The woodchuck where the boneset's blossom creams | F |
Was that a phoebe with its pensive call | D |
A sighing wind that shook the drowsy firs | E |
Or only Summer waking from her dreams | F |
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II | G |
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In An Annisquam Garden | H |
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Old phantoms haunt it of the long ago | I |
Old ghosts of old time lovers and of dreams | F |
Within the quiet sunlight there meseems | F |
I see them walking where those lilies blow | I |
The hardy phlox sways to some garment's flow | I |
The salvia there with sudden scarlet streams | F |
Caught from some ribbon of some throat that gleams | F |
Petunia fair in flounce and furbelow | I |
I seem to hear their whispers in each wind | J |
That wanders mid the flowers There they stand | K |
Among the shadows of that apple tree | C |
They are not dead whom still it keeps in mind | J |
This garden planted by some lovely hand | K |
That keeps it fragrant with its memory | C |
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III | G |
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The Elements | F |
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I saw the spirit of the pines that spoke | L |
With spirits of the ocean and the storm | M |
Against the tumult rose its tattered form | M |
Wild rain and darkness round it like a cloak | L |
Fearful it stood limbed like some twisted oak | L |
Gesticulating with one giant arm | N |
Raised as in protest of the night's alarm | N |
Defiant still of some impending stroke | L |
Below it awful in its majesty | C |
The spirit of the deep with rushing locks | F |
Raved and above it lightning clad and shod | O |
Thundered the tempest Thus they stood the three | C |
Terror around them while upon the rocks | F |
Destruction danced mocking at man and God | O |
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IV | P |
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Night And Storm At Gloucester | B |
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I heard the wind last night that cried and wept | Q |
Like some old skipper's ghost outside my door | B |
And on the roof the rain that tramped and tore | B |
Like feet of seamen on a deck storm swept | Q |
Against the pane the Night with shudderings crept | Q |
And crouched there wailing moaning ever more | B |
Its tale of terror of the wrath on shore | B |
The rage at sea bidding all wake who slept | Q |
And then I heard a voice as old as Time | R |
The calling of the mother of the world | S |
Ocean who thundered on her granite crags | F |
Foaming with fury meditating crime | R |
And then far off wild minute guns and hurled | S |
Through roaring surf the rush of sails in rags | F |
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V | P |
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The Voice Of Ocean | H |
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A cry went through the darkness and the moon | T |
Hurrying through storm gazed with a ghastly face | F |
Then cloaked herself in scud the merman race | F |
Of surges ceased and then th' olian croon | T |
Of the wild siren Wind within the shrouds | F |
Sunk to a sigh The ocean in that place | F |
Seemed listening haunted for a moment's space | F |
By something dread that cried against the clouds | F |
Mystery and night and with them fog and rain | U |
And then that cry again as if the deep | V |
Uttered its loneliness in one dark word | W |
Her horror of herself her Titan pain | U |
Her monsters and the dead that she must keep | V |
Has kept alone for centuries unheard | W |
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VI | P |
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Waves | F |
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I saw the daughters of the ocean dance | F |
With wind and tide and heard them on the rocks | F |
White hands they waved me tossing sunlit locks | F |
Green as the light an emerald holds in trance | F |
Their music bound me as with necromance | F |
Of mermaid beauty that for ever mocks | F |
And lured me as destruction lures wild flocks | F |
Of light led gulls and storm tossed cormorants | F |
Nearer my feet they crept I felt their lips | F |
Their hands of foam that caught at me to press | F |
As once they pressed Leander and straightway | B |
I saw the monster ending of their hips | F |
The cruelty hid in their soft caress | F |
The siren passion ever more to slay | I |
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VII | P |
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A Bit Of Coast | X |
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One tree storm twisted like an evil hag | Y |
The sea wind in its hair beside a path | Z |
Waves frantic arms as if in wild witch wrath | Z |
At all the world Gigantic grey as slag | Y |
Great boulders shoulder through the hills or crag | Y |
The coast with danger monster like that lifts | F |
Huge granite round which wheel the gulls and swifts | F |
And at whose base the rotting sea weeds drag | Y |
Inward the hills are wooded valley cleft | A2 |
Tangled with berries vistaed dark with pines | F |
At whose far end as 'twere within a frame | B2 |
Some trail of water that the ocean left | A2 |
Gleams like a painting where one white sail shines | F |
Lit with the sunset's poppy coloured flame | B2 |
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VIII | P |
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Autumn At Annisquam | B2 |
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The bitter sweet and red haw in her hands | F |
And in her hair pale berries of the bay | I |
She haunts the coves and every Cape Ann way | I |
The Indian Autumn wandered from her bands | F |
