Ad Amicos Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CDCDDEDE FDFDADAD DDDDDEDE GHGHACAC ECECIHIH AEAEEEEE JCJCDCDC ECECECEC ECECKEKE CHCHECEC'Dumque virent genua | A |
Et decet obducta solvatur fonte senectus ' | B |
- | |
THE muse of boyhood's fervid hour | C |
Grows tame as skies get chill and hazy | D |
Where once she sought a passion flower | C |
She only hopes to find a daisy | D |
Well who the changing world bewails | D |
Who asks to have it stay unaltered | E |
Shall grown up kittens chase their tails | D |
Shall colts be never shod or haltered | E |
- | |
Are we 'The Boys' that used to make | F |
The tables ring with noisy follies | D |
Whose deep lunged laughter oft would shake | F |
The ceiling with its thunder volleys | D |
Are we the youths with lips unshorn | A |
At beauty's feet unwrinkled suitors | D |
Whose memories reach tradition's morn | A |
The days of prehistoric tutors | D |
- | |
'The Boys' we knew but who are these | D |
Whose heads might serve for Plutarch's sages | D |
Or Fox's martyrs if you please | D |
Or hermits of the dismal ages | D |
'The Boys' we knew can these be those | D |
Their cheeks with morning's blush were painted | E |
Where are the Harrys Jims and Joes | D |
With whom we once were well acquainted | E |
- | |
If we are they we're not the same | G |
If they are we why then they're masking | H |
Do tell us neighbor What 's your name | G |
Who are you What's the use of asking | H |
You once were George or Bill or Ben | A |
There's you yourself there 's you that other | C |
I know you now I knew you then | A |
You used to be your younger brother | C |
- | |
You both are all our own to day | E |
But ah I hear a warning whisper | C |
Yon roseate hour that flits away | E |
Repeats the Roman's sad paulisper | C |
Come back come back we've need of you | I |
To pay you for your word of warning | H |
We'll bathe your wings in brighter dew | I |
Than ever wet the lids of morning | H |
- | |
Behold this cup its mystic wine | A |
No alien's lip has ever tasted | E |
The blood of friendship's clinging vine | A |
Still flowing flowing yet unwasted | E |
Old Time forgot his running sand | E |
And laid his hour glass down to fill it | E |
And Death himself with gentle hand | E |
Has touched the chalice not to spill it | E |
- | |
Each bubble rounding at the brim | J |
Is rainbowed with its magic story | C |
The shining days with age grown dim | J |
Are dressed again in robes of glory | C |
In all its freshness spring returns | D |
With song of birds and blossoms tender | C |
Once more the torch of passion burns | D |
And youth is here in all its splendor | C |
- | |
Hope swings her anchor like a toy | E |
Love laughs and shows the silver arrow | C |
We knew so well as man and boy | E |
The shaft that stings through bone and marrow | C |
Again our kindling pulses beat | E |
With tangled curls our fingers dally | C |
And bygone beauties smile as sweet | E |
As fresh blown lilies of the valley | C |
- | |
O blessed hour we may forget | E |
Its wreaths its rhymes its songs its laughter | C |
But not the loving eyes we met | E |
Whose light shall gild the dim hereafter | C |
How every heart to each grows warm | K |
Is one in sunshine's ray We share it | E |
Is one in sorrow's blinding storm | K |
A look a word shall help him bear it | E |
- | |
'The Boys' we were 'The Boys' we 'll be | C |
As long as three as two are creeping | H |
Then here 's to him ah which is he | C |
Who lives till all the rest are sleeping | H |
A life with tranquil comfort blest | E |
The young man's health the rich man's plenty | C |
All earth can give that earth has best | E |
And heaven at fourscore years and twenty | C |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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