Wind-clouds And Star-drifts Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A B CDEFGBHIJKL MNOP QRSTUVW XEGYZA2B2C2LD2VLQPE2 F2G2H2I2 J2K2L2M2BN2A2O2K2TO2 P2IQ2I2R2H2S2T2L2U2B V2KW2GI2T2IFX2Y2K2Z2 A3 QB3GC3C2D3J2 E3S2V2F3G3H3 JI3J3Y2H2 K3L3M3N3P2F3I3J2O3P2 P3 P2P2Q3 H3 R3P2Y2C2L2O2PHP2 I3S3XP2A2T3U3F2 A2V3M3P2K3J3BI2M2PP2 W3X3LY3UZ3E2P2OH3P2A 4A2J2 B4 Z2U3ET3I2B4HI2K2T3A2 T3 C4D4E4HF4G4

FROM THE YOUNG ASTRONOMER'S POEMA
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I-
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AMBITIONB
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ANOTHER clouded night the stars are hidC
The orb that waits my search is hid with themD
Patience Why grudge an hour a month a yearE
To plant my ladder and to gain the roundF
That leads my footsteps to the heaven of fameG
Where waits the wreath my sleepless midnights wonB
Not the stained laurel such as heroes wearH
That withers when some stronger conqueror's heelI
Treads down their shrivelling trophies in the dustJ
But the fair garland whose undying greenK
Not time can change nor wrath of gods or menL
-
With quickened heart beats I shall hear tonguesM
That speak my praise but better far the senseN
That in the unshaped ages buried deepO
In the dark mines of unaccomplished timeP
Yet to be stamped with morning's royal die-
And coined in golden days in those dim yearsQ
I shall be reckoned with the undying deadR
My name emblazoned on the fiery archS
Unfading till the stars themselves shall fadeT
Then as they call the roll of shining worldsU
Sages of race unborn in accents newV
Shall count me with the Olympian ones of oldW
Whose glories kindle through the midnight sky-
Here glows the God of Battles this recallsX
The Lord of Ocean and yon far off sphereE
The Sire of Him who gave his ancient nameG
To the dim planet with the wondrous ringsY
Here flames the Queen of Beauty's silver lampZ
And there the moon girt orb of mighty JoveA2
But this unseen through all earth's ions pastB2
A youth who watched beneath the western starC2
Sought in the darkness found and shewed to menL
Linked with his name thenceforth and evermoreD2
So shall that name be syllabled anewV
In all the tongues of all the tribes of menL
I that have been through immemorial yearsQ
Dust in the dust of my forgotten timeP
Shall live in accents shaped of blood warm breathE2
Yea rise in mortal semblance newly bornF2
In shining stone in undecaying bronzeG2
And stand on high and look serenely downH2
On the new race that calls the earth its ownI2
-
Is this a cloud that blown athwart my soulJ2
Wears a false seeming of the pearly stainK2
Where worlds beyond the world their mingling raysL2
Blend in soft white a cloud that born of earthM2
Would cheat the soul that looks for light from heavenB
Must every coral insect leave his signN2
On each poor grain he lent to build the reefA2
As Babel's builders stamped their sunburnt clayO2
Or deem his patient service all in vainK2
What if another sit beneath the shadeT
Of the broad elm I planted by the wayO2
What if another heed the beacon lightP2
I set upon the rock that wrecked my keelI
Have I not done my task and served my kindQ2
Nay rather act thy part unnamed unknownI2
And let Fame blow her trumpet through the worldR2
With noisy wind to swell a fool's renownH2
Joined with some truth he stumbled blindly o'erS2
Or coupled with some single shining deedT2
That in the great account of all his daysL2
Will stand alone upon the bankrupt sheetU2
His pitying angel shows the clerk of HeavenB
The noblest service comes from nameless handsV2
And the best servant does his work unseenK
Who found the seeds of fire and made them shootW2
Fed by his breath in buds and flowers of flameG
Who forged in roaring flames the ponderous stoneI2
And shaped the moulded metal to his needT2
Who gave the dragging car its rolling wheelI
And tamed the steed that whirls its circling roundF
All these have left their work and not their namesX2
Why should I murmur at a fate like theirsY2
This is the heavenly light the pearly stainK2
Was but a wind cloud drifting o'er the starsZ2
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II-
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REGRETSA3
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BRIEF glimpses of the bright celestial spheresQ
False lights false shadows vague uncertain gleamsB3
Pale vaporous mists wan streaks of lurid flameG
The climbing of the upward sailing cloudC3
