Corn Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABBCDDDEEEFFGHGCCC GGGIIIJJJIIICCCCII CCCKK CCCCCLLL CCMMNOOOPPHHHCCCCCQQ RRSSTTUU VVVWWVVXXCCCCVVYYYYV VVVVPPVVZZZ VVVVVZA2VVCCVVB2B2VV GGGVVVC2C2D2D2D2HHHC CCE2E2E2F2F2CCCCCCVV VG2G2G2VVVD2D2H2I2I2 I2J2WJ2VVVVVSSSVVV J2J2J2JJVVVKKKVVHHV VTo day the woods are trembling through and through | A |
With shimmering forms that flash before my view | A |
Then melt in green as dawn stars melt in blue | A |
The leaves that wave against my cheek caress | B |
Like women's hands the embracing boughs express | B |
A subtlety of mighty tenderness | C |
The copse depths into little noises start | D |
That sound anon like beatings of a heart | D |
Anon like talk 'twixt lips not far apart | D |
The beech dreams balm as a dreamer hums a song | E |
Through that vague wafture expirations strong | E |
Throb from young hickories breathing deep and long | E |
With stress and urgence bold of prisoned spring | F |
And ecstasy of burgeoning | F |
Now since the dew plashed road of morn is dry | G |
Forth venture odors of more quality | H |
And heavenlier giving Like Jove's locks awry | G |
Long muscadines | C |
Rich wreathe the spacious foreheads of great pines | C |
And breathe ambrosial passion from their vines | C |
I pray with mosses ferns and flowers shy | G |
That hide like gentle nuns from human eye | G |
To lift adoring perfumes to the sky | G |
I hear faint bridal sighs of brown and green | I |
Dying to silent hints of kisses keen | I |
As far lights fringe into a pleasant sheen | I |
I start at fragmentary whispers blown | J |
From undertalks of leafy souls unknown | J |
Vague purports sweet of inarticulate tone | J |
Dreaming of gods men nuns and brides between | I |
Old companies of oaks that inward lean | I |
To join their radiant amplitudes of green | I |
I slowly move with ranging looks that pass | C |
Up from the matted miracles of grass | C |
Into yon veined complex of space | C |
Where sky and leafage interlace | C |
So close the heaven of blue is seen | I |
Inwoven with a heaven of green | I |
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I wander to the zigzag cornered fence | C |
Where sassafras intrenched in brambles dense | C |
Contests with stolid vehemence | C |
The march of culture setting limb and thorn | K |
As pikes against the army of the corn | K |
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There while I pause my fieldward faring eyes | C |
Take harvests where the stately corn ranks rise | C |
Of inward dignities | C |
And large benignities and insights wise | C |
Graces and modest majesties | C |
Thus without theft I reap another's field | L |
Thus without tilth I house a wondrous yield | L |
And heap my heart with quintuple crops concealed | L |
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Look out of line one tall corn captain stands | C |
Advanced beyond the foremost of his bands | C |
And waves his blades upon the very edge | M |
And hottest thicket of the battling hedge | M |
Thou lustrous stalk that ne'er mayst walk nor talk | N |
Still shalt thou type the poet soul sublime | O |
That leads the vanward of his timid time | O |
And sings up cowards with commanding rhyme | O |
Soul calm like thee yet fain like thee to grow | P |
By double increment above below | P |
Soul homely as thou art yet rich in grace like thee | H |
Teaching the yeomen selfless chivalry | H |
That moves in gentle curves of courtesy | H |
Soul filled like thy long veins with sweetness tense | C |
By every godlike sense | C |
Transmuted from the four wild elements | C |
Drawn to high plans | C |
Thou lift'st more stature than a mortal man's | C |
Yet ever piercest downward in the mould | Q |
And keepest hold | Q |
Upon the reverend and steadfast earth | R |
That gave thee birth | R |
Yea standest smiling in thy future grave | S |
Serene and brave | S |
With unremitting breath | T |
Inhaling life from death | T |
Thine epitaph writ fair in fruitage eloquent | U |
Thyself thy monument | U |
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As poets should | V |
Thou hast built up thy hardihood | V |
With universal food | V |
Drawn in select proportion fair | W |
From honest mould and vagabond air | W |
From darkness of the dreadful night | V |
And joyful light | V |
From antique ashes whose departed flame | X |
In thee has finer life and longer fame | X |
From wounds and balms | C |
From storms and calms | C |
From potsherds and dry bones | C |
And ruin stones | C |
Into thy vigorous substance thou hast wrought | V |
Whate'er the hand of Circumstance hath brought | V |
Yea into cool solacing green hast spun | Y |
White radiance hot from out the sun | Y |
So thou dost mutually leaven | Y |
