The Black Cottage Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKDLMNOPQRS TUVWXXYZBA2B2C2D2E2F 2XG2H2I2J2K2A2L2AM2N 2O2BP2Q2R2E2S2T2XBU2 V2W2X2X2Y2Z2J2A3B3C3 D3A2OE3F3G3H3B3BI3V2 J3E2A3H3K3L3M3M3N3X2 B3T2B3R2BN3O3T2P3S2B 3BQ3R3S3T3F3B3ZN3U3B 3V3W3B3B3X3C3Y3P3R2Z 3N3B3A4N3N3D3N3

We chanced in passing by that afternoonA
To catch it in a sort of special pictureB
Among tar banded ancient cherry treesC
Set well back from the road in rank lodged grassD
The little cottage we were speaking ofE
A front with just a door between two windowsF
Fresh painted by the shower a velvet blackG
We paused the minister and I to lookH
He made as if to hold it at arm's lengthI
Or put the leaves aside that framed it inJ
Pretty he said Come in No one will careK
The path was a vague parting in the grassD
That led us to a weathered window sillL
We pressed our faces to the pane You see he saidM
Everything's as she left it when she diedN
Her sons won't sell the house or the things in itO
They say they mean to come and summer hereP
Where they were boys They haven't come this yearQ
They live so far away one is out westR
It will be hard for them to keep their wordS
Anyway they won't have the place disturbedT
A buttoned hair cloth lounge spread scrolling armsU
Under a crayon portrait on the wallV
Done sadly from an old daguerreotypeW
That was the father as he went to warX
She always when she talked about warX
Sooner or later came and leaned half kneltY
Against the lounge beside it though I doubtZ
If such unlifelike lines kept power to stirB
Anything in her after all the yearsA2
He fell at Gettysburg or FredericksburgB2
I ought to know it makes a difference whichC2
Fredericksburg wasn't Gettysburg of courseD2
But what I'm getting to is how forsakenE2
A little cottage this has always seemedF2
Since she went more than ever but beforeX
I don't mean altogether by the livesG2
That had gone out of it the father firstH2
Then the two sons till she was left aloneI2
Nothing could draw her after those two sonsJ2
She valued the considerate neglectK2
She had at some cost taught them after yearsA2
I mean by the world's having passed it byL2
As we almost got by this afternoonA
It always seems to me a sort of markM2
To measure how far fifty years have brought usN2
Why not sit down if you are in no hasteO2
These doorsteps seldom have a visitorB
The warping boards pull out their own old nailsP2
With none to tread and put them in their placeQ2
She had her own idea of things the old ladyR2
And she liked talk She had seen GarrisonE2
And Whittier and had her story of themS2
One wasn't long in learning that she thoughtT2
Whatever else the Civil War was forX
It wasn't just to keep the States togetherB
Nor just to free the slaves though it did bothU2
She wouldn't have believed those ends enoughV2
To have given outright for them all she gaveW2
Her giving somehow touched the principleX2
That all men are created free and equalX2
And to hear her quaint phrases so removedY2
From the world's view to day of all those thingsZ2
That's a hard mystery of Jefferson'sJ2
What did he mean Of course the easy wayA3
Is to decide it simply isn't trueB3
It may not be I heard a fellow say soC3
But never mind the Welshman got it plantedD3
Where it will trouble us a thousand yearsA2
Each age will have to reconsider itO
You couldn't tell her what the West was sayingE3
And what the South to her serene beliefF3
She had some art of hearing and yet notG3
Hearing the latter wisdom of the worldH3
White was the only race she ever knewB3
Black she had scarcely seen and yellow neverB
But how could they be made so very unlikeI3
By the same hand working in the same stuffV2
She had supposed the war decided thatJ3
What are you going to do with such a personE2
Strange how such innocence gets its own wayA3
I shouldn't be surprised if in this worldH3
It were the force that would at last prevailK3
Do you know but for her there was a timeL3
When to please younger members of the churchM3
Or rather say non members in the churchM3
Whom we all have to think of nowadaysN3
I would have changed the Creed a very littleX2
Not that she ever had to ask me not toB3
It never got so far as that but the bare thoughtT2
Of her old tremulous bonnet in the pewB3
And of her half asleep was too much for meR2
Why I might wake her up and startle herB
It was the words 'descended into Hades'N3
That seemed too pagan to our liberal youthO3
You know they suffered from a general onslaughtT2
And well if they weren't true why keep right onP3
Saying them like the heathen We could drop themS2
Only there was the bonnet in the pewB3
Such a phrase couldn't have meant much to herB
But suppose she had missed it from the CreedQ3
As a child misses the unsaid Good nightR3
And falls asleep with heartache how should I feelS3
I'm just as glad she made me keep hands offT3
For dear me why abandon a beliefF3
Merely because it ceases to be trueB3
Cling to it long enough and not a doubtZ
It will turn true again for so it goesN3
Most of the change we think we see in lifeU3
Is due to truths being in and out of favourB3
As I sit here and oftentimes I wishV3
I could be monarch of a desert landW3
I could devote and dedicate foreverB3
To the truths we keep coming back and back toB3
So desert it would have to be so walledX3
By mountain ranges half in summer snowC3
No one would covet it or think it worthY3
The pains of conquering to force change onP3
Scattered oases where men dwelt but mostlyR2
Sand dunes held loosely in tamariskZ3
Blown over and over themselves in idlenessN3
Sand grains should sugar in the natal dewB3
The babe born to the desert the sand stormA4
Retard mid waste my cowering caravansN3
There are bees in this wall He struck the clapboardsN3
Fierce heads looked out small bodies pivotedD3
We rose to go Sunset blazed on the windowsN3

Robert Lee Frost



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