The Only Daughter. Illustration Of A Picture Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AA BCBCDEDEFGFGHIHI JKJKLMLMNONOPQPQ RSRSTUTUVWVWXYXY ZQZQYA2YA2B2YB2YC2FC 2F D2HD2HE2YE2YZF2ZF2G2 H2G2H2A | |
A | |
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They bid me strike the idle strings | B |
As if my summer days | C |
Had shaken sunbeams from their wings | B |
To warm my autumn lays | C |
They bring to me their painted urn | D |
As if it were not time | E |
To lift my gauntlet and to spurn | D |
The lists of boyish rhyme | E |
And were it not that I have still | F |
Some weakness in my heart | G |
That clings around my stronger will | F |
And pleads for gentler art | G |
Perchance I had not turned away | H |
The thoughts grown tame with toil | I |
To cheat this lone and pallid ray | H |
That wastes the midnight oil | I |
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Alas with every year I feel | J |
Some roses leave my brow | K |
Too young for wisdom s tardy seal | J |
Too old for garlands now | K |
Yet while the dewy breath of spring | L |
Steals o er the tingling air | M |
And spreads and fans each emerald wing | L |
The forest soon shall wear | M |
How bright the opening year would seem | N |
Had I one look like thine | O |
To meet me when the morning beam | N |
Unseals these lids of mine | O |
Too long I bear this lonely lot | P |
That bids my heart run wild | Q |
To press the lips that love me not | P |
To clasp the stranger s child | Q |
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How oft beyond the dashing seas | R |
Amidst those royal bowers | S |
Where danced the lilacs in the breeze | R |
And swung the chestnut flowers | S |
I wandered like a wearied slave | T |
Whose morning task is done | U |
To watch the little hands that gave | T |
Their whiteness to the sun | U |
To revel in the bright young eyes | V |
Whose lustre sparkled through | W |
The sable fringe of Southern skies | V |
Or gleamed in Saxon blue | W |
How oft I heard another s name | X |
Called in some truant s tone | Y |
Sweet accents which I longed to claim | X |
To learn and lisp my own | Y |
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Too soon the gentle hands that pressed | Z |
The ringlets of the child | Q |
Are folded on the faithful breast | Z |
Where first he breathed and smiled | Q |
Too oft the clinging arms untwine | Y |
The melting lips forget | A2 |
And darkness veils the bridal shrine | Y |
Where wreaths and torches met | A2 |
If Heaven but leaves a single thread | B2 |
Of Hope s dissolving chain | Y |
Even when her parting plumes are spread | B2 |
It bids them fold again | Y |
The cradle rocks beside the tomb | C2 |
The cheek now changed and chill | F |
Smiles on us in the morning bloom | C2 |
Of one that loves us still | F |
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Sweet image I have done thee wrong | D2 |
To claim this destined lay | H |
The leaf that asked an idle song | D2 |
Must bear my tears away | H |
Yet in thy memory shouldst thou keep | E2 |
This else forgotten strain | Y |
Till years have taught thine eyes to weep | E2 |
And flattery s voice is vain | Y |
Oh then thou fledgling of the nest | Z |
Like the long wandering dove | F2 |
Thy weary heart may faint for rest | Z |
As mine on changeless love | F2 |
And while these sculptured lines retrace | G2 |
The hours now dancing by | H2 |
This vision of thy girlish grace | G2 |
May cost thee too a sigh | H2 |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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