Strength of earth with grace of heaven | Y |
So thou dost marry new and old | V |
Into a one of higher mould | V |
So thou dost reconcile the hot and cold | V |
The dark and bright | V |
And many a heart perplexing opposite | V |
And so | P |
Akin by blood to high and low | P |
Fitly thou playest out thy poet's part | V |
Richly expending thy much bruised heart | V |
In equal care to nourish lord in hall | Z |
Or beast in stall | Z |
Thou took'st from all that thou mightst give to all | Z |
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O steadfast dweller on the selfsame spot | V |
Where thou wast born that still repinest not | V |
Type of the home fond heart the happy lot | V |
Deeply thy mild content rebukes the land | V |
Whose flimsy homes built on the shifting sand | V |
Of trade for ever rise and fall | Z |
With alternation whimsical | A2 |
Enduring scarce a day | V |
Then swept away | V |
By swift engulfments of incalculable tides | C |
Whereon capricious Commerce rides | C |
Look thou substantial spirit of content | V |
Across this little vale thy continent | V |
To where beyond the mouldering mill | B2 |
Yon old deserted Georgian hill | B2 |
Bares to the sun his piteous aged crest | V |
And seamy breast | V |
By restless hearted children left to lie | G |
Untended there beneath the heedless sky | G |
As barbarous folk expose their old to die | G |
Upon that generous rounding side | V |
With gullies scarified | V |
Where keen Neglect his lash hath plied | V |
Dwelt one I knew of old who played at toil | C2 |
And gave to coquette Cotton soul and soil | C2 |
Scorning the slow reward of patient grain | D2 |
He sowed his heart with hopes of swifter gain | D2 |
Then sat him down and waited for the rain | D2 |
He sailed in borrowed ships of usury | H |
A foolish Jason on a treacherous sea | H |
Seeking the Fleece and finding misery | H |
Lulled by smooth rippling loans in idle trance | C |
He lay content that unthrift Circumstance | C |
Should plough for him the stony field of Chance | C |
Yea gathering crops whose worth no man might tell | E2 |
He staked his life on games of Buy and Sell | E2 |
And turned each field into a gambler's hell | E2 |
Aye as each year began | F2 |
My farmer to the neighboring city ran | F2 |
Passed with a mournful anxious face | C |
Into the banker's inner place | C |
Parleyed excused pleaded for longer grace | C |
Railed at the drought the worm the rust the grass | C |
Protested ne'er again 'twould come to pass | C |
With many an 'oh' and 'if' and 'but alas' | C |
Parried or swallowed searching questions rude | V |
And kissed the dust to soften Dives's mood | V |
At last small loans by pledges great renewed | V |
He issues smiling from the fatal door | G2 |
And buys with lavish hand his yearly store | G2 |
Till his small borrowings will yield no more | G2 |
Aye as each year declined | V |
With bitter heart and ever brooding mind | V |
He mourned his fate unkind | V |
In dust in rain with might and main | D2 |
He nursed his cotton cursed his grain | D2 |
Fretted for news that made him fret again | H2 |
Snatched at each telegram of Future Sale | I2 |
And thrilled with Bulls' or Bears' alternate wail | I2 |
In hope or fear alike for ever pale | I2 |
And thus from year to year through hope and fear | J2 |
With many a curse and many a secret tear | W |
Striving in vain his cloud of debt to clear | J2 |
At last | V |
He woke to find his foolish dreaming past | V |
And all his best of life the easy prey | V |
Of squandering scamps and quacks that lined his way | V |
With vile array | V |
From rascal statesman down to petty knave | S |
Himself at best for all his bragging brave | S |
A gamester's catspaw and a banker's slave | S |
Then worn and gray and sick with deep unrest | V |
He fled away into the oblivious West | V |
Unmourned unblest | V |
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Old hill old hill thou gashed and hairy Lear | J2 |
Whom the divine Cordelia of the year | J2 |
E'en pitying Spring will vainly strive to cheer | J2 |
King that no subject man nor beast may own | J |
Discrowned undaughtered and alone | J |
Yet shall the great God turn thy fate | V |
And bring thee back into thy monarch state | V |
And majesty immaculate | V |
Lo through hot waverings of the August morn | K |
Thou givest from thy vasty sides forlorn | K |
Visions of golden treasuries of corn | K |
Ripe largesse lingering for some bolder heart | V |
That manfully shall take thy part | V |
And tend thee | H |
And defend thee | H |
With antique sinew and with modern art | V |
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Sunnyside Georgia August | V |
Sidney Lanier
(1)
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