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 AC3C3D3D3E3E3F3F3Z2THESE hallowed precincts long to memory dear | A |
Smile with fresh welcome as our feet draw near | A |
With softer gales the opening leaves are fanned | B |
With fairer hues the kindling flowers expand | B |
The rose bush reddens with the blush of June | C |
The groves are vocal with their minstrels' tune | C |
The mighty elm beneath whose arching shade | D |
The wandering children of the forest strayed | D |
Greets the bright morning in its bridal dress | E |
And spreads its arms the gladsome dawn to bless | E |
Is it an idle dream that nature shares | F |
Our joys our griefs our pastimes and our cares | F |
Is there no summons when at morning's call | G |
The sable vestments of the darkness fall | G |
Does not meek evening's low voiced Ave blend | H |
With the soft vesper as its notes ascend | H |
Is there no whisper in the perfumed air | I |
When the sweet bosom of the rose is bare | I |
Does not the sunshine call us to rejoice | J |
Is there no meaning in the storm cloud's voice | J |
No silent message when from midnight skies | K |
Heaven looks upon us with its myriad eyes | K |
- | |
Or shift the mirror say our dreams diffuse | L |
O'er life's pale landscape their celestial hues | M |
Lend heaven the rainbow it has never known | N |
And robe the earth in glories not its own | N |
Sing their own music in the summer breeze | O |
With fresher foliage clothe the stately trees | O |
Stain the June blossoms with a livelier dye | P |
And spread a bluer azure on the sky | P |
Blest be the power that works its lawless will | Q |
And finds the weediest patch an Eden still | Q |
No walls so fair as those our fancies build | R |
No views so bright as those our visions gild | R |
- | |
So ran my lines as pen and paper met | S |
The truant goose quill travelling like Planchette | S |
Too ready servant whose deceitful ways | T |
Full many a slipshod line alas betrays | T |
Hence of the rhyming thousand not a few | U |
Have builded worse a great deal than they knew | U |
- | |
What need of idle fancy to adorn | V |
Our mother's birthplace on her birthday morn | V |
Hers are the blossoms of eternal spring | W |
From these green boughs her new fledged birds take wing | W |
These echoes hear their earliest carols sung | X |
In this old nest the brood is ever young | X |
If some tired wanderer resting from his flight | S |
Amid the gay young choristers alight | S |
These gather round him mark his faded plumes | Y |
That faintly still the far off grove perfumes | Y |
And listen wondering if some feeble note | S |
Yet lingers quavering in his weary throat | S |
I whose fresh voice yon red faced temple knew | U |
What tune is left me fit to sing to you | U |
Ask not the grandeurs of a labored song | Z |
But let my easy couplets slide along | Z |
Much could I tell you that you know too well | A2 |
Much I remember but I will not tell | A2 |
Age brings experience graybeards oft are wise | K |
But oh how sharp a youngster's ears and eyes | K |
- | |
My cheek was bare of adolescent down | B2 |
When first I sought the academic town | B2 |
Slow rolls the coach along the dusty road | S |
Big with its filial and parental load | S |
The frequent hills the lonely woods are past | S |
The school boy's chosen home is reached at last | S |
I see it now the same unchanging spot | S |
The swinging gate the little garden plot | S |
The narrow yard the rock that made its floor | C2 |
The flat pale house the knocker garnished door | C2 |
The small trim parlor neat decorous chill | Q |
The strange new faces kind but grave and still | Q |
Two creased with age or what I then called age | D2 |
Life's volume open at its fiftieth page | D2 |
One a shy maiden's pallid placid sweet | S |
As the first snow drop which the sunbeams greet | S |
One the last nursling's slight she was and fair | I |
Her smooth white forehead warmed with auburn hair | I |
Last came the virgin Hymen long had spared | S |
Whose daily cares the grateful household shared | S |
Strong patient humble her substantial frame | E2 |
Stretched the chaste draperies I forbear to name | E2 |
Brave but with effort had the school boy come | F2 |
To the cold comfort of a stranger's home | G2 |
How like a dagger to my sinking heart | S |
Came the dry summons 'It is time to part | S |
Good by ' 'Goo ood by ' one fond maternal kiss | H2 |
Homesick as death Was ever pang like this | H2 |
