The Ploughman Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CCDD EEFFGGHHIIJJKKHH HHLLMMNN OOCCPPQQIIHHJJ RRHHHHNNSSDDSSEE| ANNIVERSARY OF THE BERKSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY | A |
| OCTOBER | B |
| - | |
| CLEAR the brown path to meet his coulter's gleam | C |
| Lo on he comes behind his smoking team | C |
| With toil's bright dew drops on his sunburnt brow | D |
| The lord of earth the hero of the plough | D |
| - | |
| First in the field before the reddening sun | E |
| Last in the shadows when the day is done | E |
| Line after line along the bursting sod | F |
| Marks the broad acres where his feet have trod | F |
| Still where he treads the stubborn clods divide | G |
| The smooth fresh furrow opens deep and wide | G |
| Matted and dense the tangled turf upheaves | H |
| Mellow and dark the ridgy cornfield cleaves | H |
| Up the steep hillside where the laboring train | I |
| Slants the long track that scores the level plain | I |
| Through the moist valley clogged with oozing clay | J |
| The patient convoy breaks its destined way | J |
| At every turn the loosening chains resound | K |
| The swinging ploughshare circles glistening round | K |
| Till the wide field one billowy waste appears | H |
| And wearied hands unbind the panting steers | H |
| - | |
| These are the hands whose sturdy labor brings | H |
| The peasant's food the golden pomp of kings | H |
| This is the page whose letters shall be seen | L |
| Changed by the sun to words of living green | L |
| This is the scholar whose immortal pen | M |
| Spells the first lesson hunger taught to men | M |
| These are the lines which heaven commanded Toil | N |
| Shows on his deed the charter of the soil | N |
| - | |
| O gracious Mother whose benignant breast | O |
| Wakes us to life and lulls us all to rest | O |
| How thy sweet features kind to every clime | C |
| Mock with their smile the wrinkled front of time | C |
| We stain thy flowers they blossom o'er the dead | P |
| We rend thy bosom and it gives us bread | P |
| O'er the red field that trampling strife has torn | Q |
| Waves the green plumage of thy tasselled corn | Q |
| Our maddening conflicts sear thy fairest plain | I |
| Still thy soft answer is the growing grain | I |
| Yet O our Mother while uncounted charms | H |
| Steal round our hearts in thine embracing arms | H |
| Let not our virtues in thy love decay | J |
| And thy fond sweetness waste our strength away | J |
| - | |
| No by these hills whose banners now displayed | R |
| In blazing cohorts Autumn has arrayed | R |
| By yon twin summits on whose splintery crests | H |
| The tossing hemlocks hold the eagles' nests | H |
| By these fair plains the mountain circle screens | H |
| And feeds with streamlets from its dark ravines | H |
| True to their home these faithful arms shall toil | N |
| To crown with peace their own untainted soil | N |
| And true to God to freedom to mankind | S |
| If her chained bandogs Faction shall unbind | S |
| These stately forms that bending even now | D |
| Bowed their strong manhood to the humble plough | D |
| Shall rise erect the guardians of the land | S |
| The same stern iron in the same right hand | S |
| Till o'er their hills the shouts of triumph run | E |
| The sword has rescued what the ploughshare won | E |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< The Deacon's Masterpiece Or, The Wonderful "one-hoss Shay": A Logical Story Poem
Parson Turell-s Legacy Poem>>
About The Ploughman
The Ploughman is a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about The Ploughman poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Best Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes