The Flaneur Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDDBCDCDEEEDDBCBCFG HGGHIIJKKL BMNNBONOMOB LDLLLDPPQRQQBBS TDUUDDTD VWXX XWWYYVYZDDZPA2PPDDB2 A2A2DB2 SLC2C2SSL D2KKE2E2PPPD2D2D2PP A2DA2A2DQF2F2QG2H2I2 CG2CDDCLL CDQDLLQ

Boston Common December During The Transit Of VenusA
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I Love all sights of earth and skiesB
From flowers that glow to stars that shineC
The comet and the penny showD
All curious things above belowD
Hold each in turn my wandering eyesB
I claim the Christian Pagan's lineC
Humani nihil even soD
And is not human life divineC
When soft the western breezes blowD
And strolling youths meet sauntering maidsE
I love to watch the stirring tradesE
Beneath the Vallombrosa shadesE
Our much enduring elms bestowD
The vender and his rhetoric's flowD
That lambent stream of liquid liesB
The bait he dangles from his lineC
The gudgeon and his gold washed prizeB
I halt before the blazoned signC
That bids me linger to admireF
The drama time can never tireG
The little hero of the hunchH
With iron arm and soul of fireG
And will that works his fierce desireG
Untamed unscared unconquered PunchH
My ear a pleasing torture findsI
In tones the withered sibyl grindsI
The dame sans merci's broken strainJ
Whom I erewhile perchance have knownK
When Orleans filled the Bourbon throneK
A siren singing by the SeineL
-
But most I love the tube that spiesB
The orbs celestial in their marchM
That shows the comet as it whisksN
Its tail across the planets' disksN
As if to blind their blood shot eyesB
Or wheels so close against the sunO
We tremble at the thought of risksN
Our little spinning ball may runO
To pop like corn that children parchM
From summer something overdoneO
And roll a cinder through the skiesB
-
Grudge not to day the scanty feeL
To him who farms the firmamentD
To whom the Milky Way is freeL
Who holds the wondrous crystal keyL
The silent Open SesameL
That Science to her sons has lentD
Who takes his toll and lifts the barP
That shuts the road to sun and starP
If Venus only comes to timeQ
And prophets say she must and shallR
To day will hear the tinkling chimeQ
Of many a ringing silver dimeQ
For him whose optic glass suppliesB
The crowd with astronomic eyesB
The Galileo of the MallS
-
Dimly the transit morning brokeT
The sun seemed doubting what to doD
As one who questions how to dressU
And takes his doublets from the pressU
And halts between the old and newD
Please Heaven he wear his suit of blueD
Or don at least his ragged cloakT
With rents that show the azure throughD
-
I go the patient crowd to joinV
That round the tube my eyes discernW
The last new comer of the fileX
And wait and wait a weary whileX
-
And gape and stretch and shrug and smileX
For each his place must fairly earnW
Hindmost and foremost in his turnW
Till hitching onward pace by paceY
I gain at last the envied placeY
And pay the white exiguous coinV
The sun and I are face to faceY
He glares at me I stare at himZ
And lo my straining eye has foundD
A little spot that black and roundD
Lies near the crimsoned fire orb's rimZ
O blessed beauteous evening starP
Well named for her whom earth adoresA2
The Lady of the dove drawn carP
I know thee in thy white simarP
But veiled in black a rayless spotD
Blank as a careless scribbler's blotD
Stripped of thy robe of silvery flameB2
The stolen robe that Night restoresA2
When Day has shut his golden doorsA2
I see thee yet I know thee notD
And canst thou call thyself the sameB2
-
A black round spot and that is allS
And such a speck our earth would beL
If he who looks upon the starsC2
Through the red atmosphere of MarsC2
Could see our little creeping ballS
Across the disk of crimson crawlS
As I our sister planet seeL
-
And art thou then a world like oursD2
Flung from the orb that whirled our ownK
A molten pebble from its zoneK
How must thy burning sands absorbE2
The fire waves of the blazing orbE2
Thy chain so short thy path so nearP
Thy flame defying creatures hearP
The maelstroms of the photosphereP
And is thy bosom decked with flowersD2
That steal their bloom from scalding showersD2
And bast thou cities domes and towersD2
And life and love that makes it dearP
And death that fills thy tribes with fearP
-
Lost in my dream my spirit soarsA2
Through paths the wandering angels knowD
My all pervading thought exploresA2
The azure ocean's lucent shoresA2
I leave my mortal self belowD
As up the star lit stairs I climbQ
And still the widening view revealsF2
In endless rounds the circling wheelsF2
That build the horologe of timeQ
New spheres new suns new systems gleamG2
The voice no earth born echo hearsH2
Steals softly on my ravished earsI2
I hear them singing as they shineC
A mortal's voice dissolves my dreamG2
My patient neighbor next in lineC
Hints gently there are those who waitD
O guardian of the starry gateD
What coin shall pay this debt of mineC
Too slight thy claim too small the feeL
That bids thee turn the potent keyL
-
The Tuscan's hand has placed in thineC
Forgive my own the small affrontD
The insult of the proffered dimeQ
Take it O friend since this thy wontD
But still shall faithful memory beL
A bankrupt debtor unto theeL
And pay thee with a grateful rhymeQ

Oliver Wendell Holmes



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