The Flaâneur Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCCABCBCDDDCCABABEF GFFGHHIJJK ALMMANMNLNA KCKKKCOOPQPPAAR SCTTCCSC UVWWWVVXXUXYCCYOZOOC CA2ZZCA2 RKB2B2RRK C2JJD2D2OOOC2C2C2OO ZCZZCPE2E2PF2G2H2BF2 BCCBKKBCPCKKP

I love all sights of earth and skiesA
From flowers that glow to stars that shineB
The comet and the penny showC
All curious things above belowC
Hold each in turn my wandering eyesA
I claim the Christian Pagan's lineB
Humani nihil even soC
And is not human life divineB
When soft the western breezes blowC
And strolling youths meet sauntering maidsD
I love to watch the stirring tradesD
Beneath the Vallombrosa shadesD
Our much enduring elms bestowC
The vender and his rhetoric's flowC
That lambent stream of liquid liesA
The bait he dangles from his lineB
The gudgeon and his gold washed prizeA
I halt before the blazoned signB
That bids me linger to admireE
The drama time can never tireF
The little hero of the hunchG
With iron arm and soul of fireF
And will that works his fierce desireF
Untamed unscared unconquered PunchG
My ear a pleasing torture findsH
In tones the withered sibyl grindsH
The dame sans merci's broken strainI
Whom I erewhile perchance have knownJ
When Orleans filled the Bourbon throneJ
A siren singing by the SeineK
-
But most I love the tube that spiesA
The orbs celestial in their marchL
That shows the comet as it whisksM
Its tail across the planets' disksM
As if to blind their blood shot eyesA
Or wheels so close against the sunN
We tremble at the thought of risksM
Our little spinning ball may runN
To pop like corn that children parchL
From summer something overdoneN
And roll a cinder through the skiesA
-
Grudge not to day the scanty feeK
To him who farms the firmamentC
To whom the Milky Way is freeK
Who holds the wondrous crystal keyK
The silent Open SesameK
That Science to her sons has lentC
Who takes his toll and lifts the barO
That shuts the road to sun and starO
If Venus only comes to timeP
And prophets say she must and shallQ
To day will hear the tinkling chimeP
Of many a ringing silver dimeP
For him whose optic glass suppliesA
The crowd with astronomic eyesA
The Galileo of the MallR
-
Dimly the transit morning brokeS
The sun seemed doubting what to doC
As one who questions how to dressT
And takes his doublets from the pressT
And halts between the old and newC
Please Heaven he wear his suit of blueC
Or don at least his ragged cloakS
With rents that show the azure throughC
-
I go the patient crowd to joinU
That round the tube my eyes discernV
The last new comer of the fileW
And wait and wait a weary whileW
And gape and stretch and shrug and smileW
For each his place must fairly earnV
Hindmost and foremost in his turnV
Till hitching onward pace by paceX
I gain at last the envied placeX
And pay the white exiguous coinU
The sun and I are face to faceX
He glares at me I stare at himY
And lo my straining eye has foundC
A little spot that black and roundC
Lies near the crimsoned fire orb's rimY
O blessed beauteous evening starO
Well named for her whom earth adoresZ
The Lady of the dove drawn carO
I know thee in thy white simarO
But veiled in black a rayless spotC
Blank as a careless scribbler's blotC
Stripped of thy robe of silvery flameA2
The stolen robe that Night restoresZ
When Day has shut his golden doorsZ
I see thee yet I know thee notC
And canst thou call thyself the sameA2
-
A black round spot and that is allR
And such a speck our earth would beK
If he who looks upon the starsB2
Through the red atmosphere of MarsB2
Could see our little creeping ballR
Across the disk of crimson crawlR
As I our sister planet seeK
-
And art thou then a world like oursC2
Flung from the orb that whirled our ownJ
A molten pebble from its zoneJ
How must thy burning sands absorbD2
The fire waves of the blazing orbD2
Thy chain so short thy path so nearO
Thy flame defying creatures hearO
The maelstroms of the photosphereO
And is thy bosom decked with flowersC2
That steal their bloom from scalding showersC2
And hast thou cities domes and towersC2
And life and love that makes it dearO
And death that fills thy tribes with fearO
-
-
Lost in my dream my spirit soarsZ
Through paths the wandering angels knowC
My all pervading thought exploresZ
The azure ocean's lucent shoresZ
I leave my mortal self belowC
As up the star lit stairs I climbP
And still the widening view revealsE2
In endless rounds the circling wheelsE2
That build the horologe of timeP
New spheres new suns new systems gleamF2
The voice no earth born echo hearsG2
Steals softly on my ravished earsH2
I hear them singing as they shineB
A mortal's voice dissolves my dreamF2
My patient neighbor next in lineB
Hints gently there are those who waitC
O guardian of the starry gateC
What coin shall pay this debt of mineB
Too slight thy claim too small the feeK
That bids thee turn the potent keyK
The Tuscan's hand has placed in thineB
Forgive my own the small affrontC
The insult of the proffered dimeP
Take it O friend since this thy wontC
But still shall faithful memory beK
A bankrupt debtor unto theeK
And pay thee with a grateful rhymeP

Oliver Wendell Holmes



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