Old Cambridge Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABABCCCB DDBDBEEEB FFBFBGGGB HHBHBBBBB I BIBJJJB KKBKBJJJB LLBLMNNNB OOBOBPPPB BBBBBQQQB BBBBBOOOB RRBRBSSSB JJBJBBBBB TTBTBKKKBAND can it be you've found a place | A |
Within this consecrated space | A |
That makes so fine a show | B |
For one of Rip Van Winkle's race | A |
And is it really so | B |
Who wants an old receipted bill | C |
Who fishes in the Frog pond still | C |
Who digs last year's potato hill | C |
That's what he'd like to know | B |
- | |
And were it any spot on earth | D |
Save this dear home that gave him birth | D |
Some scores of years ago | B |
He had not come to spoil your mirth | D |
And chill your festive glow | B |
But round his baby nest he strays | E |
With tearful eye the scene surveys | E |
His heart unchanged by changing days | E |
That's what he'd have you know | B |
- | |
Can you whose eyes not yet are dim | F |
Live o'er the buried past with him | F |
And see the roses blow | B |
When white haired men were Joe and Jim | F |
Untouched by winter's snow | B |
Or roll the years back one by one | G |
As Judah's monarch backed the sun | G |
And see the century just begun | G |
That's what he'd like to know | B |
- | |
I come but as the swallow dips | H |
Just touching with her feather tips | H |
The shining wave below | B |
To sit with pleasure murmuring lips | H |
And listen to the flow | B |
Of Elmwood's sparkling Hippocrene | B |
To tread once more my native green | B |
To sigh unheard to smile unseen | B |
That's what I'd have you know | B |
- | |
But since the common lot I've shared | I |
We all are sitting 'unprepared ' | - |
Like culprits in a row | B |
Whose heads are down whose necks are bared | I |
To wait the headsman's blow | B |
I'd like to shift my task to you | J |
By asking just a thing or two | J |
About the good old times I knew | J |
Here's what I want to know | B |
- | |
The yellow meetin' house can you tell | K |
Just where it stood before it fell | K |
Prey of the vandal foe | B |
Our dear old temple loved so well | K |
By ruthless hands laid low | B |
Where tell me was the Deacon's pew | J |
Whose hair was braided in a queue | J |
For there were pig tails not a few | J |
That's what I'd like to know | B |
- | |
The bell can you recall its clang | L |
And how the seats would slam and bang | L |
The voices high and low | B |
The basso's trump before he sang | L |
The viol and its bow | M |
Where was it old Judge Winthrop sat | N |
Who wore the last three cornered hat | N |
Was Israel Porter lean or fat | N |
That's what I'd like to know | B |
- | |
Tell where the market used to be | O |
That stood beside the murdered tree | O |
Whose dog to church would go | B |
Old Marcus Reemie who was he | O |
Who were the brothers Snow | B |
Does not your memory slightly fail | P |
About that great September gale | P |
Whereof one told a moving tale | P |
As Cambridge boys should know | B |
- | |
When Cambridge was a simple town | B |
Say just when Deacon William Brown | B |
Last door in yonder row | B |
For honest silver counted down | B |
His groceries would bestow | B |
For those were days when money meant | Q |
Something that jingled as you went | Q |
No hybrid like the nickel cent | Q |
I'd have you all to know | B |
- | |
But quarter ninepence pistareen | B |
And fourpence hapennies in between | B |
All metal fit to show | B |
Instead of rags in stagnant green | B |
The scum of debts we owe | B |
How sad to think such stuff should be | O |
Our Wendell's cure all recipe | O |
Not Wendell H but Wendell P | O |
The one you all must know | B |
- | |
I question but you answer not | R |
Dear me and have I quite forgot | R |
How fivescore years ago | B |
Just on this very blessed spot | R |
The summer leaves below | B |
Before his homespun ranks arrayed | S |
In green New England's elmbough shade | S |
The great Virginian drew the blade | S |
King George full soon should know | B |
- | |
O George the Third you found it true | J |
Our George was more than double you | J |
For nature made him so | B |
Not much an empire's crown can do | J |
If brains are scant and slow | B |
Ah not like that his laurel crown | B |
Whose presence gilded with renown | B |
Our brave old Academic town | B |
As all her children know | B |
- | |
So here we meet with loud acclaim | T |
To tell mankind that here he came | T |
With hearts that throb and glow | B |
Ours is a portion of his fame | T |
Our trumpets needs must blow | B |
On yonder hill the Lion fell | K |
But here was chipped the eagle's shell | K |
That little hatchet did it well | K |
As all the world shall know | B |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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