Too young as yet with willing feet to stray | I2 |
From the tame fireside glad to get away | I2 |
Too old to let my watery grief appear | A |
And what so bitter as a swallowed tear | I |
One figure still my vagrant thoughts pursue | U |
First boy to greet me Ariel where are you | U |
Imp of all mischief heaven alone knows how | J2 |
You learned it all are you an angel now | J2 |
Or tottering gently down the slope of years | K2 |
Your face grown sober in the vale of tears | F |
Forgive my freedom if you are breathing still | Q |
- | |
If in a happier world I know you will | Q |
You were a school boy what beneath the sun | L2 |
So like a monkey I was also one | L2 |
Strange sure enough to see what curious shoots | M2 |
The nursery raises from the study's roots | M2 |
In those old days the very very good | S |
Took up more room a little than they should | S |
Something too much one's eyes encountered then | N2 |
Of serious youth and funeral visaged men | N2 |
The solemn elders saw life's mournful half | O2 |
Heaven sent this boy whose mission was to laugh | O2 |
Drollest of buffos Nature's odd protest | S |
A catbird squealing in a blackbird's nest | S |
Kind faithful Nature While the sour eyed Scot | S |
Her cheerful smiles forbidden or forgot | S |
Talks only of his preacher and his kirk | P2 |
Hears five hour sermons for his Sunday work | P2 |
Praying and fasting till his meagre face | Q2 |
Gains its due length the genuine sign of grace | Q2 |
An Ayrshire mother in the land of Knox | R2 |
Her embryo poet in his cradle rocks | R2 |
Nature long shivering in her dim eclipse | S2 |
Steals in a sunbeam to those baby lips | S2 |
So to its home her banished smile returns | T2 |
And Scotland sweetens with the song of Burns | T2 |
- | |
The morning came I reached the classic hall | G |
A clock face eyed me staring from the wall | G |
Beneath its hands a printed line I read | S |
YOUTH IS LIFE'S SEED TIME so the clock face said | S |
Some took its counsel as the sequel showed | S |
Sowed their wild oats and reaped as they had sowed | S |
How all comes back the upward slanting floor | C2 |
The masters' thrones that flank the central door | C2 |
The long outstretching alleys that divide | S |
The rows of desks that stand on either side | S |
The staring boys a face to every desk | U2 |
Bright dull pale blooming common picturesque | V2 |
Grave is the Master's look his forehead wears | F |
Thick rows of wrinkles prints of worrying cares | F |
Uneasy lie the heads of all that rule | W2 |
His most of all whose kingdom is a school | W2 |
Supreme he sits before the awful frown | B2 |
That bends his brows the boldest eye goes down | B2 |
Not more submissive Israel heard and saw | X2 |
At Sinai's foot the Giver of the Law | X2 |
Less stern he seems who sits in equal Mate | S |
On the twin throne and shares the empire's weight | S |
Around his lips the subtle life that plays | T |
Steals quaintly forth in many a jesting phrase | T |
A lightsome nature not so hard to chafe | Y2 |
Pleasant when pleased rough handled not so safe | Y2 |
Some tingling memories vaguely I recall | G |
But to forgive him God forgive us all | G |
- | |
One yet remains whose well remembered name | E2 |
Pleads in my grateful heart its tender claim | E2 |
His was the charm magnetic the bright look | Z2 |
That sheds its sunshine on the dreariest book | Z2 |
A loving soul to every task he brought | S |
That sweetly mingled with the lore he taught | S |
Sprung from a saintly race that never could | S |
From youth to age be anything but good | S |
His few brief years in holiest labors spent | S |
Earth lost too soon the treasure heaven had lent | S |
Kindest of teachers studious to divine | A3 |
Some hint of promise in my earliest line | A3 |
These faint and faltering words thou canst not hear | B3 |
Throb from a heart that holds thy memory dear | A |
As to the traveller's eye the varied plain | C3 |
Shows through the window of the flying train | C3 |
A mingled landscape rather felt than seen | D3 |
A gravelly bank a sudden flash of green | D3 |
A tangled wood a glittering stream that flows | E3 |
Through the cleft summit where the cliff once rose | E3 |
All strangely blended in a hurried gleam | F3 |
Rock wood waste meadow village hill side stream | F3 |
So as we look | Z2 |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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