In The Twilight Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABAAAC DDEFFFE AAGHHHG IIJDDKJ LLMII M NNDOOOD PPQRRRQ SSTU UT LLVIIIV WWNXXXN YYZA2A2A2Z IIEOOOE YYGB2B2B2G C2C2D2E2E2E2D2 XXF2XXXF2 G2G2OH2H2I2ONOT bed time yet The night winds blow | A |
The stars are out full well we know | A |
The nurse is on the stair | B |
With hand of ice and cheek of snow | A |
And frozen lips that whisper low | A |
'Come children it is time to go | A |
My peaceful couch to share ' | C |
- | |
No years a wakeful heart can tire | D |
Not bed time yet Come stir the fire | D |
And warm your dear old hands | E |
Kind Mother Earth we love so well | F |
Has pleasant stories yet to tell | F |
Before we hear the curfew bell | F |
Still glow the burning brands | E |
- | |
Not bed time yet We long to know | A |
What wonders time has yet to show | A |
What unborn years shall bring | G |
What ship the Arctic pole shall reach | H |
What lessons Science waits to teach | H |
What sermons there are left to preach | H |
What poems yet to sing | G |
- | |
What next we ask and is it true | I |
The sunshine falls on nothing new | I |
As Israel's king declared | J |
Was ocean ploughed with harnessed fire | D |
Were nations coupled with a wire | D |
Did Tarshish telegraph to Tyre | K |
How Hiram would have stared | J |
- | |
And what if Sheba's curious queen | L |
Who came to see and to be seen | L |
Or something new to seek | M |
And swooned as ladies sometimes do | I |
At sights that thrilled her through and through | I |
Had heard as she was 'coming to ' | - |
A locomotive's shriek | M |
- | |
And seen a rushing railway train | N |
As she looked out along the plain | N |
From David's lofty tower | D |
A mile of smoke that blots the sky | O |
And blinds the eagles as they fly | O |
Behind the cars that thunder by | O |
A score of leagues an hour | D |
- | |
See to my fiat lux respond | P |
This little slumbering fire tipped wand | P |
One touch it bursts in flame | Q |
Steal me a portrait from the sun | R |
One look and to the picture done | R |
Are these old tricks King Solomon | R |
We lying moderns claim | Q |
- | |
Could you have spectroscoped a star | S |
If both those mothers at your bar | S |
The cruel and the mild | T |
The young and tender old and tough | U |
Had said 'Divide you're right though rough ' | - |
Did old Judea know enough | U |
To etherize the child | T |
- | |
These births of time our eyes have seen | L |
With but a few brief years between | L |
What wonder if the text | V |
For other ages doubtless true | I |
For coming years will never do | I |
Whereof we all should like a few | I |
If but to see what next | V |
- | |
If such things have been such may be | W |
Who would not like to live and see | W |
If Heaven may so ordain | N |
What waifs undreamed of yet in store | X |
The waves that roll forevermore | X |
On life's long beach may east ashore | X |
From out the mist clad main | N |
- | |
Will Earth to pagan dreams return | Y |
To find from misery's painted urn | Y |
That all save hope has flown | Z |
Of Book and Church and Priest bereft | A2 |
The Rock of Ages vainly cleft | A2 |
Life's compass gone its anchor left | A2 |
Left lost in depths unknown | Z |
- | |
Shall Faith the trodden path pursue | I |
The crux ansata wearers knew | I |
Who sleep with folded hands | E |
Where like a naked lidless eye | O |
The staring Nile rolls wandering by | O |
Those mountain slopes that climb the sky | O |
Above the drifting sands | E |
- | |
Or shall a nobler Faith return | Y |
Its fanes a purer gospel learn | Y |
With holier anthems ring | G |
And teach us that our transient creeds | B2 |
Were but the perishable seeds | B2 |
Of harvests sown for larger needs | B2 |
That ripening years shall bring | G |
- | |
Well let the present do its best | C2 |
We trust our Maker for the rest | C2 |
As on our way we plod | D2 |
Our souls full dressed in fleshly suits | E2 |
Love air and sunshine flowers and fruits | E2 |
The daisies better than their roots | E2 |
Beneath the grassy sod | D2 |
- | |
Not bed time yet The full blown flower | X |
Of all the year this evening hour | X |
With friendship's flame is bright | F2 |
Life still is sweet the heavens are fair | X |
Though fields are brown and woods are bare | X |
And many a joy is left to share | X |
Before we say Good night | F2 |
- | |
And when our cheerful evening past | G2 |
The nurse long waiting comes at last | G2 |
Ere on her lap we lie | O |
In wearied nature's sweet repose | H2 |
At peace with all her waking foes | H2 |
Our lips shall murmur ere they close | I2 |
Good night and not Good by | O |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about In The Twilight poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Best Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes