Programme Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EFF GGHH IIJJ FFKK LLMM NNOO PPQQ RRSS TTU IIVW XXYY ZZA2A2 B2B2BB C2C2D2D2 TTE2E2 UUF2F2| READER gentle if so be | A |
| Such still live and live for me | A |
| Will it please you to be told | B |
| What my tenscore pages hold | B |
| - | |
| Here are verses that in spite | C |
| Of myself I needs must write | C |
| Like the wine that oozes first | D |
| When the unsqueezed grapes have burst | D |
| - | |
| Here are angry lines 'too hard ' | - |
| Says the soldier battle scarred | E |
| Could I smile his scars away | F |
| I would blot the bitter lay | F |
| - | |
| Written with a knitted brow | G |
| Read with placid wonder now | G |
| Throbbed such passion in my heart | H |
| Did his wounds once really smart | H |
| - | |
| Here are varied strains that sing | I |
| All the changes life can bring | I |
| Songs when joyous friends have met | J |
| Songs the mourner's tears have wet | J |
| - | |
| See the banquet's dead bouquet | F |
| Fair and fragrant in its day | F |
| Do they read the selfsame lines | K |
| He that fasts and he that dines | K |
| - | |
| Year by year like milestones placed | L |
| Mark the record Friendship traced | L |
| Prisoned in the walls of time | M |
| Life has notched itself in rhyme | M |
| - | |
| As its seasons slid along | N |
| Every year a notch of song | N |
| From the June of long ago | O |
| When the rose was full in blow | O |
| - | |
| Till the scarlet sage has come | P |
| And the cold chrysanthemum | P |
| Read but not to praise or blame | Q |
| Are not all our hearts the same | Q |
| - | |
| For the rest they take their chance | R |
| Some may pay a passing glance | R |
| Others well they served a turn | S |
| Wherefore written would you learn | S |
| - | |
| Not for glory not for pelf | T |
| Not be sure to please myself | T |
| Not for any meaner ends | U |
| Always 'by request of friends ' | - |
| - | |
| Here's the cousin of a king | I |
| Would I do the civil thing | I |
| Here 's the first born of a queen | V |
| Here 's a slant eyed Mandarin | W |
| - | |
| Would I polish off Japan | X |
| Would I greet this famous man | X |
| Prince or Prelate Sheik or Shah | Y |
| Figaro gi and Figaro la | Y |
| - | |
| Would I just this once comply | Z |
| So they teased and teased till I | Z |
| Be the truth at once confessed | A2 |
| Wavered yielded did my best | A2 |
| - | |
| Turn my pages never mind | B2 |
| If you like not all you find | B2 |
| Think not all the grains are gold | B |
| Sacramento's sand banks hold | B |
| - | |
| Every kernel has its shell | C2 |
| Every chime its harshest bell | C2 |
| Every face its weariest look | D2 |
| Every shelf its emptiest book | D2 |
| - | |
| Every field its leanest sheaf | T |
| Every book its dullest leaf | T |
| Every leaf its weakest line | E2 |
| Shall it not be so with mine | E2 |
| - | |
| Best for worst shall make amends | U |
| Find us keep us leave us friends | U |
| Till perchance we meet again | F2 |
| Benedicite Amen | F2 |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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