The sinking of the downward falling starC2
All these are pictures of the changing moodsD3
Borne through the midnight stillness of my soulJ2
-
Here am I bound upon this pillared rockE3
Prey to the vulture of a vast desireS2
That feeds upon my life I burst my bandsV2
And steal a moment's freedom from the beakF3
The clinging talons and the shadowing plumesG3
Then comes the false enchantress with her songH3
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'Thou wouldst not lay thy forehead in the dustJ
Like the base herd that feeds and breeds and diesI3
Lo the fair garlands that I weave for theeJ3
Unchanging as the belt Orion wearsY2
Bright as the jewels of the seven starred CrownH2
The spangled stream of Berenice's hair '-
And so she twines the fetters with the flowersK3
Around my yielding limbs and the fierce birdL3
Stoops to his quarry then to feed his rageM3
Of ravening hunger I must drain my bloodN3
And let the dew drenched poison breeding nightP2
Steal all the freshness from my fading cheekF3
And leave its shadows round my caverned eyesI3
All for a line in some unheeded scrollJ2
All for a stone that tells to gaping clownsO3
'Here lies a restless wretch beneath a clodP2
Where squats the jealous nightmare men callP3
Fame '-
-
I marvel not at him who scorns his kindP2
And thinks not sadly of the time foretoldP2
When the old hulk we tread shall be a wreckQ3
A slag a cinder drifting through the sky-
Without its crew of fools We live too longH3
And even so are not content to die-
But load the mould that covers up our bonesR3
With stones that stand like beggars by the roadP2
And show death's grievous wound and ask for tearsY2
Write our great books to teach men who we areC2
Sing our fine songs that tell in artful phraseL2
The secrets of our lives and plead and prayO2
For alms of memory with the after timeP
Those few swift seasons while the earth shall wearH
Its leafy summers ere its core grows coldP2
And the moist life of all that breathes shall die-
Or as the new born seer perchance more wiseI3
Would have us deem before its growing massS3
Pelted with star dust stoned with meteor ballsX
Heats like a hammered anvil till at lastP2
Man and his works and all that stirred itselfA2
Of its own motion in the fiery glowT3
Turns to a flaming vapor and our orbU3
Shines a new sun for earths that shall be bornF2
-
I am as old as Egypt to myselfA2
Brother to them that squared the pyramidsV3
By the same stars I watch I read the pageM3
Where every letter is a glittering worldP2
With them who looked from Shinar's clay built towersK3
Ere yet the wanderer of the Midland seaJ3
Had missed the fallen sister of the sevenB
I dwell in spaces vague remote unknownI2
Save to the silent few who leaving earthM2
Quit all communion with their living timeP
I lose myself in that ethereal voidP2
Till I have tired my wings and long to fillW3
My breast with denser air to stand to walkX3
With eyes not raised above my fellow menL
Sick of my unwalled solitary realmY3
I ask to change the myriad lifeless worldsU
I visit as mine own for one poor patchZ3
Of this dull spheroid and a little breathE2
To shape in word or deed to serve my kindP2
Was ever giant's dungeon dug so deepO
Was ever tyrant's fetter forged so strongH3
Was e'er such deadly poison in the draughtP2
The false wife mingles for the trusting foolA4
As he whose willing victim is himselfA2
Digs forges mingles for his captive soulJ2
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III-
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SYMPATHIESB4
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THE snows that glittered on the disk of MarsZ2
Have melted and the planet's fiery orbU3
Rolls in the crimson summer of its yearE
But what to me the summer or the snowT3
Of worlds that throb with life in forms unknownI2
If life indeed be theirs I heed not theseB4
My heart is simply human all my careH
For them whose dust is fashioned like mine ownI2
These ache with cold and hunger live in painK2
And shake with fear of worlds more full of woeT3
There may be others worthier of my loveA2
But such I know not save through these I knowT3
-
There are two veils of language hid beneathC4
Whose sheltering folds we dare to be ourselvesD4
And not that other self which nods and smilesE4
And babbles in our name the one is PrayerH
Lending its licensed freedom to the tongueF4
That tells our sorrows and our sinG4

Oliver Wendell Holmes



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