Woodnotes Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABBCCDDEFEFFFGGGHHFF IIJFJFKFKF LMFFNNFFOOFFPPFFQQRR SFSFFQFQLTPU VVQQWPFFFFFFFF XYZZHA2B2B2C2C2D2D2Q QFFDDE2E2 FF2FF2G2MH2ME2E2QQFF E2E2QQQQFAE2E2E2E2E2 E2AI2I2E2E2FFE2 E2J2J2E2E2FFFAFAE2E2 P AFFE2E2 P FP K2F2K2F2FPE2PE2FFFFQ QL2L2FWFW PFFFFQQFFFFE2E2E2E2F FQQE2E2M2FM2FFFE2E2E 2E2FFQQE2E2FFE2E2QQA AFFFFMMN2O2F

IA
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
C sar 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
-
-
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
-
-
In unploughed Maine he sought the lumberers' gangV
Where from a hundred lakes young rivers sprangV
He trod 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 Linn a 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
-
-
'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 skyA
'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 dryA
They led me through the thicket dampI2
Through brake and fern the beavers' campI2
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 barkJ2
Was pole star when the night was darkJ2
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 lieA
When sea and land refuse to feed meF
'T will be time enough to dieA
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 '-
-
IIA
As sunbeams stream through liberal spaceF
And nothing jostle or displaceF
So waved the pine tree through my thoughtE2
And fanned the dreams it never broughtE2
-
-
'Whether is better the gift or the donorP
Come to me '-
Quoth the pine treeF
'I am the giver of honorP
-
My garden is the cloven rockK2
And my manure the snowF2
And drifting sand heaps feed my stockK2
In summer's scorching glowF2
He is great who can live by meF
The rough and bearded foresterP
Is better than the lordE2
God fills the scrip and canisterP
Sin piles the loaded boardE2
The lord is the peasant that wasF
The peasant the lord that shall beF
The lord is hay the peasant grassF
One dry and one the living treeF
Who liveth by the ragged pineQ
Foundeth a heroic lineQ
Who liveth in the palace hallL2
Waneth fast and spendeth allL2
He goes to my savage hauntsF
With his chariot and his careW
My twilight realm he disenchantsF
And finds his prison thereW
-
-
'What prizes the town and the towerP
Only what the pine tree yieldsF
Sinew that subdued the fieldsF
The wild eyed boy who in the woodsF
Chants his hymn to hills and floodsF
Whom the city's poisoning spleenQ
Made not pale or fat or leanQ
Whom the rain and the wind purgethF
Whom the dawn and the day star urgethF
In whose cheek the rose leaf blushethF
In whose feet the lion rushethF
Iron arms and iron mouldE2
That know not fear fatigue or coldE2
I give my rafters to his boatE2
My billets to his boiler's throatE2
And I will swim the ancient seaF
To float my child to victoryF
And grant to dwellers with the pineQ
Dominion o'er the palm and vineQ
Who leaves the pine tree leaves his friendE2
Unnerves his strength invites his endE2
Cut a bough from my parent stemM2
And dip it in thy porcelain vaseF
A little while each russet gemM2
Will swell and rise with wonted graceF
But when it seeks enlarged suppliesF
The orphan of the forest diesF
Whoso walks in solitudeE2
And inhabiteth the woodE2
Choosing light wave rock and birdE2
Before the money loving herdE2
Into that forester shall passF
From these companions power and graceF
Clean shall he be without withinQ
From the old adhering sinQ
All ill dissolving in the lightE2
Of his triumphant piercing sightE2
Not vain sour nor frivolousF
Not mad athirst nor garrulousF
Grave chaste contented though retiredE2
And of all other men desiredE2
On him the light of star and moonQ
Shall fall with purer radiance downQ
All constellations of the skyA
Shed their virtue through his eyeA
Him Nature giveth for defenceF
His formidable innocenceF
The mounting sap the shells the seaF
All spheres all stones his helpers beF
He shall meet the speeding yearM
Without wailing without fearM
He shall be happy in his loveN2
Like to like shall joyful proveO2
He sF

Ralph Waldo Emerson



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