The Generations Of Men Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRQ BJSTNQUVQDQWBQQ NXJ J YZA2B2C2D2BE2 V Q F2G2D2QRN ZV H2BI2 RJ2K2L2J2M2N2 Z R T Y HO2 QJ2DP2QG2Q2Q Z R2 A2S2 T2Q Q TZVG2U2V2W2B YS2V V Z ZN2 U2X2RY2V D2ZYZYZZ Z Z2A3B3K2C3 Z B VY2 BJ2D3E3F3ZG3H3I3VYJ3 K3VL3 J3VU2 M3 MA3V BU2VB3VG3 V Y N3 V Y VVL3 R VG3I2U V VBVVO3VVU2VI3VL3 YVP3P3Q3P3 BHVVYA D RVR3YP3VP3VBVJ2R3S3P 3V P3 RR YR RP3 P3 P3 MB R U2H R RP3VA governor it was proclaimed this time | A |
When all who would come seeking in New Hampshire | B |
Ancestral memories might come together | B |
And those of the name Stark gathered in Bow | C |
A rock strewn town where farming has fallen off | D |
And sprout lands flourish where the axe has gone | E |
Someone had literally run to earth | F |
In an old cellar hole in a by road | G |
The origin of all the family there | H |
Thence they were sprung so numerous a tribe | I |
That now not all the houses left in town | J |
Made shift to shelter them without the help | K |
Of here and there a tent in grove and orchard | L |
They were at Bow but that was not enough | M |
Nothing would do but they must fix a day | N |
To stand together on the crater's verge | O |
That turned them on the world and try to fathom | P |
The past and get some strangeness out of it | Q |
But rain spoiled all The day began uncertain | R |
With clouds low trailing and moments of rain that misted | Q |
The young folk held some hope out to each other | B |
Till well toward noon when the storm settled down | J |
With a swish in the grass What if the others | S |
Are there they said It isn't going to rain | T |
Only one from a farm not far away | N |
Strolled thither not expecting he would find | Q |
Anyone else but out of idleness | U |
One and one other yes for there were two | V |
The second round the curving hillside road | Q |
Was a girl and she halted some way off | D |
To reconnoitre and then made up her mind | Q |
At least to pass by and see who he was | W |
And perhaps hear some word about the weather | B |
This was some Stark she didn't know He nodded | Q |
No f ecirc te to day he said | Q |
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It looks that way | N |
She swept the heavens turning on her heel | X |
I only idled down | J |
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I idled down | J |
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Provision there had been for just such meeting | Y |
Of stranger cousins in a family tree | Z |
Drawn on a sort of passport with the branch | A2 |
Of the one bearing it done in detail | B2 |
Some zealous one's laborious device | C2 |
She made a sudden movement toward her bodice | D2 |
As one who clasps her heart They laughed together | B |
Stark he inquired No matter for the proof | E2 |
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Yes Stark And you | V |
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I'm Stark He drew his passport | Q |
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You know we might not be and still be cousins | F2 |
The town is full of Chases Lowes and Baileys | G2 |
All claiming some priority in Starkness | D2 |
My mother was a Lane yet might have married | Q |
Anyone upon earth and still her children | R |
Would have been Starks and doubtless here to day | N |
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You riddle with your genealogy | Z |
Like a Viola I don't follow you | V |
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I only mean my mother was a Stark | H2 |
Several times over and by marrying father | B |
No more than brought us back into the name | I2 |
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One ought not to be thrown into confusion | R |
By a plain statement of relationship | J2 |
But I own what you say makes my head spin | K2 |
You take my card you seem so good at such things | L2 |
And see if you can reckon our cousinship | J2 |
Why not take seats here on the cellar wall | M2 |
And dangle feet among the raspberry vines | N2 |
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Under the shelter of the family tree | Z |
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Just so that ought to be enough protection | R |
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Not from the rain I think it's going to rain | T |
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It's raining | Y |
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No it's misting let's be fair | H |
Does the rain seem to you to cool the eyes | O2 |
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The situation was like this the road | Q |
Bowed outward on the mountain half way up | J2 |
And disappeared and ended not far off | D |
No one went home that way The only house | P2 |
Beyond where they were was a shattered seedpod | Q |
And below roared a brook hidden in trees | G2 |
The sound of which was silence for the place | Q2 |
This he sat listening to till she gave judgment | Q |
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On father's side it seems we're let me see | Z |
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Don't be too technical You have three cards | R2 |
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Four cards one yours three mine one for each branch | A2 |
Of the Stark family I'm a member of | S2 |
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D'you know a person so related to herself | T2 |
Is supposed to be mad | Q |
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I may be mad | Q |
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You look so sitting out here in the rain | T |
Studying genealogy with me | Z |
You never saw before What will we come to | V |
With all this pride of ancestry we Yankees | G2 |
I think we're all mad Tell me why we're here | U2 |
Drawn into town about this cellar hole | V2 |
Like wild geese on a lake before a storm | W2 |
What do we see in such a hole I wonder | B |
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The Indians had a myth of Chicamoztoc | Y |
Which means The Seven Caves that We Came out of | S2 |
This is the pit from which we Starks were digged | V |
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You must be learned That's what you see in it | V |
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And what do you see | Z |
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Yes what do I see | Z |
First let me look I see raspberry vines | N2 |
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Oh if you're going to use your eyes just hear | U2 |
What I see It's a little little boy | X2 |
As pale and dim as a match flame in the sun | R |
He's groping in the cellar after jam | Y2 |
He thinks it's dark and it's flooded with daylight | V |
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He's nothing Listen When I lean like this | D2 |
I can make out old Grandsir Stark distinctly | Z |
With his pipe in his mouth and his brown jug | Y |
Bless you it isn't Grandsir Stark it's Granny | Z |
But the pipe's there and smoking and the jug | Y |
