The Hot Season Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGF HIJIKLML NOPOQRSR TUVUWXYX SOZA2 JB2C2 D2E2F2E2G2H2I2H2 J2ZK2ZL2M2N2M2| THE folks that on the first of May | A |
| Wore winter coats and hose | B |
| Began to say the first of June | C |
| 'Good Lord how hot it grows ' | D |
| At last two Fahrenheits blew up | E |
| And killed two children small | F |
| And one barometer shot dead | G |
| A tutor with its ball | F |
| - | |
| Now all day long the locusts sang | H |
| Among the leafless trees | I |
| Three new hotels warped inside out | J |
| The pumps could only wheeze | I |
| And ripe old wine that twenty years | K |
| Had cobwebbed o'er in vain | L |
| Came spouting through the rotten corks | M |
| Like Joly's best champagne | L |
| - | |
| The Worcester locomotives did | N |
| Their trip in half an hour | O |
| The Lowell cars ran forty miles | P |
| Before they checked the power | O |
| Roll brimstone soon became a drug | Q |
| And loco focos fell | R |
| All asked for ice but everywhere | S |
| Saltpetre was to sell | R |
| - | |
| Plump men of mornings ordered tights | T |
| But ere the scorching noons | U |
| Their candle moulds had grown as loose | V |
| As Cossack pantaloons | U |
| The dogs ran mad men could not try | W |
| If water they would choose | X |
| A horse fell dead he only left | Y |
| Four red hot rusty shoes | X |
| - | |
| But soon the people could not bear | S |
| The slightest hint of fire | O |
| Allusions to caloric drew | Z |
| A flood of savage ire | A2 |
| - | |
| The leaves on heat were all torn out | J |
| From every book at school | B2 |
| And many blackguards kicked and caned | C2 |
| Because they said 'Keep cool ' | - |
| - | |
| The gas light companies were mobbed | D2 |
| The bakers all were shot | E2 |
| The penny press began to talk | F2 |
| Of lynching Doctor Nott | E2 |
| And all about the warehouse steps | G2 |
| Were angry men in droves | H2 |
| Crashing and splintering through the doors | I2 |
| To smash the patent stoves | H2 |
| - | |
| The abolition men and maids | J2 |
| Were tanned to such a hue | Z |
| You scarce could tell them from their friends | K2 |
| Unless their eyes were blue | Z |
| And when I left society | L2 |
| Had burst its ancient guards | M2 |
| And Brattle Street and Temple Place | N2 |
| Were interchanging cards | M2 |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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