A Winter Piece Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCADEAFGBHAIJKLMMAN OPAAPPPQRSAGTAUAVPPP PACWDXPYAVZA2PARP AAAAAAB2AC2ARMAD2APP E2VPAF2G2PMAAPYPPAAA 2PRAPH2P AI2PAJ2K2AL2AM2PAA2A APN2YPAO2SPAP2Q2R2S2The time has been that these wild solitudes | A |
Yet beautiful as wild were trod by me | B |
Oftener than now and when the ills of life | C |
Had chafed my spirit when the unsteady pulse | A |
Beat with strange flutterings I would wander forth | D |
And seek the woods The sunshine on my path | E |
Was to me as a friend The swelling hills | A |
The quiet dells retiring far between | F |
With gentle invitation to explore | G |
Their windings were a calm society | B |
That talked with me and soothed me Then the chant | H |
Of birds and chime of brooks and soft caress | A |
Of the fresh sylvan air made me forget | I |
The thoughts that broke my peace and I began | J |
To gather simples by the fountain's brink | K |
And lose myself in day dreams While I stood | L |
In nature's loneliness I was with one | M |
With whom I early grew familiar one | M |
Who never had a frown for me whose voice | A |
Never rebuked me for the hours I stole | N |
From cares I loved not but of which the world | O |
Deems highest to converse with her When shrieked | P |
The bleak November winds and smote the woods | A |
And the brown fields were herbless and the shades | A |
That met above the merry rivulet | P |
Were spoiled I sought I loved them still they seemed | P |
Like old companions in adversity | P |
Still there was beauty in my walks the brook | Q |
Bordered with sparkling frost work was as gay | R |
As with its fringe of summer flowers Afar | S |
The village with its spires the path of streams | A |
And dim receding valleys hid before | G |
By interposing trees lay visible | T |
Through the bare grove and my familiar haunts | A |
Seemed new to me Nor was I slow to come | U |
Among them when the clouds from their still skirts | A |
Had shaken down on earth the feathery snow | V |
And all was white The pure keen air abroad | P |
Albeit it breathed no scent of herb nor heard | P |
Love call of bird nor merry hum of bee | P |
Was not the air of death Bright mosses crept | P |
Over the spotted trunks and the close buds | A |
That lay along the boughs instinct with life | C |
Patient and waiting the soft breath of Spring | W |
Feared not the piercing spirit of the North | D |
The snow bird twittered on the beechen bough | X |
And 'neath the hemlock whose thick branches bent | P |
Beneath its bright cold burden and kept dry | Y |
A circle on the earth of withered leaves | A |
The partridge found a shelter Through the snow | V |
The rabbit sprang away The lighter track | Z |
Of fox and the racoon's broad path were there | A2 |
Crossing each other From his hollow tree | P |
The squirrel was abroad gathering the nuts | A |
Just fallen that asked the winter cold and sway | R |
Of winter blast to shake them from their hold | P |
- | |
But Winter has yet brighter scenes he boasts | A |
Splendours beyond what gorgeous Summer knows | A |
Or Autumn with his many fruits and woods | A |
All flushed with many hues Come when the rains | A |
Have glazed the snow and clothed the trees with ice | A |
While the slant sun of February pours | A |
Into the bowers a flood of light Approach | B2 |
The incrusted surface shall upbear thy steps | A |
And the broad arching portals of the grove | C2 |
Welcome thy entering Look the massy trunks | A |
Are cased in the pure crystal each light spray | R |
Nodding and tinkling in the breath of heaven | M |
Is studded with its trembling water drops | A |
That stream with rainbow radiance as they move | D2 |
But round the parent stem the long low boughs | A |
Bend in a glittering ring and arbours hide | P |
The glassy floor Oh you might deem the spot | P |
The spacious cavern of some virgin mine | E2 |
Deep in the womb of earth where the gems grow | V |
And diamonds put forth radiant rods and bud | P |
With amethyst and topaz and the place | A |
Lit up most royally with the pure beam | F2 |
That dwells in them Or haply the vast hall | G2 |
Of fairy palace that outlasts the night | P |
And fades not in the glory of the sun | M |
Where crystal columns send forth slender shafts | A |
And crossing arches and fantastic aisles | A |
Wind from the sight in brightness and are lost | P |
Among the crowded pillars Raise thine eye | Y |
Thou seest no cavern roof no palace vault | P |
There the blue sky and the white drifting cloud | P |
Look in Again the wildered fancy dreams | A |
Of spouting fountains frozen as they rose | A |
And fixed with all their branching jets in air | A2 |
And all their sluices sealed All all is light | P |
Light without shade But all shall pass away | R |
With the next sun From numberless vast trunks | A |
Loosened the crashing ice shall make a sound | P |
Like the far roar of rivers and the eve | H2 |
Shall close o'er the brown woods as it was wont | P |
- | |
And it is pleasant when the noisy streams | A |
Are just set free and milder suns melt off | I2 |
The plashy snow save only the firm drift | P |
In the deep glen or the close shade of pines | A |
'Tis pleasant to behold the wreaths of smoke | J2 |
Roll up among the maples of the hill | K2 |
Where the shrill sound of youthful voices wakes | A |
The shriller echo as the clear pure lymph | L2 |
That from the wounded trees in twinkling drops | A |
Falls mid the golden brightness of the morn | M2 |
Is gathered in with brimming pails and oft | P |
Wielded by sturdy hands the stroke of axe | A |
Makes the woods ring Along the quiet air | A2 |
Come and float calmly off the soft light clouds | A |
Such as you see in summer and the winds | A |
Scarce stir the branches Lodged in sunny cleft | P |
Where the cold breezes come not blooms alone | N2 |
The little wind flower whose just opened eye | Y |
Is blue as the spring heaven it gazes at | P |
Startling the loiterer in the naked groves | A |
With unexpected beauty for the time | O2 |
Of blossoms and green leaves is yet afar | S |
And ere it comes the encountering winds shall oft | P |
Muster their wrath again and rapid clouds | A |
Shade heaven and bounding on the frozen earth | P2 |
Shall fall their volleyed stores rounded like hail | Q2 |
And white like snow and the loud North again | R2 |
Shall buffet the vexed forest in his rage | S2 |
William Cullen Bryant
(1)
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