The Star-splitter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGCHCIJKDDLMCL LFDLNOPQLDLJRLLSFLLS TUVWXYZDLLA2B2C2D2E2 LF2LG2LYLH2LG2F I2J2K2FLLLL2 LDM2N2O2LLWMLOP2NLOO Q2RFLR2 LLS2LR2

You know Orien always comes up sidewaysA
Throwing a leg up over our fence of mountainsB
And rising on his hands he looks in on meC
Busy outdoors by lantern light with somethingD
I should have done by daylight and indeedE
After the ground is frozen I should have doneF
Before it froze and a gust flings a handfulG
Of waste leaves at my smoky lantern chimneyC
To make fun of my way of doing thingsH
Or else fun of Orion's having caught meC
Has a man I should like to ask no rightsI
These forces are obliged to pay respect toJ
So Brad McLaughlin mingled reckless talkK
Of heavenly stars with hugger mugger farmingD
Till having failed at hugger mugger farmingD
He burned his house down for the fire insuranceL
And spent the proceeds on a telescopeM
To satisfy a life long curiosityC
About our place among the infinitiesL
-
What do you want with one of those blame thingsL
I asked him well beforehand Don't you get oneF
Don't call it blamed there isn't anythingD
More blameless in the sense of being lessL
A weapon in our human fight he saidN
I'll have one if I sell my farm to buy itO
There where he moved the rocks to plow the groundP
And plowed between the rocks he couldn't moveQ
Few farms changed hands so rather than spend yearsL
Trying to sell his farm and then not sellingD
He burned his house down for the fire insuranceL
And bought the telescope with what it came toJ
He had been heard to say by severalR
The best thing that we're put here for's to seeL
The strongest thing that's given us to see with'sL
A telescope Someone in every townS
Seems to me owes it to the town to keep oneF
In Littleton it may as well be meL
After such loose talk it was no surpriseL
When he did what he did and burned his house downS
Mean laughter went about the town that dayT
To let him know we weren't the least imposed onU
And he could wait we'd see to him to morrowV
But the first thing next morning we reflectedW
If one by one we counted people outX
For the least sin it wouldn't take us longY
To get so we had no one left to live withZ
For to be social is to be forgivingD
Our thief the one who does our stealing from usL
We don't cut off from coming to church suppersL
But what we miss we go to him and ask forA2
He promptly gives it back that is if stillB2
Uneaten unworn out or undisposed ofC2
It wouldn't do to be too hard on BradD2
About his telescope Beyond the ageE2
Of being given one's gift for ChristmasL
He had to take the best way he knew howF2
To find himself in one Well all we said wasL
He took a strange thing to be roguish overG2
Some sympathy was wasted on the houseL
A good old timer dating back alongY
But a house isn't sentient the houseL
Didn't feel anything And if it didH2
Why not regard it as a sacrificeL
And an old fashioned sacrifice by fireG2
Instead of a new fashioned one at auctionF
-
Out of a house and so out of a farmI2
At one stroke of a match Brad had to turnJ2
To earn a living on the Concord railroadK2
As under ticket agent at a stationF
Where his job when he wasn't selling ticketsL
Was setting out up track and down not plantsL
As on a farm but planets evening starsL
That varied in their hue from red to greenL2
-
He got a good glass for six hundred dollarsL
His new job gave him leisure for star gazingD
Often he bid me come and have a lookM2
Up the brass barrel velvet black insideN2
At a star quaking in the other endO2
I recollect a night of broken cloudsL
And underfoot snow melted down to iceL
And melting further in the wind to mudW
Bradford and I had out the telescopeM
We spread our two legs as it spread its threeL
Pointed our thoughts the way we pointed itO
And standing at our leisure till the day brokeP2
Said some of the best things we ever saidN
That telescope was christened the Star splitterL
Because it didn't do a thing but splitO
A star in two or three the way you splitO
A globule of quicksilver in your handQ2
With one stroke of your finger in the middleR
It's a star splitter if there ever was oneF
And ought to do some good if splitting starsL
'Sa thing to be compared with splitting woodR2
-
We've looked and looked but after all where are weL
Do we know any better where we areL
And how it stands between the night to nightS2
And a man with a smoky lantern chimneyL
How different from the way it ever stoodR2

Robert Lee Frost



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