F. W. C. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH IJIJKLKL GMGMNFNF OPOPQRQR SGT UDV WXWXYZYZ A2GA2GB2YB2Y| FAST as the rolling seasons bring | A |
| The hour of fate to those we love | B |
| Each pearl that leaves the broken string | A |
| Is set in Friendship's crown above | B |
| As narrower grows the earthly chain | C |
| The circle widens in the sky | D |
| These are our treasures that remain | C |
| But those are stars that beam on high | D |
| - | |
| - | |
| We miss oh how we miss his face | E |
| With trembling accents speak his name | F |
| Earth cannot fill his shadowed place | E |
| From all her rolls of pride and fame | F |
| Our song has lost the silvery thread | G |
| That carolled through his jocund lips | H |
| Our laugh is mute our smile is fled | G |
| And all our sunshine in eclipse | H |
| - | |
| And what and whence the wondrous charm | I |
| That kept his manhood boylike still | J |
| That life's hard censors could disarm | I |
| And lead them captive at his will | J |
| His heart was shaped of rosier clay | K |
| His veins were filled with ruddier fire | L |
| Time could not chill him fortune sway | K |
| Nor toil with all its burdens tire | L |
| - | |
| His speech burst throbbing from its fount | G |
| And set our colder thoughts aglow | M |
| As the hot leaping geysers mount | G |
| And falling melt the Iceland snow | M |
| Some word perchance we counted rash | N |
| Some phrase our calmness might disclaim | F |
| Yet 't was the sunset's lightning's flash | N |
| No angry bolt but harmless flame | F |
| - | |
| Man judges all God knoweth each | O |
| We read the rule He sees the law | P |
| How oft his laughing children teach | O |
| The truths his prophets never saw | P |
| O friend whose wisdom flowered in mirth | Q |
| Our hearts are sad our eyes are dim | R |
| He gave thy smiles to brighten earth | Q |
| We trust thy joyous soul to Him | R |
| - | |
| Alas our weakness Heaven forgive | S |
| We murmur even while we trust | G |
| 'How long earth's breathing burdens live | T |
| Whose hearts before they die are dust ' | - |
| But thou through grief's untimely tears | U |
| We ask with half reproachful sigh | D |
| 'Couldst thou not watch a few brief years | V |
| Till Friendship faltered 'Thou mayst die' ' | - |
| - | |
| Who loved our boyish years so well | W |
| Who knew so well their pleasant tales | X |
| And all those livelier freaks could tell | W |
| Whose oft told story never fails | X |
| In vain we turn our aching eyes | Y |
| In vain we stretch our eager hands | Z |
| Cold in his wintry shroud he lies | Y |
| Beneath the dreary drifting sands | Z |
| - | |
| Ah speak not thus He lies not there | A2 |
| We see him hear him as of old | G |
| He comes He claims his wonted chair | A2 |
| His beaming face we still behold | G |
| His voice rings clear in all our songs | B2 |
| And loud his mirthful accents rise | Y |
| To us our brother's life belongs | B2 |
| Dear friends a classmate never dies | Y |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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