A Meditation On Rhode-island Coal Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCCDE BBBBBB BBBBFF GBGBBB HBIBJJ CBCBBB BHBIBB BBBBCC KDLDCC BFBFMI BNBNAA DCDOFF CACAPP BQBQCC CCCCRI STUTFFDecolor obscuris vilis non ille repexam | A |
Cesariem regum non candida virginis ornat | B |
Colla nec insigni splendet per cingula morsu | C |
Sed nova si nigri videas miracula saxi | C |
Tunc superat pulchros cultus et quicquid Eois | C |
Indus litoribus rubr acirc scrutatur in alg acirc | D |
CLAUDIAN | E |
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I sat beside the glowing grate fresh heaped | B |
With Newport coal and as the flame grew bright | B |
The many coloured flame and played and leaped | B |
I thought of rainbows and the northern light | B |
Moore's Lalla Rookh the Treasury Report | B |
And other brilliant matters of the sort | B |
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And last I thought of that fair isle which sent | B |
The mineral fuel on a summer day | B |
I saw it once with heat and travel spent | B |
And scratched by dwarf oaks in the hollow way | B |
Now dragged through sand now jolted over stone | F |
A rugged road through rugged Tiverton | F |
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And hotter grew the air and hollower grew | G |
The deep worn path and horror struck I thought | B |
Where will this dreary passage lead me to | G |
This long dull road so narrow deep and hot | B |
I looked to see it dive in earth outright | B |
I looked but saw a far more welcome sight | B |
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Like a soft mist upon the evening shore | H |
At once a lovely isle before me lay | B |
Smooth and with tender verdure covered o'er | I |
As if just risen from its calm inland bay | B |
Sloped each way gently to the grassy edge | J |
And the small waves that dallied with the sedge | J |
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The barley was just reaped its heavy sheaves | C |
Lay on the stubble field the tall maize stood | B |
Dark in its summer growth and shook its leaves | C |
And bright the sunlight played on the young wood | B |
For fifty years ago the old men say | B |
The Briton hewed their ancient groves away | B |
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I saw where fountains freshened the green land | B |
And where the pleasant road from door to door | H |
With rows of cherry trees on either hand | B |
Went wandering all that fertile region o'er | I |
Rogue's Island once but when the rogues were dead | B |
Rhode Island was the name it took instead | B |
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Beautiful island then it only seemed | B |
A lovely stranger it has grown a friend | B |
I gazed on its smooth slopes but never dreamed | B |
How soon that bright magnificent isle would send | B |
The treasures of its womb across the sea | C |
To warm a poet's room and boil his tea | C |
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Dark anthracite that reddenest on my hearth | K |
Thou in those island mines didst slumber long | D |
But now thou art come forth to move the earth | L |
And put to shame the men that mean thee wrong | D |
Thou shalt be coals of fire to those that hate thee | C |
And warm the shins of all that underrate thee | C |
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Yea they did wrong thee foully they who mocked | B |
Thy honest face and said thou wouldst not burn | F |
Of hewing thee to chimney pieces talked | B |
And grew profane and swore in bitter scorn | F |
That men might to thy inner caves retire | M |
And there unsinged abide the day of fire | I |
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Yet is thy greatness nigh I pause to state | B |
That I too have seen greatness even I | N |
Shook hands with Adams stared at La Fayette | B |
When barehead in the hot noon of July | N |
He would not let the umbrella be held o'er him | A |
For which three cheers burst from the mob before him | A |
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And I have seen not many months ago | D |
An eastern Governor in chapeau bras | C |
And military coat a glorious show | D |
Ride forth to visit the reviews and ah | O |
How oft he smiled and bowed to Jonathan | F |
How many hands were shook and votes were won | F |
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'Twas a great Governor thou too shalt be | C |
Great in thy turn and wide shall spread thy fame | A |
And swiftly farthest Maine shall hear of thee | C |
And cold New Brunswick gladden at thy name | A |
And faintly through its sleets the weeping isle | P |
That sends the Boston folks their cod shall smile | P |
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For thou shalt forge vast railways and shalt heat | B |
The hissing rivers into steam and drive | Q |
Huge masses from thy mines on iron feet | B |
Walking their steady way as if alive | Q |
Northward till everlasting ice besets thee | C |
And south as far as the grim Spaniard lets thee | C |
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Thou shalt make mighty engines swim the sea | C |
Like its own monsters boats that for a guinea | C |
Will take a man to Havre and shalt be | C |
The moving soul of many a spinning jenny | C |
And ply thy shuttles till a bard can wear | R |
As good a suit of broadcloth as the mayor | I |
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Then we will laugh at winter when we hear | S |
The grim old churl about our dwellings rave | T |
Thou from that ruler of the inverted year | U |
Shalt pluck the knotty sceptre Cowper gave | T |
And pull him from his sledge and drag him in | F |
And melt the icicles from off his chin | F |
William Cullen Bryant
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