The Adirondacs Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AB CDCD EFGGHI JJKILDMIDINOIIPQIRS ITUIIJDIVWO XOIDYZO A2 B2OC2U IICD2E2F2IIG2H2I2IIJ 2K2OIIL2IM2EN2 O2IJDDUP2Q2R2S2B2DIH 2IQ2IT2 DU2V2W2KDIIUU2X2Y2Z2 A3B3S2 C3D3IE3IDF3DIG3JOH3I B3JII JI3IAB3JIAI S2DOV2OB3AB3B3B3IB3B 3IOJ3B3B3AD K3IIIB3JIIDIL3B3I AIB3IB3B3AIAIM3D B3N3I

A JOURNALA
DEDICATED TO MY FELLOW TRAVELLERS IN AUGUSTB
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Wise and polite and if I drewC
Their several portraits you would ownD
Chaucer had no such worthy crewC
Nor Boccace in DecameronD
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We crossed Champlain to Keeseville with our friendsE
Thence in strong country carts rode up the forksF
Of the Ausable stream intent to reachG
The Adirondac lakes At Martin's BeachG
We chose our boats each man a boat and guideH
Ten men ten guides our company all toldI
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Next morn we swept with oars the SaranacJ
With skies of benediction to Round LakeJ
Where all the sacred mountains drew around usK
Tahawus Seaward MacIntyre BaldheadI
And other Titans without muse or nameL
Pleased with these grand companions we glide onD
Instead of flowers crowned with a wreath of hillsM
And made our distance wider boat from boatI
As each would hear the oracle aloneD
By the bright morn the gay flotilla slidI
Through files of flags that gleamed like bayonetsN
Through gold moth haunted beds of pickerel flowerO
Through scented banks of lilies white and goldI
Where the deer feeds at night the teal by dayI
On through the Upper Saranac and upP
Pere Raquette stream to a small tortuous passQ
Winding through grassy shallows in and outI
Two creeping miles of rushes pads and spongeR
To Follansbee Water and the Lake of LoonsS
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Northward the length of Follansbee we rowedI
Under low mountains whose unbroken ridgeT
Ponderous with beechen forest sloped the shoreU
A pause and council then where near the headI
On the east a bay makes inward to the landI
Between two rocky arms we climb the bankJ
And in the twilight of the forest noonD
Wield the first axe these echoes ever heardI
We cut young trees to make our poles and thwartsV
Barked the white spruce to weatherfend the roofW
Then struck a light and kindled the camp fireO
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The wood was sovran with centennial treesX
Oak cedar maple poplar beech and firO
Linden and spruce In strict societyI
Three conifers white pitch and Norway pineD
Five leaved three leaved and two leaved grew therebyY
Our patron pine was fifteen feet in girthZ
The maple eight beneath its shapely towerO
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'Welcome ' the wood god murmured through the leavesA2
'Welcome though late unknowing yet known to me '-
Evening drew on stars peeped through maple boughsB2
Which o'erhung like a cloud our camping fireO
Decayed millennial trunks like moonlight flecksC2
Lit with phosphoric crumbs the forest floorU
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Ten scholars wonted to lie warm and softI
In well hung chambers daintily bestowedI
Lie here on hemlock boughs like Sacs and SiouxC
And greet unanimous the joyful changeD2
So fast will Nature acclimate her sonsE2
Though late returning to her pristine waysF2
Off soundings seamen do not suffer coldI
And in the forest delicate clerks unbrownedI
Sleep on the fragrant brush as on down bedsG2
Up with the dawn they fancied the light airH2
That circled freshly in their forest dressI2
Made them to boys again Happier that theyI
Slipped off their pack of duties leagues behindI
At the first mounting of the giant stairsJ2
No placard on these rocks warned to the pollsK2
No door bell heralded a visitorO
No courier waits no letter came or wentI
Nothing was ploughed or reaped or bought or soldI
The frost might glitter it would blight no cropL2
The falling rain will spoil no holidayI
We were made freemen of the forest lawsM2
All dressed like Nature fit for her own endsE
Essaying nothing she cannot performN2
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In Adirondac lakesO2
At morn or noon the guide rows bareheadedI
Shoes flannel shirt and kersey trousers makeJ
His brief toilette at night or in the rainD
He dons a surcoat which he doffs at mornD
A paddle in the right hand or an oarU
And in the left a gun his needful armsP2
By turns we praised the stature of our guidesQ2
Their rival strength and suppleness their skillR2
To row to swim to shoot to build a campS2
