The School-boy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ KK LMNNOOPPQQRR SSTTUU VVWWXXSSYYSSUUZZA2A2 KK B2B2SSSSSSC2C2QQD2D2 SSIISSE2E2F2G2SSH2H2 I2I2AIUUJ2J2K2FQ QL2L2M2M2SSN2N2O2O2S SSSP2P2Q2Q2R2R2S2S2T 2T2 GGSSSSC2C2SSU2V2FFW2 W2B2B2X2X2SSTTY2Y2GG E2E2Z2Z2SSSSSSA3A3B3 AC3C3D3D3E3E3F3F3Z2

THESE hallowed precincts long to memory dearA
Smile with fresh welcome as our feet draw nearA
With softer gales the opening leaves are fannedB
With fairer hues the kindling flowers expandB
The rose bush reddens with the blush of JuneC
The groves are vocal with their minstrels' tuneC
The mighty elm beneath whose arching shadeD
The wandering children of the forest strayedD
Greets the bright morning in its bridal dressE
And spreads its arms the gladsome dawn to blessE
Is it an idle dream that nature sharesF
Our joys our griefs our pastimes and our caresF
Is there no summons when at morning's callG
The sable vestments of the darkness fallG
Does not meek evening's low voiced Ave blendH
With the soft vesper as its notes ascendH
Is there no whisper in the perfumed airI
When the sweet bosom of the rose is bareI
Does not the sunshine call us to rejoiceJ
Is there no meaning in the storm cloud's voiceJ
No silent message when from midnight skiesK
Heaven looks upon us with its myriad eyesK
-
Or shift the mirror say our dreams diffuseL
O'er life's pale landscape their celestial huesM
Lend heaven the rainbow it has never knownN
And robe the earth in glories not its ownN
Sing their own music in the summer breezeO
With fresher foliage clothe the stately treesO
Stain the June blossoms with a livelier dyeP
And spread a bluer azure on the skyP
Blest be the power that works its lawless willQ
And finds the weediest patch an Eden stillQ
No walls so fair as those our fancies buildR
No views so bright as those our visions gildR
-
So ran my lines as pen and paper metS
The truant goose quill travelling like PlanchetteS
Too ready servant whose deceitful waysT
Full many a slipshod line alas betraysT
Hence of the rhyming thousand not a fewU
Have builded worse a great deal than they knewU
-
What need of idle fancy to adornV
Our mother's birthplace on her birthday mornV
Hers are the blossoms of eternal springW
From these green boughs her new fledged birds take wingW
These echoes hear their earliest carols sungX
In this old nest the brood is ever youngX
If some tired wanderer resting from his flightS
Amid the gay young choristers alightS
These gather round him mark his faded plumesY
That faintly still the far off grove perfumesY
And listen wondering if some feeble noteS
Yet lingers quavering in his weary throatS
I whose fresh voice yon red faced temple knewU
What tune is left me fit to sing to youU
Ask not the grandeurs of a labored songZ
But let my easy couplets slide alongZ
Much could I tell you that you know too wellA2
Much I remember but I will not tellA2
Age brings experience graybeards oft are wiseK
But oh how sharp a youngster's ears and eyesK
-
My cheek was bare of adolescent downB2
When first I sought the academic townB2
Slow rolls the coach along the dusty roadS
Big with its filial and parental loadS
The frequent hills the lonely woods are pastS
The school boy's chosen home is reached at lastS
I see it now the same unchanging spotS
The swinging gate the little garden plotS
The narrow yard the rock that made its floorC2
The flat pale house the knocker garnished doorC2
The small trim parlor neat decorous chillQ
The strange new faces kind but grave and stillQ
Two creased with age or what I then called ageD2
Life's volume open at its fiftieth pageD2
One a shy maiden's pallid placid sweetS
As the first snow drop which the sunbeams greetS
One the last nursling's slight she was and fairI
Her smooth white forehead warmed with auburn hairI
Last came the virgin Hymen long had sparedS
Whose daily cares the grateful household sharedS
Strong patient humble her substantial frameE2
Stretched the chaste draperies I forbear to nameE2
Brave but with effort had the school boy comeF2
To the cold comfort of a stranger's homeG2
How like a dagger to my sinking heartS