She's after cider the old girl she's thirsty | Z |
Here's hoping she gets her drink and gets out safely | Z |
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Tell me about her Does she look like me | Z |
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She should shouldn't she you're so many times | Z2 |
Over descended from her I believe | A3 |
She does look like you Stay the way you are | B3 |
The nose is just the same and so's the chin | K2 |
Making allowance making due allowance | C3 |
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You poor dear great great great great Granny | Z |
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See that you get her greatness right Don't stint her | B |
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Yes it's important though you think it isn't | V |
I won't be teased But see how wet I am | Y2 |
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Yes you must go we can't stay here for ever | B |
But wait until I give you a hand up | J2 |
A bead of silver water more or less | D3 |
Strung on your hair won't hurt your summer looks | E3 |
I wanted to try something with the noise | F3 |
That the brook raises in the empty valley | Z |
We have seen visions now consult the voices | G3 |
Something I must have learned riding in trains | H3 |
When I was young I used the roar | I3 |
To set the voices speaking out of it | V |
Speaking or singing and the band music playing | Y |
Perhaps you have the art of what I mean | J3 |
I've never listened in among the sounds | K3 |
That a brook makes in such a wild descent | V |
It ought to give a purer oracle | L3 |
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It's as you throw a picture on a screen | J3 |
The meaning of it all is out of you | V |
The voices give you what you wish to hear | U2 |
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Strangely it's anything they wish to give | M3 |
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Then I don't know It must be strange enough | M |
I wonder if it's not your make believe | A3 |
What do you think you're like to hear to day | V |
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From the sense of our having been together | B |
But why take time for what I'm like to hear | U2 |
I'll tell you what the voices really say | V |
You will do very well right where you are | B3 |
A little longer I mustn't feel too hurried | V |
Or I can't give myself to hear the voices | G3 |
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Is this some trance you are withdrawing into | V |
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You must be very still you mustn't talk | Y |
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I'll hardly breathe | N3 |
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The voices seem to say | V |
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I'm waiting | Y |
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Don't The voices seem to say | V |
Call her Nausicaa the unafraid | V |
Of an acquaintance made adventurously | L3 |
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I let you say that on consideration | R |
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I don't see very well how you can help it | V |
You want the truth I speak but by the voices | G3 |
You see they know I haven't had your name | I2 |
Though what a name should matter between us | U |
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I shall suspect | V |
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Be good The voices say | V |
Call her Nausicaa and take a timber | B |
That you shall find lies in the cellar charred | V |
Among the raspberries and hew and shape it | V |
For a door sill or other corner piece | O3 |
In a new cottage on the ancient spot | V |
The life is not yet all gone out of it | V |
And come and make your summer dwelling here | U2 |
And perhaps she will come still unafraid | V |
And sit before you in the open door | I3 |
With flowers in her lap until they fade | V |
But not come in across the sacred sill | L3 |
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I wonder where your oracle is tending | Y |
You can see that there's something wrong with it | V |
Or it would speak in dialect Whose voice | P3 |
Does it purport to speak in Not old Grandsir's | P3 |
Nor Granny's surely Call up one of them | Q3 |
They have best right to be heard in this place | P3 |
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You seem so partial to our great grandmother | B |
Nine times removed Correct me if I err | H |
You will be likely to regard as sacred | V |
Anything she may say But let me warn you | V |
Folks in her day were given to plain speaking | Y |
You think you'd best tempt her at such a time | A |
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It rests with us always to cut her off | D |
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Well then it's Granny speaking 'I dunnow | R |
Mebbe I'm wrong to take it as I do | V |
There ain't no names quite like the old ones though | R3 |
Nor never will be to my way of thinking | Y |
One mustn't bear too hard on the new comers | P3 |
But there's a dite too many of them for comfort | V |
I should feel easier if I could see | P3 |
More of the salt wherewith they're to be salted | V |
Son you do as you're told You take the timber | B |
It's as sound as the day when it was cut | V |
And begin over ' There she'd better stop | J2 |
You can see what is troubling Granny though | R3 |
But don't you think we sometimes make too much | S3 |
Of the old stock What counts is the ideals | P3 |
And those will bear some keeping still about | V |
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I can see we are going to be good friends | P3 |
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I like your 'going to be ' You said just now | R |
It's going to rain | R |
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I know and it was raining | Y |
I let you say all that But I must go now | R |
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You let me say it on consideration | R |
How shall we say good bye in such a case | P3 |
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How shall we | P3 |
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Will you leave the way to me | P3 |
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No I don't trust your eyes You've said enough | M |
Now give me your hand up Pick me that flower | B |
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Where shall we meet again | R |
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Nowhere but here | U2 |
Once more before we meet elsewhere | H |
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In rain | R |
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It ought to be in rain Sometime in rain | R |
In rain to morrow shall we if it rains | P3 |
But if we must in sunshine So she went | V |
Robert Frost
(1)
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