To climb a lofty stem clean without boughsB2
Full fifty feet and bring the eaglet downD
Temper to face wolf bear or catamountI
And wit to track or take him in his lairH2
Sound ruddy men frolic and innocentI
In winter lumberers in summer guidesQ2
Their sinewy arms pull at the oar untiredI
Three times ten thousand strokes from morn to eveT2
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Look to yourselves ye polished gentlemenD
No city airs or arts pass current hereU2
Your rank is all reversed let men of clothV2
Bow to the stalwart churls in overallsW2
They are the doctors of the wildernessK
And we the low prized laymenD
In sooth red flannel is a saucy testI
Which few can put on with impunityI
What make you master fumbling at the oarU
Will you catch crabs Truth tries pretension hereU2
The sallow knows the basket maker's thumbX2
The oar the guide's Dare you accept the tasksY2
He shall impose to find a spring trap foxesZ2
Tell the sun's time determine the true northA3
Or stumbling on through vast self similar woodsB3
To thread by night the nearest way to campS2
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Ask you how went the hoursC3
All day we swept the lake searched every coveD3
North from Camp Maple south to Osprey BayI
Watching when the loud dogs should drive in deerE3
Or whipping its rough surface for a troutI
Or bathers diving from the rock at noonD
Challenging Echo by our guns and criesF3
Or listening to the laughter of the loonD
Or in the evening twilight's latest redI
Beholding the procession of the pinesG3
Or later yet beneath a lighted jackJ
In the boat's bows a silent night hunterO
Stealing with paddle to the feeding groundsH3
Of the red deer to aim at a square mistI
Hark to that muffled roar a tree in the woodsB3
Is fallen but hush it has not scared the buckJ
Who stands astonished at the meteor lightI
Then turns to bound away is it too lateI
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Sometimes we tried our rifles at a markJ
Six rods sixteen twenty or forty fiveI3
Sometimes our wits at sally and retortI
With laughter sudden as the crack of rifleA
Or parties scaled the near acclivitiesB3
Competing seekers of a rumoured lakeJ
Whose unauthenticated waves we namedI
Lake Probability our carbuncleA
Long sought not foundI
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Two Doctors in the campS2
Dissected the slain deer weighed the trout's brainD
Captured the lizard salamander shrewO
Crab mice snail dragon fly minnow and mothV2
Insatiate skill in water or in airO
Waved the scoop net and nothing came amissB3
The while one leaden pot of alcoholA
Gave an impartial tomb to all the kindsB3
Not less the ambitious botanist sought plantsB3
Orchis and gentian fern and long whip scirpusB3
Rosy polygonum lake margin's prideI
Hypnum and hydnum mushroom sponge and mossB3
Or harebell nodding in the gorge of fallsB3
Above the eagle flew the osprey screamedI
The raven croaked owls hooted the woodpeckerO
Loud hammered and the heron rose in the swampJ3
As water poured through the hollows of the hillsB3
To feed this wealth of lakes and rivuletsB3
So Nature shed all beauty lavishlyA
From her redundant hornD
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Lords of this realmK3
Bounded by dawn and sunset and the dayI
Rounded by hours where each outdid the lastI
In miracles of pomp we must be proudI
As if associates of the sylvan godsB3
We seemed the dwellers of the zodiacJ
So pure the Alpine element we breathedI
So light so lofty pictures came and wentI
We trode on air contemned the distant townD
Its timorous ways big trifles and we plannedI
That we should build hard by a spacious lodgeL3
And how we should come hither with our sonsB3
Hereafter willing they and more adroitI
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Hard fare hard bed and comic miseryA
The midge the blue fly and the mosquitoI
Painted our necks hands ankles with red bandsB3
But on the second day we heed them notI
Nay we saluted them AuxiliariesB3
Whom earlier we had chid with spiteful namesB3
For who defends our leafy tabernacleA
From bold intrusion of the travelling crowdI
Who but the midge mosquito and the flyA
Which past endurance sting the tender citI
But which we learn to scatter with a smudgeM3
Or baffle by a veil or slight by scornD
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Our foaming ale we drunk from hunters' pansB3
Ale and a sup of wine Our steward gaveN3
Venison and trout potatI

Ralph Waldo Emerson



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