The Axe-helve Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDAEFGBHIBJKLIMNOP BQRSSTUVWXU X L Y ZA2B2C2D2BOE2IF2L IG2KH2ZII2A2 BJ2LIK2BVJ L2BIM2N2BM2QBZZO2EBJ C2 M2I P2Q2R2S2T2M2BU2Q2V2W 2X2BZY2Y2Z2Y2A3B3C2

I've known ere now an interfering branchA
Of alder catch my lifted axe behind meB
But that was in the woods to hold my handC
From striking at another alder's rootsD
And that was as I say an alder branchA
This was a man Baptiste who stole one dayE
Behind me on the snow in my own yardF
Where I was working at the chopping blockG
And cutting nothing not cut down alreadyB
He caught my axe expertly on the riseH
When all my strength put forth was in his favorI
Held it a moment where it was to calm meB
Then took it from me and I let him take itJ
I didn't know him well enough to knowK
What it was all about There might be somethingL
He had in mind to say to a bad neighbourI
He might prefer to say to him disarmedM
But all he had to tell me in French EnglishN
Was what he thought of not me but my axeO
Me only as I took my axe to heartP
It was the bad axe helve some one had sold meB
'Made on machine ' he said ploughing the grainQ
With a thick thumbnail to show how it ranR
Across the handle's long drawn serpentineS
Like the two strokes across a dollar signS
'You give her 'one good crack she's snap raght offT
Den where's your hax ead flying t'rough de hair 'U
Admitted and yet what was that to himV
'Come on my house and I put you one inW
What's las' awhile good hick'ry what's grow crookedX
De second growt' I cut myself tough tough 'U
-
Something to sell That wasn't how it soundedX
-
'Den when you say you come It's cost you nothingL
To naght '-
-
As well to night as any nightY
-
Beyond an over warmth of kitchen stoveZ
My welcome differed from no other welcomeA2
Baptiste knew best why I was where I wasB2
So long as he would leave enough unsaidC2
I shouldn't mind his being overjoyedD2
If overjoyed he was at having got meB
Where I must judge if what he knew about an axeO
That not everybody else knew was to countE2
For nothing in the measure of a neighbourI
Hard if though cast away for life with YankeesF2
A Frenchman couldn't get his human ratingL
-
Mrs Baptiste came in and rocked a chairI
That had as many motions as the worldG2
One back and forward in and out of shadowK
That got her nowhere one more gradualH2
Sideways that would have run her on the stoveZ
In time had she not realized her dangerI
And caught herself up bodily chair and allI2
And set herself back where she started fromA2
'She ain't spick too much Henglish dat's too bad '-
I was afraid in brightening first on meB
Then on Baptiste as if she understoodJ2
'What passed between us she was only reigningL
Baptiste was anxious for her but no moreI
Than for himself so placed he couldn't hopeK2
To keep his bargain of the morning with meB
In time to keep me from suspecting himV
Of really never having meant to keep itJ
-
Needlessly soon he had his axe helves outL2
A quiverful to choose from since he wished meB
To have the best he had or had to spareI
Not for me to ask which when what he tookM2
Had beauties he had to point me out at lengthN2
To ensure their not being wasted on meB
He liked to have it slender as a whipstockM2
Free from the least knot equal to the strainQ
Of bending like a sword across the kneeB
He showed me that the lines of a good helveZ
Were native to the grain before the knifeZ
Expressed them and its curves were no false curvesO2
Put on it from without And there its strength layE
For the hard work He chafed its long white bodyB
From end to end with his rough hand shut round itJ
He tried it at the eye hold in the axe headC2
'Hahn hahn ' he mused 'don't need much taking down '-
Baptiste knew how to make a short job longM2
For love of it and yet not waste time eitherI
-
Do you know what we talked about was knowledgeP2
Baptiste on his defence about the childrenQ2
He kept from school or did his best to keepR2
Whatever school and children and our doubtsS2
Of laid on education had to doT2
With the curves of his axe helves and his havingM2
Used these unscrupulously to bring meB
To see for once the inside of his houseU2
Was I desired in friendship partly as some oneQ2
To leave it to whether the right to holdV2
Such doubts of education should dependW2
Upon the education of those who held themX2
But now he brushed the shavings from his kneeB
And stood the axe there on its horse's hoofZ
Erect but not without its waves as whenY2
The snake stood up for evil in the Garden'Y2
Top heavy with a heaviness his shortZ2
Thick hand made light of steel blue chin drawn downY2
And in a little a French touch in thatA3
Baptiste drew back and squinted at it pleasedB3
'See how she's cock her headC2

Robert Frost



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