The Hill Wife Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B CDED FGHG IJKJ L MMNNOOPPQQ R B NNSTUTVTVTWW X YZA2Z B2C2BC2 D2E2XE2 F2 CG2H2G2 EOI2O J2K2L2K2 M2N2BN2 O2P2Q2P2 R2CEC S2T2ET2I LONELINESS | A |
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Her Word | B |
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One ought not to have to care | C |
So much as you and I | D |
Care when the birds come round the house | E |
To seem to say good bye | D |
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Or care so much when they come back | F |
With whatever it is they sing | G |
The truth being we are as much | H |
Too glad for the one thing | G |
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As we are too sad for the other here | I |
With birds that fill their breasts | J |
But with each other and themselves | K |
And their built or driven nests | J |
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II HOUSE FEAR | L |
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Always I tell you this they learned | M |
Always at night when they returned | M |
To the lonely house from far away | N |
To lamps unlighted and fire gone gray | N |
They learned to rattle the lock and key | O |
To give whatever might chance to be | O |
Warning and time to be off in flight | P |
And preferring the out to the in door night | P |
They learned to leave the house door wide | Q |
Until they had lit the lamp inside | Q |
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III THE SMILE | R |
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Her Word | B |
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I didn't like the way he went away | N |
That smile It never came of being gay | N |
Still he smiled did you see him I was sure | S |
Perhaps because we gave him only bread | T |
And the wretch knew from that that we were poor | U |
Perhaps because he let us give instead | T |
Of seizing from us as he might have seized | V |
Perhaps he mocked at us for being wed | T |
Or being very young and he was pleased | V |
To have a vision of us old and dead | T |
I wonder how far down the road he's got | W |
He's watching from the woods as like as not | W |
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IV THE OFT REPEATED DREAM | X |
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She had no saying dark enough | Y |
For the dark pine that kept | Z |
Forever trying the window latch | A2 |
Of the room where they slept | Z |
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The tireless but ineffectual hands | B2 |
That with every futile pass | C2 |
Made the great tree seem as a little bird | B |
Before the mystery of glass | C2 |
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It never had been inside the room | D2 |
And only one of the two | E2 |
Was afraid in an oft repeated dream | X |
Of what the tree might do | E2 |
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V THE IMPULSE | F2 |
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It was too lonely for her there | C |
And too wild | G2 |
And since there were but two of them | H2 |
And no child | G2 |
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And work was little in the house | E |
She was free | O |
And followed where he furrowed field | I2 |
Or felled tree | O |
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She rested on a log and tossed | J2 |
The fresh chips | K2 |
With a song only to herself | L2 |
On her lips | K2 |
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And once she went to break a bough | M2 |
Of black alder | N2 |
She strayed so far she scarcely heard | B |
When he called her | N2 |
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And didn't answer didn't speak | O2 |
Or return | P2 |
She stood and then she ran and hid | Q2 |
In the fern | P2 |
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He never found her though he looked | R2 |
Everywhere | C |
And he asked at her mother's house | E |
Was she there | C |
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Sudden and swift and light as that | S2 |
The ties gave | T2 |
And he learned of finalities | E |
Besides the grave | T2 |
Robert Frost
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