Individuality Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAAB CBCCD EFGGH FIFFI DJDDJ DKDDK LDLLD MDMMD NDNBD OPOOP IIQIIQ BRBBR BSBBS PTPPT UVUUV WBWWB XBXXB YZYYZ DSail on sail on fair cousin Cloud | A |
Oh loiter hither from the sea | B |
Still eyed and shadow brow'd | A |
Steal off from yon far drifting crowd | A |
And come and brood upon the marsh with me | B |
- | |
Yon laboring low horizon smoke | C |
Yon stringent sail toil not for thee | B |
Nor me did heaven's stroke | C |
The whole deep with drown'd commerce choke | C |
No pitiless tease of risk or bottomry | D |
- | |
Would to thy rainy office close | E |
Thy will or lock mine eyes from tears | F |
Part wept for traders' woes | G |
Part for that ventures mean as those | G |
In issue bind such sovereign hopes and fears | H |
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Lo Cloud thy downward countenance stares | F |
Blank on the blank faced marsh and thou | I |
Mindest of dark affairs | F |
Thy substance seems a warp of cares | F |
Like late wounds run the wrinkles on thy brow | I |
- | |
Well may'st thou pause and gloom and stare | D |
A visible conscience I arraign | J |
Thee criminal Cloud of rare | D |
Contempts on Mercy Right and Prayer | D |
Of murders arsons thefts of nameless stain | J |
- | |
Yet though life's logic grow as gray | D |
As thou my soul's not in eclipse | K |
Cold Cloud but yesterday | D |
Thy lightning slew a child at play | D |
And then a priest with prayers upon his lips | K |
- | |
For his enemies and then a bright | L |
Lady that did but ope the door | D |
Upon the storming night | L |
To let a beggar in strange spite | L |
And then thy sulky rain refused to pour | D |
- | |
Till thy quick torch a barn had burned | M |
Where twelve months' store of victual lay | D |
A widow's sons had earned | M |
Which done thy floods with winds returned | M |
The river raped their little herd away | D |
- | |
What myriad righteous errands high | N |
Thy flames might run on In that hour | D |
Thou slewest the child oh why | N |
Not rather slay Calamity | B |
Breeder of Pain and Doubt infernal Power | D |
- | |
Or why not plunge thy blades about | O |
Some maggot politician throng | P |
Swarming to parcel out | O |
The body of a land and rout | O |
The maw conventicle and ungorge Wrong | P |
- | |
What the cloud doeth | I |
The Lord knoweth | I |
The cloud knoweth not | Q |
What the artist doeth | I |
The Lord knoweth | I |
Knoweth the artist not | Q |
- | |
Well answered O dear artists ye | B |
Whether in forms of curve or hue | R |
Or tone your gospels be | B |
Say wrong 'This work is not of me | B |
But God ' it is not true it is not true | R |
- | |
Awful is Art because 'tis free | B |
The artist trembles o'er his plan | S |
Where men his Self must see | B |
Who made a song or picture he | B |
Did it and not another God nor man | S |
- | |
My Lord is large my Lord is strong | P |
Giving He gave my me is mine | T |
How poor how strange how wrong | P |
To dream He wrote the little song | P |
I made to Him with love's unforced design | T |
- | |
Oh not as clouds dim laws have plann'd | U |
To strike down Good and fight for Ill | V |
Oh not as harps that stand | U |
In the wind and sound the wind's command | U |
Each artist gift of terror owns his will | V |
- | |
For thee Cloud if thou spend thine all | W |
Upon the South's o'er brimming sea | B |
That needs thee not or crawl | W |
To the dry provinces and fall | W |
Till every convert clod shall give to thee | B |
- | |
Green worship if thou grow or fade | X |
Bring on delight or misery | B |
Fly east or west be made | X |
Snow hail rain wind grass rose light shade | X |
What matters it to thee There is no thee | B |
- | |
Pass kinsman Cloud now fair and mild | Y |
Discharge the will that's not thine own | Z |
I work in freedom wild | Y |
But work as plays a little child | Y |
Sure of the Father Self and Love alone | Z |
- | |
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Baltimore | D |
Sidney Lanier
(1)
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