The Grindstone Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDCBEFEGFFGEHEIB BHIIJEEKKKKKLLMNOOPP PBBQRLRQLSSRTATSUAUV WVAWJAJXYXXXYVXXX| Having a wheel and four legs of its own | A |
| Has never availed the cumbersome grindstone | A |
| To get it anywhere that I can see | B |
| These hands have helped it go and even race | C |
| Not all the motion though they ever lent | D |
| Not all tke miles it may have thought it went | D |
| Have got it one step from the starting place | C |
| It stands beside the same old apple tree | B |
| The shadow of the apple tree is thin | E |
| Upon it now its feet as fast in snow | F |
| All other farm machinery's gone in | E |
| And some of it on no more legs and wheel | G |
| Than the grindstone can boast to stand or go | F |
| I'm thinking chiefly of the wheelbarrow | F |
| For months it hasn't known the taste of steel | G |
| Washed down with rusty water in a tin | E |
| But standing outdoors hungry in the cold | H |
| Except in towns at night is not a sin | E |
| And anyway it's standing in the yard | I |
| Under a ruinous live apple tree | B |
| Has nothing any more to do with me | B |
| Except that I remember how of old | H |
| One summer day all day I drove it hard | I |
| And someone mounted on it rode it hard | I |
| And he and I between us ground a blade | J |
| I gave it the preliminary spin | E |
| And poured on water tears it might have been | E |
| And when it almost gaily jumped and flowed | K |
| A Father Time like man got on and rode | K |
| Armed with a scythe and spectacles that glowed | K |
| He turned on will power to increase the load | K |
| And slow me down and I abruptly slowed | K |
| Like coming to a sudden railroad station | L |
| I changed from hand to hand in desperation | L |
| I wondered what machine of ages gone | M |
| This represented an improvement on | N |
| For all I knew it may have sharpened spears | O |
| And arrowheads itself Much use for years | O |
| Had gradually worn it an oblate | P |
| Spheroid that kicked and struggled in its gait | P |
| Appearing to return me hate for hate | P |
| But I forgive it now as easily | B |
| As any other boyhood enemy | B |
| Whose pride has failed to get him anywhere | Q |
| I wondered who it was the man thought ground | R |
| The one who held the wheel back or the one | L |
| Who gave his life to keep it going round | R |
| I wondered if he really thought it fair | Q |
| For him to have the say when we were done | L |
| Such were the bitter thoughts to which I turned | S |
| Not for myself was I so much concerned | S |
| Oh no Although of course I could have found | R |
| A better way to pass the afternoon | T |
| Than grinding discord out of a grindstone | A |
| And beating insects at their gritty tune | T |
| Nor was I for the man so much concerned | S |
| Once when the grindstone almost jumped its bearing | U |
| It looked as if he might be badly thrown | A |
| And wounded on his blade So far from caring | U |
| I laughed inside and only cranked the faster | V |
| It ran as if it wasn't greased but glued | W |
| I'd welcome any moderate disaster | V |
| That might be calculated to postpone | A |
| What evidently nothing could conclude | W |
| The thing that made me more and more afraid | J |
| Was that we'd ground it sharp and hadn't known | A |
| And now were only wasting precious blade | J |
| And when he raised it dripping once and tried | X |
| The creepy edge of it with wary touch | Y |
| And viewed it over his glasses funny eyed | X |
| Only disinterestedly to decide | X |
| It needed a turn more I could have cried | X |
| Wasn't there a danger of a turn too much | Y |
| Mightn't we make it worse instead of better | V |
| I was for leaving something to the whettot | X |
| What if it wasn't all it should be I'd | X |
| Be satisfied if he'd be satisfied | X |
Robert Lee Frost
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