For Class Meeting Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACDED FGHGIJCJ KJLJMBNBOPQPRJFJ JFJFJSLS TFUFJJVJ WLXLYZJZ LA2B2A2C2D2E2D2 JJF2JG2D2VD2 JJZJH2JLJ I2JJ2JLA2KA2| IT is a pity and a shame alas alas I know it is | A |
| To tread the trodden grapes again but so it has been | B |
| so it is | A |
| The purple vintage long is past with ripened | C |
| clusters bursting so | D |
| They filled the wine vats to the brim 't is strange | E |
| you will be thirsting so | D |
| - | |
| Too well our faithful memory tells what might be | F |
| rhymed or sung about | G |
| For all have sighed and some have wept since last | H |
| year's snows were flung about | G |
| The beacon flame that fired the sky the modest | I |
| ray that gladdened us | J |
| A little breath has quenched their light and | C |
| deepening shades have saddened us | J |
| - | |
| No more our brother's life is ours for cheering or | K |
| for grieving us | J |
| One only sadness they bequeathed the sorrow of | L |
| their leaving us | J |
| Farewell Farewell I turn the leaf I read my | M |
| chiming measure in | B |
| Who knows but something still is there a friend | N |
| may find a pleasure in | B |
| For who can tell by what he likes what other | O |
| people's fancies are | P |
| How all men think the best of wives their own | Q |
| particular Nancies are | P |
| If what I sing you brings a smile you will not stop | R |
| to catechise | J |
| Nor read Bceotia's lumbering line with nicely | F |
| scanning Attic eyes | J |
| - | |
| Perhaps the alabaster box that Mary broke so | J |
| lovingly | F |
| While Judas looked so sternly on the Master so | J |
| approvingly | F |
| Was not so fairly wrought as those that Pilate's | J |
| wife and daughters had | S |
| Or many a dame of Judah's line that drank of | L |
| Jordan's waters had | S |
| - | |
| Perhaps the balm that cost so dear as some | T |
| remarked officiously | F |
| The precious nard that filled the room with | U |
| fragrance so deliciously | F |
| So oft recalled in storied page and sung in verse | J |
| melodious | J |
| The dancing girl had thought too cheap that | V |
| daughter of Herodias | J |
| - | |
| Where now are all the mighty deeds that Herod | W |
| boasted loudest of | L |
| Where now the flashing jewelry the tetrarch's wife | X |
| was proudest of | L |
| Yet still to hear how Mary loved all tribes of men | Y |
| are listening | Z |
| And still the sinful woman's tears like stars | J |
| heaven are glistening | Z |
| - | |
| 'T is not the gift our hands have brought the love | L |
| it is we bring with it | A2 |
| The minstrel's lips may shape the song his heart | B2 |
| in tune must sing with it | A2 |
| And so we love the simple lays and wish we might | C2 |
| have more of them | D2 |
| Our poet brothers sing for us there must be half | E2 |
| a score of them | D2 |
| - | |
| It may be that of fame and name our voices once | J |
| were emulous | J |
| With deeper thoughts with tenderer throbs their | F2 |
| softening tones are tremulous | J |
| The dead seem listening as of old ere friendship | G2 |
| was bereft of them | D2 |
| The living wear a kinder smile the remnant that | V |
| is left of them | D2 |
| - | |
| Though on the once unfurrowed brows the harrow | J |
| teeth of Time may show | J |
| Though all the strain of crippling years the halting | Z |
| feet of rhyme may show | J |
| We look and hear with melting hearts for what | H2 |
| we all remember is | J |
| The morn of Spring nor heed how chill the sky of | L |
| gray November is | J |
| - | |
| Thanks to the gracious powers above from all mankind | I2 |
| that singled us | J |
| And dropped the pearl of friendship in the cup they | J2 |
| kindly mingled us | J |
| And bound us in a wreath of flowers with hoops of | L |
| steel knit under it | A2 |
| Nor time nor space nor chance nor change nor | K |
| death himself shall sunder it | A2 |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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