Brown's Descent, Or The Willy-nilly Slide Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEFE G HI JKLK MNO OPOP OQRS T OU OVAV OWO XOYO OOZO O OA2 B2ZC2Z D2E2O OF2G2F2 H2I2J2I2 K2 OL2 M2M2N2M2Brown lived at such a lofty farm | A |
That everyone for miles could see | B |
His lantern when he did his chores | C |
In winter after half past three | B |
- | |
And many must have seen him make | D |
His wild descent from there one night | E |
'Cross lots 'cross walls 'cross everything | F |
Describing rings of lantern light | E |
- | |
Between the house and barn the gale | G |
- | |
And blew him out on the icy crust | H |
That cased the world and he was gone | I |
- | |
Walls were all buried trees were few | J |
He saw no stay unless he stove | K |
A hole in somewhere with his heel | L |
But though repeatedly he strove | K |
- | |
And stamped and said things to himself | M |
And sometimes something seemed to yield | N |
He gained no foothold but pursued | O |
- | |
Sometimes he came with arms outspread | O |
Like wings revolving in the scene | P |
Upon his longer axis and | O |
With no small dignity of mien | P |
- | |
Faster or slower as he chanced | O |
Sitting or standing as he chose | Q |
According as he feared to risk | R |
His neck or thought to spare his clothes | S |
- | |
He never let the lantern drop | T |
- | |
The figures he described with it | O |
I wonder what those signals are | U |
- | |
Brown makes at such an hour of night | O |
He's celebrating something strange | V |
I wonder if he's sold his farm | A |
Or been made Master of the Grange | V |
- | |
He reeled he lurched he bobbed he checked | O |
He fell and made the lantern rattle | W |
But saved the light from going out | O |
- | |
Incredulous of his own bad luck | X |
And then becoming reconciled | O |
To everything he gave it up | Y |
And came down like a coasting child | O |
- | |
Well I be that was all he said | O |
As standing in the river road | O |
He looked back up the slippery slope | Z |
Two miles it was to his abode | O |
- | |
Sometimes as an authority | O |
- | |
Should say our stock was petered out | O |
And this is my sincere reply | A2 |
- | |
Yankees are what they always were | B2 |
Don't think Brown ever gave up hope | Z |
Of getting home again because | C2 |
He couldn't climb that slippery slope | Z |
- | |
Or even thought of standing there | D2 |
Until the January thaw | E2 |
Should take the polish off the crust | O |
- | |
And then went round it on his feet | O |
After the manner of our stock | F2 |
Not much concerned for those to whom | G2 |
At that particular time o'clock | F2 |
- | |
It must have looked as if the course | H2 |
He steered was really straight away | I2 |
From that which he was headed for | J2 |
Not much concerned for them I say | I2 |
- | |
No more so than became a man | K2 |
- | |
I've kept Brown standing in the cold | O |
While I invested him with reasons | L2 |
- | |
But now he snapped his eyes three times | M2 |
Then shook his lantern saying Ile's | M2 |
'Bout out and took the long way home | N2 |
By road a matter of several miles | M2 |
Robert Frost
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Brown's Descent, Or The Willy-nilly Slide poem by Robert Frost
Best Poems of Robert Frost