A Servant To Servants Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPJQDJ RSTUJVWXJYZJPPA2B2C2 DD2E2F2GG2YLH2I2DJ2Y LI2K2CPIL2IM2FN2IO2P 2Q2I2IR2D2K2S2YT2WDU 2V2O2CWL2W2X2Y2Z2A2W A3B3CC3O2D3E3F3I2D3G 3H3I3DB2CJ3K3L3M3N3W N3O3P3Q3R3LS3JT3U3E2 V3W3X3Y3H2D2JE2JWJ2A 3I2LWZ3CDPA3AWJA4LWV CB4OJ2ADI2C4D4E4O3LF 4IS3PO3G4H4I4CJ4A2K4 L4A2IXCC3I didn't make you know how glad I was | A |
To have you come and camp here on our land | B |
I promised myself to get down some day | C |
And see the way you lived but I don't know | D |
With a houseful of hungry men to feed | E |
I guess you'd find It seems to me | F |
I can't express my feelings any more | G |
Than I can raise my voice or want to lift | H |
My hand oh I can lift it when I have to | I |
Did ever you feel so I hope you never | J |
It's got so I don't even know for sure | K |
Whether I am glad sorry or anything | L |
There's nothing but a voice like left inside | M |
That seems to tell me how I ought to feel | N |
And would feel if I wasn't all gone wrong | O |
You take the lake I look and look at it | P |
I see it's a fair pretty sheet of water | J |
I stand and make myself repeat out loud | Q |
The advantages it has so long and narrow | D |
Like a deep piece of some old running river | J |
Cut short off at both ends It lies five miles | R |
Straight away through the mountain notch | S |
From the sink window where I wash the plates | T |
And all our storms come up toward the house | U |
Drawing the slow waves whiter and whiter and whiter | J |
It took my mind off doughnuts and soda biscuit | V |
To step outdoors and take the water dazzle | W |
A sunny morning or take the rising wind | X |
About my face and body and through my wrapper | J |
When a storm threatened from the Dragon's Den | Y |
And a cold chill shivered across the lake | Z |
I see it's a fair pretty sheet of water | J |
Our Willoughby How did you hear of it | P |
I expect though everyone's heard of it | P |
In a book about ferns Listen to that | A2 |
You let things more like feathers regulate | B2 |
Your going and coming And you like it here | C2 |
I can see how you might But I don't know | D |
It would be different if more people came | D2 |
For then there would be business As it is | E2 |
The cottages Len built sometimes we rent them | F2 |
Sometimes we don't We've a good piece of shore | G |
That ought to be worth something and may yet | G2 |
But I don't count on it as much as Len | Y |
He looks on the bright side of everything | L |
Including me He thinks I'll be all right | H2 |
With doctoring But it's not medicine | I2 |
Lowe is the only doctor's dared to say so | D |
It's rest I want there I have said it out | J2 |
From cooking meals for hungry hired men | Y |
And washing dishes after them from doing | L |
Things over and over that just won't stay done | I2 |
By good rights I ought not to have so much | K2 |
Put on me but there seems no other way | C |
Len says one steady pull more ought to do it | P |
He says the best way out is always through | I |
And I agree to that or in so far | L2 |
As that I can see no way out but through | I |
Leastways for me and then they'll be convinced | M2 |
It's not that Len don't want the best for me | F |
It was his plan our moving over in | N2 |
Beside the lake from where that day I showed you | I |
We used to live ten miles from anywhere | O2 |
We didn't change without some sacrifice | P2 |
But Len went at it to make up the loss | Q2 |
His work's a man's of course from sun to sun | I2 |
But he works when he works as hard as I do | I |
Though there's small profit in comparisons | R2 |
Women and men will make them all the same | D2 |
But work ain't all Len undertakes too much | K2 |
He's into everything in town This year | S2 |
It's highways and he's got too many men | Y |
Around him to look after that make waste | T2 |
They take advantage of him shamefully | W |
And proud too of themselves for doing so | D |
We have four here to board great good for nothings | U2 |
Sprawling about the kitchen with their talk | V2 |
While I fry their bacon Much they care | O2 |
No more put out in what they do or say | C |
Than if I wasn't in the room at all | W |
Coming and going all the time they are | L2 |
I don't learn what their names are let alone | W2 |
Their characters or whether they are safe | X2 |
To have inside the house with doors unlocked | Y2 |
I'm not afraid of them though if they're not | Z2 |
Afraid of me There's two can play at that | A2 |
I have my fancies it runs in the family | W |