Came the dry summons 'It is time to partS
Good by ' 'Goo ood by ' one fond maternal kissH2
Homesick as death Was ever pang like thisH2
Too young as yet with willing feet to strayI2
From the tame fireside glad to get awayI2
Too old to let my watery grief appearA
And what so bitter as a swallowed tearI
One figure still my vagrant thoughts pursueU
First boy to greet me Ariel where are youU
Imp of all mischief heaven alone knows howJ2
You learned it all are you an angel nowJ2
Or tottering gently down the slope of yearsK2
Your face grown sober in the vale of tearsF
Forgive my freedom if you are breathing stillQ
-
If in a happier world I know you willQ
You were a school boy what beneath the sunL2
So like a monkey I was also oneL2
Strange sure enough to see what curious shootsM2
The nursery raises from the study's rootsM2
In those old days the very very goodS
Took up more room a little than they shouldS
Something too much one's eyes encountered thenN2
Of serious youth and funeral visaged menN2
The solemn elders saw life's mournful halfO2
Heaven sent this boy whose mission was to laughO2
Drollest of buffos Nature's odd protestS
A catbird squealing in a blackbird's nestS
Kind faithful Nature While the sour eyed ScotS
Her cheerful smiles forbidden or forgotS
Talks only of his preacher and his kirkP2
Hears five hour sermons for his Sunday workP2
Praying and fasting till his meagre faceQ2
Gains its due length the genuine sign of graceQ2
An Ayrshire mother in the land of KnoxR2
Her embryo poet in his cradle rocksR2
Nature long shivering in her dim eclipseS2
Steals in a sunbeam to those baby lipsS2
So to its home her banished smile returnsT2
And Scotland sweetens with the song of BurnsT2
-
The morning came I reached the classic hallG
A clock face eyed me staring from the wallG
Beneath its hands a printed line I readS
YOUTH IS LIFE'S SEED TIME so the clock face saidS
Some took its counsel as the sequel showedS
Sowed their wild oats and reaped as they had sowedS
How all comes back the upward slanting floorC2
The masters' thrones that flank the central doorC2
The long outstretching alleys that divideS
The rows of desks that stand on either sideS
The staring boys a face to every deskU2
Bright dull pale blooming common picturesqueV2
Grave is the Master's look his forehead wearsF
Thick rows of wrinkles prints of worrying caresF
Uneasy lie the heads of all that ruleW2
His most of all whose kingdom is a schoolW2
Supreme he sits before the awful frownB2
That bends his brows the boldest eye goes downB2
Not more submissive Israel heard and sawX2
At Sinai's foot the Giver of the LawX2
Less stern he seems who sits in equal MateS
On the twin throne and shares the empire's weightS
Around his lips the subtle life that playsT
Steals quaintly forth in many a jesting phraseT
A lightsome nature not so hard to chafeY2
Pleasant when pleased rough handled not so safeY2
Some tingling memories vaguely I recallG
But to forgive him God forgive us allG
-
One yet remains whose well remembered nameE2
Pleads in my grateful heart its tender claimE2
His was the charm magnetic the bright lookZ2
That sheds its sunshine on the dreariest bookZ2
A loving soul to every task he broughtS
That sweetly mingled with the lore he taughtS
Sprung from a saintly race that never couldS
From youth to age be anything but goodS
His few brief years in holiest labors spentS
Earth lost too soon the treasure heaven had lentS
Kindest of teachers studious to divineA3
Some hint of promise in my earliest lineA3
These faint and faltering words thou canst not hearB3
Throb from a heart that holds thy memory dearA
As to the traveller's eye the varied plainC3
Shows through the window of the flying trainC3
A mingled landscape rather felt than seenD3
A gravelly bank a sudden flash of greenD3
A tangled wood a glittering stream that flowsE3
Through the cleft summit where the cliff once roseE3
All strangely blended in a hurried gleamF3
Rock wood waste meadow village hill side streamF3
So as we lookZ2

Oliver Wendell Holmes



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