For Wilma (aged Five Years) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACBD EFEGGFHHEEIEIEJJ EEEKKEEE ELMMELEENENEOO CPPQQC RESETUUVTTVT WEWEXETTXEJEEJ| Like winds that with the setting of the sun | A |
| Draw to a quiet murmuring and cease | B |
| So is her little struggle fought and done | A |
| And the brief fever and the pain | C |
| In a last sigh fade out and so release | B |
| The lately breathing dust they may not hurt again | D |
| - | |
| Now all that Wilma was is made as naught | E |
| Stilled is the laughter that was erst our pleasure | F |
| The pretty air the childish grace untaught | E |
| The innocent wiles | G |
| And all the sunny smiles | G |
| The cheek that flushed to greet some tiny treasure | F |
| The mouth demure the tilted chin held high | H |
| The gleeful flashes of her glancing eye | H |
| Her shy bold look of wildness unconfined | E |
| And the gay impulse of her baby mind | E |
| That none could tame | I |
| That sent her spinning round | E |
| A spirit of living flame | I |
| Dancing in airy rapture o'er the ground | E |
| All these with that faint sigh are made to be | J |
| Man's breath upon a glass a mortal memory | J |
| - | |
| Then from the silent room where late she played | E |
| Setting a steady course toward the light | E |
| Swifter than thistledown the little shade | E |
| Reft from the nooks that she had made her own | K |
| And from the love that sheltered fared alone | K |
| Forth through the gloomy spaces of the night | E |
| Until at last she lit before the gate | E |
| Where all the suppliant shades must stand and wait | E |
| - | |
| Grim Cerberus the foiler of the dead | E |
| Keeping his everlasting vigil there | L |
| In deep mouthed wrath | M |
| Athwart the rocky path | M |
| Did at her coming raise his triple head | E |
| And lift his bristling hair | L |
| But when he saw our tender little maid | E |
| Forlorn but unafraid | E |
| He blinked his flaming eyes and ceased to frown | N |
| And fawning on her smoothed his shaggy crest | E |
| Composed his savage limbs and settled down | N |
| With ears laid back and all his care at rest | E |
| And so with kindly aspect beckoned in | O |
| The little playmate of his earthly kin | O |
| - | |
| For often she had tugged old Rollo's mane | C |
| And often Lufra felt the loving check | P |
| Of childish arms about her glossy neck | P |
| Lufra and Rollo who with anxious faces | Q |
| Now cast about the haunts and hiding places | Q |
| To find their friend but ever cast in vain | C |
| - | |
| So now set free from all that can oppress | R |
| And in her own white innocence arrayed | E |
| Made one for ever with all happiness | S |
| Alert she wanders through the starry glade | E |
| Or where the blissful Shades intone their praise | T |
| She from the lily covered bowers | U |
| Heaping her arms with flowers | U |
| Soars and is borne along | V |
| The amaranthine the delightful ways | T |
| Gushes the pretty notes and careless trills | T |
| Of her unstudied song | V |
| And with her music all the joyous valley fills | T |
| - | |
| Yet oh ye Powers whose rule is set above | W |
| These fair abodes that ring the firmament | E |
| Spirits of Peace and Happiness and Love | W |
| And thou too mild eyed Spirit of Content | E |
| Ye will not chide if sometimes in her play | X |
| The child should start and droop her shining head | E |
| Turning in meek surmise | T |
| Her wistful eyes | T |
| Back tow'rd the dimness of our mortal day | X |
| And the loved home from which her soul was sped | E |
| Soon shall our little Wilma learn to be | J |
| Amid the immortal blest | E |
| An unrepining guest | E |
| Who now dear heart is young for your eternity | J |
R. C. Lehmann
(1)
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