The Far Field Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGHIJKJL A HJMNBCOPLQL HRSTUVLWXJJYYJ JHZUYHHA2ULJL BHB2C2D2H A C2B2JCYJJYYLYHYE2YHJ HYYH THHJF2 C2 YYJHJJHAYJJL JJJYG2YYLLJ

IA
-
I dream of journeys repeatedlyB
Of flying like a bat deep into a narrowing tunnelC
Of driving alone without luggage out a long peninsulaD
The road lined with snow laden second growthE
A fine dry snow ticking the windshieldF
Alternate snow and sleet no on coming trafficG
And no lights behind in the blurred side mirrorH
The road changing from glazed tarface to a rubble of stoneI
Ending at last in a hopeless sand rutJ
Where the car stallsK
Churning in a snowdriftJ
Until the headlights darkenL
-
IIA
-
At the field's end in the corner missed by the mowerH
Where the turf drops off into a grass hidden culvertJ
Haunt of the cat bird nesting place of the field mouseM
Not too far away from the ever changing flower dumpN
Among the tin cans tires rusted pipes broken machineryB
One learned of the eternalC
And in the shrunken face of a dead rat eaten by rain and ground beetlesO
I found in lying among the rubble of an old coal binP
And the tom cat caught near the pheasant runL
Its entrails strewn over the half grown flowersQ
Blasted to death by the night watchmanL
-
I suffered for young birds for young rabbits caught in the mowerH
My grief was not excessiveR
For to come upon warblers in early MayS
Was to forget time and deathT
How they filled the oriole's elm a twittering restless cloud all one morningU
And I watched and watched till my eyes blurred from the bird shapesV
Cape May Blackburnian CeruleanL
Moving elusive as fish fearlessW
Hanging bunched like young fruit bending the end branchesX
Still for a momentJ
Then pitching away in half flightJ
Lighter than finchesY
While the wrens bickered and sang in the half green hedgerowsY
And the flicker drummed from his dead tree in the chicken yardJ
-
Or to lie naked in sandJ
In the silted shallows of a slow riverH
Fingering a shellZ
ThinkingU
Once I was something like this mindlessY
Or perhaps with another mind less peculiarH
Or to sink down to the hips in a mossy quagmireH
Or with skinny knees to sit astride a wet logA2
BelievingU
I'll return againL
As a snake or a raucous birdJ
Or with luck as a lionL
-
I learned not to fear infinityB
The far field the windy cliffs of foreverH
The dying of time in the white light of tomorrowB2
The wheel turning away from itselfC2
The sprawl of the waveD2
The on coming waterH
-
IIIA
-
The river turns on itselfC2
The tree retreats into its own shadowB2
I feel a weightless change a moving forwardJ
As of water quickening before a narrowing channelC
When banks converge and the wide river whitensY
Or when two rivers combine the blue glacial torrentJ
And the yellowish green from the mountainy uplandJ
At first a swift rippling between rocksY
Then a long running over flat stonesY
Before descending to the alluvial planeL
To the clay banks and the wild grapes hanging from the elmtreesY
The slightly trembling waterH
Dropping a fine yellow silt where the sun staysY
And the crabs bask near the edgeE2
The weedy edge alive with small snakes and bloodsuckersY
I have come to a still but not a deep centerH
A point outside the glittering currentJ
My eyes stare at the bottom of a riverH
At the irregular stones iridescent sandgrainsY
My mind moves in more than one placeY
In a country half land half waterH
-
I am renewed by death thought of my deathT
The dry scent of a dying garden in SeptemberH
The wind fanning the ash of a low fireH
What I love is near at handJ
Always in earth and airF2
-
IVC2
-
The lost self changesY
Turning toward the seaY
A sea shape turning aroundJ
An old man with his feet before the fireH
In robes of green in garments of adieuJ
A man faced with his own immensityJ
Wakes all the waves all their loose wandering fireH
The murmur of the absolute the whyA
Of being born falls on his naked earsY
His spirit moves like monumental windJ
That gentles on a sunny blue plateauJ
He is the end of things the final manL
-
All finite things reveal infinitudeJ
The mountain with its singular bright shadeJ
Like the blue shine on freshly frozen snowJ
The after light upon ice burdened pinesY
Odor of basswood on a mountain slopeG2
A scent beloved of beesY
Silence of water above a sunken treeY
The pure serene of memory in one manL
A ripple widening from a single stoneL
Winding around the waters of the worldJ

Theodore Roethke



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