The Mountain Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOAPQ R N SOBT UOVWXJYZA2B2Q C2TD2E2 F2G2H2I2J2J K2 L2NJNNQM2N2O2P2K2 Q2R2S2AJ2T2U2A NON V2K2 W2K2X2U2Y2Z2J2K2A3 J NX2 N M2F2AB3OC3D3B2D2V2K2 E3F3 G3 H3 AE3K2H3I3J3C J EK3K3A C3 H3H3L3AAThe mountain held the town as in a shadow | A |
I saw so much before I slept there once | B |
I noticed that I missed stars in the west | C |
Where its black body cut into the sky | D |
Near me it seemed I felt it like a wall | E |
Behind which I was sheltered from a wind | F |
And yet between the town and it I found | G |
When I walked forth at dawn to see new things | H |
Were fields a river and beyond more fields | I |
The river at the time was fallen away | J |
And made a widespread brawl on cobble stones | K |
But the signs showed what it had done in spring | L |
Good grass land gullied out and in the grass | M |
Ridges of sand and driftwood stripped of bark | N |
I crossed the river and swung round the mountain | O |
And there I met a man who moved so slow | A |
With white faced oxen in a heavy cart | P |
It seemed no hand to stop him altogether | Q |
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What town is this I asked | R |
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This Lunenburg | N |
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Then I was wrong the town of my sojourn | S |
Beyond the bridge was not that of the mountain | O |
But only felt at night its shadowy presence | B |
Where is your village Very far from here | T |
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There is no village only scattered farms | U |
We were but sixty voters last election | O |
We can't in nature grow to many more | V |
That thing takes all the room He moved his goad | W |
The mountain stood there to be pointed at | X |
Pasture ran up the side a little way | J |
And then there was a wall of trees with trunks | Y |
After that only tops of trees and cliffs | Z |
Imperfectly concealed among the leaves | A2 |
A dry ravine emerged from under boughs | B2 |
Into the pasture | Q |
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That looks like a path | C2 |
Is that the way to reach the top from here | T |
Not for this morning but some other time | D2 |
I must be getting back to breakfast now | E2 |
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I don't advise your trying from this side | F2 |
There is no proper path but those that have | G2 |
Been up I understand have climbed from Ladd's | H2 |
That's five miles back You can't mistake the place | I2 |
They logged it there last winter some way up | J2 |
I'd take you but I'm bound the other way | J |
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You've never climbed it | K2 |
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I've been on the sides | L2 |
Deer hunting and trout fishing There's a brook | N |
That starts up on it somewhere I've heard say | J |
Right on the top tip top a curious thing | N |
But what would interest you about the brook | N |
It's always cold in summer warm in winter | Q |
One of the great sights going is to see | M2 |
It steam in winter like an ox's breath | N2 |
Until the bushes all along its banks | O2 |
Are inch deep with the frosty spines and bristles | P2 |
You know the kind Then let the sun shine on it | K2 |
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There ought to be a view around the world | Q2 |
From such a mountain if it isn't wooded | R2 |
Clear to the top I saw through leafy screens | S2 |
Great granite terraces in sun and shadow | A |
Shelves one could rest a knee on getting up | J2 |
With depths behind him sheer a hundred feet | T2 |
Or turn and sit on and look out and down | U2 |
With little ferns in crevices at his elbow | A |
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As to that I can't say But there's the spring | N |
Right on the summit almost like a fountain | O |
That ought to be worth seeing | N |
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If it's there | V2 |
You never saw it | K2 |
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I guess there's no doubt | W2 |
About its being there I never saw it | K2 |
It may not be right on the very top | X2 |
It wouldn't have to be a long way down | U2 |
To have some head of water from above | Y2 |
And a good distance down might not be noticed | Z2 |
By anyone who'd come a long way up | J2 |
One time I asked a fellow climbing it | K2 |
To look and tell me later how it was | A3 |
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What did he say | J |
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He said there was a lake | N |
Somewhere in Ireland on a mountain top | X2 |
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But a lake's different What about the spring | N |
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He never got up high enough to see | M2 |
That's why I don't advise your trying this side | F2 |
He tried this side I've always meant to go | A |
And look myself but you know how it is | B3 |
It doesn't seem so much to climb a mountain | O |
You've worked around the foot of all your life | C3 |
What would I do Go in my overalls | D3 |
With a big stick the same as when the cows | B2 |
Haven't come down to the bars at milking time | D2 |
Or with a shotgun for a stray black bear | V2 |
'Twouldn't seem real to climb for climbing it | K2 |
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I shouldn't climb it if I didn't want to | E3 |
Not for the sake of climbing What's its name | F3 |
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We call it Hor I don't know if that's right | G3 |
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Can one walk around it Would it be too far | H3 |
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You can drive round and keep in Lunenburg | A |
But it's as much as ever you can do | E3 |
The boundary lines keep in so close to it | K2 |
Hor is the township and the township's Hor | H3 |
And a few houses sprinkled round the foot | I3 |
Like boulders broken off the upper cliff | J3 |
Rolled out a little farther than the rest | C |
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Warm in December cold in June you say | J |
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I don't suppose the water's changed at all | E |
You and I know enough to know it's warm | K3 |
Compared with cold and cold compared with warm | K3 |
But all the fun's in how you say a thing | A |
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You've lived here all your life | C3 |
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Ever since Hor | H3 |
Was no bigger than a What I did not hear | H3 |
He drew the oxen toward him with light touches | L3 |
Of his slim goad on nose and offside flank | A |
Gave them their marching orders and was moving | A |
Robert Frost
(1)
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