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 D| Sail 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 |
| - | |
| 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 |
| - | |
| - | |
| Baltimore | D |
Sidney Lanier
(1)
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