My father's brother wasn't right They kept him | A3 |
Locked up for years back there at the old farm | B3 |
I've been away once yes I've been away | C |
The State Asylum I was prejudiced | C3 |
I wouldn't have sent anyone of mine there | O2 |
You know the old idea the only asylum | D3 |
Was the poorhouse and those who could afford | E3 |
Rather than send their folks to such a place | F3 |
Kept them at home and it does seem more human | I2 |
But it's not so the place is the asylum | D3 |
There they have every means proper to do with | G3 |
And you aren't darkening other people's lives | H3 |
Worse than no good to them and they no good | I3 |
To you in your condition you can't know | D |
Affection or the want of it in that state | B2 |
I've heard too much of the old fashioned way | C |
My father's brother he went mad quite young | J3 |
Some thought he had been bitten by a dog | K3 |
Because his violence took on the form | L3 |
Of carrying his pillow in his teeth | M3 |
But it's more likely he was crossed in love | N3 |
Or so the story goes It was some girl | W |
Anyway all he talked about was love | N3 |
They soon saw he would do someone a mischief | O3 |
If he wa'n't kept strict watch of and it ended | P3 |
In father's building him a sort of cage | Q3 |
Or room within a room of hickory poles | R3 |
Like stanchions in the barn from floor to ceiling | L |
A narrow passage all the way around | S3 |
Anything they put in for furniture | J |
He'd tear to pieces even a bed to lie on | T3 |
So they made the place comfortable with straw | U3 |
Like a beast's stall to ease their consciences | E2 |
Of course they had to feed him without dishes | V3 |
They tried to keep him clothed but he paraded | W3 |
With his clothes on his arm all of his clothes | X3 |
Cruel it sounds I 'spose they did the best | Y3 |
They knew And just when he was at the height | H2 |
Father and mother married and mother came | D2 |
A bride to help take care of such a creature | J |
And accommodate her young life to his | E2 |
That was what marrying father meant to her | J |
She had to lie and hear love things made dreadful | W |
By his shouts in the night He'd shout and shout | J2 |
Until the strength was shouted out of him | A3 |
And his voice died down slowly from exhaustion | I2 |
He'd pull his bars apart like bow and bow string | L |
And let them go and make them twang until | W |
His hands had worn them smooth as any ox bow | Z3 |
And then he'd crow as if he thought that child's play | C |
The only fun he had I've heard them say though | D |
They found a way to put a stop to it | P |
He was before my time I never saw him | A3 |
But the pen stayed exactly as it was | A |
There in the upper chamber in the ell | W |
A sort of catch all full of attic clutter | J |
I often think of the smooth hickory bars | A4 |
It got so I would say you know half fooling | L |
It's time I took my turn upstairs in jail | W |
Just as you will till it becomes a habit | V |
No wonder I was glad to get away | C |
Mind you I waited till Len said the word | B4 |
I didn't want the blame if things went wrong | O |
I was glad though no end when we moved out | J2 |
And I looked to be happy and I was | A |
As I said for a while but I don't know | D |
Somehow the change wore out like a prescription | I2 |
And there's more to it than just window views | C4 |
And living by a lake I'm past such help | D4 |
Unless Len took the notion which he won't | E4 |
And I won't ask him it's not sure enough | O3 |
I 'spose I've got to go the road I'm going | L |
Other folks have to and why shouldn't I | F4 |
I almost think if I could do like you | I |
Drop everything and live out on the ground | S3 |
But it might be come night I shouldn't like it | P |
Or a long rain I should soon get enough | O3 |
And be glad of a good roof overhead | G4 |
I've lain awake thinking of you I'll warrant | H4 |
More than you have yourself some of these nights | I4 |
The wonder was the tents weren't snatched away | C |
From over you as you lay in your beds | J4 |
I haven't courage for a risk like that | A2 |
Bless you of course you're keeping me from work | K4 |
But the thing of it is I need to be kept | L4 |
There's work enough to do there's always that | A2 |
But behind's behind The worst that you can do | I |
Is set me back a little more behind | X |
I sha'n't catch up in this world anyway | C |
I'd rather you'd not go unless you must | C3 |
Robert Lee Frost
(1)
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