The Burial-place: A Fragment Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRDS TUVWXYZHA2 B2C2D2E2SF2A2BG2H2I2 C2J2K2L2M2N2O2P2WH2Q 2R2C2S2T2U2V2Erewhile on England's pleasant shores our sires | A |
Left not their churchyards unadorned with shades | B |
Or blossoms and indulgent to the strong | C |
And natural dread of man's last home the grave | D |
Its frost and silence they disposed around | E |
To soothe the melancholy spirit that dwelt | F |
Too sadly on life's close the forms and hues | G |
Of vegetable beauty There the yew | H |
Green even amid the snows of winter told | I |
Of immortality and gracefully | J |
The willow a perpetual mourner drooped | K |
And there the gadding woodbine crept about | L |
And there the ancient ivy From the spot | M |
Where the sweet maiden in her blossoming years | N |
Cut off was laid with streaming eyes and hands | O |
That trembled as they placed her there the rose | P |
Sprung modest on bowed stalk and better spoke | Q |
Her graces than the proudest monument | R |
There children set about their playmate's grave | D |
The pansy On the infant's little bed | S |
Wet at its planting with maternal tears | T |
Emblem of early sweetness early death | U |
Nestled the lowly primrose Childless dames | V |
And maids that would not raise the reddened eye | W |
Orphans from whose young lids the light of joy | X |
Fled early silent lovers who had given | Y |
All that they lived for to the arms of earth | Z |
Came often o'er the recent graves to strew | H |
Their offerings rue and rosemary and flowers | A2 |
- | |
The pilgrim bands who passed the sea to keep | B2 |
Their Sabbaths in the eye of God alone | C2 |
In his wide temple of the wilderness | D2 |
Brought not these simple customs of the heart | E2 |
With them It might be while they laid their dead | S |
By the vast solemn skirts of the old groves | F2 |
And the fresh virgin soil poured forth strange flowers | A2 |
About their graves and the familiar shades | B |
Of their own native isle and wonted blooms | G2 |
And herbs were wanting which the pious hand | H2 |
Might plant or scatter there these gentle rites | I2 |
Passed out of use Now they are scarcely known | C2 |
And rarely in our borders may you meet | J2 |
The tall larch sighing in the burying place | K2 |
Or willow trailing low its boughs to hide | L2 |
The gleaming marble Naked rows of graves | M2 |
And melancholy ranks of monuments | N2 |
Are seen instead where the coarse grass between | O2 |
Shoots up its dull green spikes and in the wind | P2 |
Hisses and the neglected bramble nigh | W |
Offers its berries to the schoolboy's hand | H2 |
In vain they grow too near the dead Yet here | Q2 |
Nature rebuking the neglect of man | R2 |
Plants often by the ancient mossy stone | C2 |
The brier rose and upon the broken turf | S2 |
That clothes the fresher grave the strawberry vine | T2 |
Sprinkles its swell with blossoms and lays forth | U2 |
Her ruddy pouting fruit | V2 |
William Cullen Bryant
(1)
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