Woodnotes I Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEFEFFFGGGHHFFI IJFJFKFKF LMFFNNFFOOFFPPFFQQRR SFSFFQFQLTPU VVQQWPFFFFFFFFXYZZHA 2B2B2C2C2D2D2QQFFDDE 2E2 FF2FF2G2MH2ME2E2QQFF E2E2QQQQFI2E2E2E2E2E 2E2I2J2J2E2E2FFE2E2K 2K2E2E2FFFI2FI2E2E2P

A
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When the pine tosses its conesB
To the song of its waterfall tonesB
Who speeds to the woodland walksC
To birds and trees who talksC
Caesar of his leafy RomeD
There the poet is at homeD
He goes to the river sideE
Not hook nor line hath heF
He stands in the meadows wideE
Nor gun nor scythe to seeF
Sure some god his eye enchantsF
What he knows nobody wantsF
In the wood he travels gladG
Without better fortune hadG
Melancholy without badG
Knowledge this man prizes bestH
Seems fantastic to the restH
Pondering shadows colors cloudsF
Grass buds and caterpillar shroudsF
Boughs on which the wild bees settleI
Tints that spot the violet's petalI
Why Nature loves the number fiveJ
And why the star form she repeatsF
Lover of all things aliveJ
Wonderer at all he meetsF
Wonderer chiefly at himselfK
Who can tell him what he isF
Or how meet in human elfK
Coming and past eternitiesF
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And such I knew a forest seerL
A minstrel of the natural yearM
Foreteller of the vernal idesF
Wise harbinger of spheres and tidesF
A lover true who knew by heartN
Each joy the mountain dales impartN
It seemed that Nature could not raiseF
A plant in any secret placeF
In quaking bog on snowy hillO
Beneath the grass that shades the rillO
Under the snow between the rocksF
In damp fields known to bird and foxF
But he would come in the very hourP
It opened in its virgin bowerP
As if a sunbeam showed the placeF
And tell its long descended raceF
It seemed as if the breezes brought himQ
It seemed as if the sparrows taught himQ
As if by secret sight he knewR
Where in far fields the orchis grewR
Many haps fall in the fieldS
Seldom seen by wishful eyesF
But all her shows did Nature yieldS
To please and win this pilgrim wiseF
He saw the partridge drum in the woodsF
He heard the woodcock's evening hymnQ
He found the tawny thrushes' broodsF
And the shy hawk did wait for himQ
What others did at distance hearL
And guessed within the thicket's gloomT
Was shown to this philosopherP
And at his bidding seemed to comeU
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In unploughed Maine he sought the lumberers' gangV
Where from a hundred lakes young rivers sprangV
He trode the unplanted forest floor whereonQ
The all seeing sun for ages hath not shoneQ
Where feeds the moose and walks the surly bearW
And up the tall mast runs the woodpeckerP
He saw beneath dim aisles in odorous bedsF
The slight Linnaea hang its twin born headsF
And blessed the monument of the man of flowersF
Which breathes his sweet fame through the northern bowersF
He heard when in the grove at intervalsF
With sudden roar the aged pine tree fallsF
One crash the death hymn of the perfect treeF
Declares the close of its green centuryF
Low lies the plant to whose creation wentX
Sweet influence from every elementY
Whose living towers the years conspired to buildZ
Whose giddy top the morning loved to gildZ
Through these green tents by eldest Nature dressedH
He roamed content alike with man and beastA2
Where darkness found him he lay glad at nightB2
There the red morning touched him with its lightB2
Three moons his great heart him a hermit madeC2
So long he roved at will the boundless shadeC2
The timid it concerns to ask their wayD2
And fear what foe in caves and swamps can strayD2
To make no step until the event is knownQ
And ills to come as evils past bemoanQ
Not so the wise no coward watch he keepsF
To spy what danger on his pathway creepsF
Go where he will the wise man is at homeD
His hearth the earth his hall the azure domeD
Where his clear spirit leads him there's his roadE2
By God's own light illumined and foreshowedE2
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'T was one of the charm d daysF
When the genius of God doth flowF2
The wind may alter twenty waysF
A tempest cannot blowF2
It may blow north it still is warmG2
Or south it still is clearM
Or east it smells like a clover farmH2
Or west no thunder fearM
The musing peasant lowly greatE2
Beside the forest water sateE2
The rope like pine roots crosswise grownQ
Composed the network of his throneQ
The wide lake edged with sand and grassF
Was burnished to a floor of glassF
Painted with shadows green and proudE2
Of the tree and of the cloudE2
He was the heart of all the sceneQ
On him the sun looked more sereneQ
To hill and cloud his face was knownQ
It seemed the likeness of their ownQ
They knew by secret sympathyF
The public child of earth and skyI2
'You ask ' he said 'what guideE2
Me through trackless thickets ledE2
Through thick stemmed woodlands rough and wideE2
I found the water's bedE2
The watercourses were my guideE2
I travelled grateful by their sideE2
Or through their channel dryI2
They led me through the thicket dampJ2
Through brake and fern the beavers' campJ2
Through beds of granite cut my roadE2
And their resistless friendship showedE2
The falling waters led meF
The foodful waters fed meF
And brought me to the lowest landE2
Unerring to the ocean sandE2
The moss upon the forest barkK2
Was pole star when the night was darkK2
The purple berries in the woodE2
Supplied me necessary foodE2
For Nature ever faithful isF
To such as trust her faithfulnessF
When the forest shall mislead meF
When the night and morning lieI2
When sea and land refuse to feed meF
'T will be time enough to dieI2
Then will yet my mother yieldE2
A pillow in her greenest fieldE2
Nor the June flowers scorn to coverP
The clay of their departed lover '-

Ralph Waldo Emerson



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