The Holly-tree Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCC DD EEFF CCAAGG FFHHAA IIJJAA DDJJAA KLJJAA| O reader hast thou ever stood to see | A |
| The Holly tree | A |
| The eye that contemplates it well perceives | B |
| Its glossy leaves | B |
| Ordered by an Intelligence so wise | C |
| As might confound the Atheist's sophistries | C |
| - | |
| Below a circling fence its leaves are seen | D |
| Wrinkled and keen | D |
| - | |
| No grazing cattle through their prickly round | E |
| Can reach to wound | E |
| But as they grow where nothing is to fear | F |
| Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear | F |
| - | |
| I love to view these things with curious eyes | C |
| And moralize | C |
| And in this wisdom of the Holly tree | A |
| Can emblem see | A |
| Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme | G |
| One which may profit in the after time | G |
| - | |
| Thus though abroad perchance I might appear | F |
| Harsh and austere | F |
| To those who on my leisure would intrude | H |
| Reserved and rude | H |
| Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be | A |
| Like the high leaves upon the Holly tree | A |
| - | |
| And should my youth as youth is apt I know | I |
| Some harshness show | I |
| All vain asperities I day by day | J |
| Would wear away | J |
| Till the smooth temper of my age should be | A |
| Like the high leaves upon the Holly tree | A |
| - | |
| And as when all the summer trees are seen | D |
| So bright and green | D |
| The Holly leaves their fadeless hues display | J |
| Less bright than they | J |
| But when the bare and wintry woods we see | A |
| What then so cheerful as the Holly tree | A |
| - | |
| So serious should my youth appear among | K |
| The thoughtless throng | L |
| So would I seem amid the young and gay | J |
| More grave than they | J |
| That in my age as cheerful I might be | A |
| As the green winter of the Holly tree | A |
Robert Southey
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Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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