Beside the sea upon a rock she stands | F |
And looks across the foam and straight the grey | I |
Takes on a sunset tone and all the day | I |
Murmurs with music of forgotten lands | F |
Now in the woods knee deep among the ferns | F |
She walks and smiles and listens to the pines | F |
The sweetheart pines that kiss and kiss again | C2 |
Whispering their love and now she frowns and turns | F |
And in the west the fog in ragged lines | F |
Rears the wild wigwams of the tribes of rain | U |
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IX | F |
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Storm Sabbat | I |
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Against the pane the darkness wet and cold | I |
Pressed a wild face and raised a ragged arm | B2 |
Of cloud clothed on with thunder and alarm | B2 |
And terrible with elemental gold | I |
Above the fisher's hut beyond the wold | I |
The wind a Salem witch rushed shrieking harm | B2 |
And swept her mad broom over every farm | B2 |
To devil revels in some forest old | I |
Hell and its hags it seemed held court again | C2 |
On every rock trailing a tattered gown | D2 |
Of surf and whirling screaming to the sea | F |
Elf locks fantastic of dishevelled rain | U |
While in their midst death hobbled up and down | D2 |
Monstrous and black with diabolic glee | F |
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X | F |
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The Aurora | B |
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Night and the sea and heaven overhead | I |
Cloudless and vast as 'twere of hollowed spar | B |
Wherein the facets gleamed of many a star | B |
And the half moon a crystal radiance shed | I |
Then suddenly with burning banners spread | I |
In pale celestial armour as for war | B |
Into the heaven flaming from afar | B |
The Northern Lights their phalanxed splendours led | I |
Night for the moment seemed to catch her breath | E2 |
And earth gazed silent with astonishment | I |
As spear on spear the auroral armies came | B2 |
As when triumphant over hell and death | E2 |
The victor angels thronged God's firmament | I |
With sword on sword and burning oriflamme | B2 |
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XI | F |
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Dogtown | D2 |
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Far as the eye can see the land is grey | I |
And desolation sits among the stones | F |
Looking on ruin who from rocks like bones | F |
Stares with a dead face at the dying day | I |
Mounds where the barberry and bay hold sway | I |
Show where homes rose once where the village crones | F |
Gossiped and man with many sighs and groans | F |
Laboured and loved and went its daily way | I |
Only the crow now like a hag returned | I |
Croaks on the common that its hoarse voice mocks | F |
Meseems that here the sorrow of the earth | F2 |
Has lost herself and with the past concerned | I |
Sits with the ghosts of dreams that haunt these rocks | F |
And old despairs to which man's soul gave birth | F2 |
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XII | F |
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An Abandoned Quarry | F |
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The barberry burns the rose hip crimsons warm | B2 |
And haw and sumach hedge the hill with fire | B |
Down which the road winds worn of hoof and tire | B |
Only the blueberry picker plods now from the farm | B2 |
Here once the quarry driver brown of arm | B2 |
Wielded the whip when deep in mud and mire | B |
The axle strained and earned his daily hire | B |
Labouring bareheaded in both sun and storm | B2 |
Wild cherry now and blackberry and bay | I |
Usurp the place the wild rose undisturbed | I |
Riots where once the workman earned his wage | G2 |
Whose old hands rest now like this granite grey | I |
These rocks whose stubborn will whilom he curbed | I |
Hard as the toil that was his heritage | H2 |
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XIII | F |
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A Pool Among The Rocks | F |
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I know a pool whose crystalline repose | F |
Sleeps under walls of granite whence the pine | D2 |
Leans looking at its image line for line | D2 |
Repeated with the sumach and wild rose | F |
That redden on the rocks where at day's close | F |
The sunset dreams and lights incarnadine | D2 |
Dark waters and the place seems brimmed with wine | D2 |
A giant cup that splendour overflows | F |
Night in her livery of stars and moon | D2 |
Stoops to its mirror gazing steadily | F |
And saddened by her beauty drops one tear | B |
A falling star while round it sighs the rune | D2 |
Of winds conspirators that sweep from sea | F |
Whispering of things that fill the heart with fear | B |
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XIV | P |
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High On A Hill | I |
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There is a place among the Cape Ann hills | F |
That looks from fir dark summits on the sea | F |
Whose surging sapphire changes constantly | F |
Beneath deep heavens Morning windowsills | F |
With golden calm or sunset citadels | F |
With storm whose towers the winds' confederacy | F |
And bandit thunder hold in rebel fee | F |
Swooping upon the ilsher's sail that swells | F |
A place where Sorrow ceases to complain | D2 |
And life's old Cares put all their burdens by | P |
And Weariness forgets itself in rest | I |
Would that all life were like it might obtain | D2 |
Its pure repose its outlook strong and high | P |
That sees beyond far Islands of the Blest | I |
Madison Julius Cawein
(1)
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