Noon. - From An Unfinished Poem. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDE DFGHIJKLDMNOPDQRKSJT UJVWDXYDVZDA2B2YDTYD YYD C2SD2E2F2G2H2KI2YADY'Tis noon At noon the Hebrew bowed the knee | A |
And worshipped while the husbandmen withdrew | B |
From the scorched field and the wayfaring man | C |
Grew faint and turned aside by bubbling fount | D |
Or rested in the shadow of the palm | E |
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I too amid the overflow of day | D |
Behold the power which wields and cherishes | F |
The frame of Nature From this brow of rock | G |
That overlooks the Hudson's western marge | H |
I gaze upon the long array of groves | I |
The piles and gulfs of verdure drinking in | J |
The grateful heats They love the fiery sun | K |
Their broadening leaves grow glossier and their sprays | L |
Climb as he looks upon them In the midst | D |
The swelling river into his green gulfs | M |
Unshadowed save by passing sails above | N |
Takes the redundant glory and enjoys | O |
The summer in his chilly bed Coy flowers | P |
That would not open in the early light | D |
Push back their plaited sheaths The rivulet's pool | Q |
That darkly quivered all the morning long | R |
In the cool shade now glimmers in the sun | K |
And o'er its surface shoots and shoots again | S |
The glittering dragon fly and deep within | J |
Run the brown water beetles to and fro | T |
- | |
A silence the brief sabbath of an hour | U |
Reigns o'er the fields the laborer sits within | J |
His dwelling he has left his steers awhile | V |
Unyoked to bite the herbage and his dog | W |
Sleeps stretched beside the door stone in the shade | D |
Now the grey marmot with uplifted paws | X |
No more sits listening by his den but steals | Y |
Abroad in safety to the clover field | D |
And crops its juicy blossoms All the while | V |
A ceaseless murmur from the populous town | Z |
Swells o'er these solitudes a mingled sound | D |
Of jarring wheels and iron hoofs that clash | A2 |
Upon the stony ways and hammer clang | B2 |
And creak of engines lifting ponderous bulks | Y |
And calls and cries and tread of eager feet | D |
Innumerable hurrying to and fro | T |
Noon in that mighty mart of nations brings | Y |
No pause to toil and care With early day | D |
Began the tumult and shall only cease | Y |
When midnight hushing one by one the sounds | Y |
Of bustle gathers the tired brood to rest | D |
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Thus in this feverish time when love of gain | C2 |
And luxury possess the hearts of men | S |
Thus is it with the noon of human life | D2 |
We in our fervid manhood in our strength | E2 |
Of reason we with hurry noise and care | F2 |
Plan toil and strife and pause not to refresh | G2 |
Our spirits with the calm and beautiful | H2 |
Of God's harmonious universe that won | K |
Our youthful wonder pause not to inquire | I2 |
Why we are here and what the reverence | Y |
Man owes to man and what the mystery | A |
That links us to the greater world beside | D |
Whose borders we but hover for a space | Y |
William Cullen Bryant
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