The Prairies Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPMQRS TUVWXYZA2MB2C2D2E2F2 G2H2I2J2K2L2M2N2O2P2 GNQ2R2S2T2U2U2V2W2U2 X2Y2CZ2A3U2B3C3U2D3E 3F3G3H3I3U2U2H3U2J3H 3CU2H3H3H3K3M2H3H3 H3K3U2U2L3U2H3GM3H3I 3H3H3N3O3U2P3 M2H3H3Q3U2R3S3Q3T3H3 U3L3K2U2U2H3V3H3W3H3 X3Y3These are the gardens of the Desert these | A |
The unshorn fields boundless and beautiful | B |
For which the speech of England has no name | C |
The Prairies I behold them for the first | D |
And my heart swells while the dilated sight | E |
Takes in the encircling vastness Lo they stretch | F |
In airy undulations far away | G |
As if the ocean in his gentlest swell | H |
Stood still with all his rounded billows fixed | I |
And motionless for ever Motionless | J |
No they are all unchained again The clouds | K |
Sweep over with their shadows and beneath | L |
The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye | M |
Dark hollows seem to glide along and chase | N |
The sunny ridges Breezes of the South | O |
Who toss the golden and the flame like flowers | P |
And pass the prairie hawk that poised on high | M |
Flaps his broad wings yet moves not ye have played | Q |
Among the palms of Mexico and vines | R |
Of Texas and have crisped the limpid brooks | S |
That from the fountains of Sonora glide | T |
Into the calm Pacific have ye fanned | U |
A nobler or a lovelier scene than this | V |
Man hath no part in all this glorious work | W |
The hand that built the firmament hath heaved | X |
And smoothed these verdant swells and sown their slopes | Y |
With herbage planted them with island groves | Z |
And hedged them round with forests Fitting floor | A2 |
For this magnificent temple of the sky | M |
With flowers whose glory and whose multitude | B2 |
Rival the constellations The great heavens | C2 |
Seem to stoop down upon the scene in love | D2 |
A nearer vault and of a tenderer blue | E2 |
Than that which bends above the eastern hills | F2 |
- | |
As o'er the verdant waste I guide my steed | G2 |
Among the high rank grass that sweeps his sides | H2 |
The hollow beating of his footstep seems | I2 |
A sacrilegious sound I think of those | J2 |
Upon whose rest he tramples Are they here | K2 |
The dead of other days and did the dust | L2 |
Of these fair solitudes once stir with life | M2 |
And burn with passion Let the mighty mounds | N2 |
That overlook the rivers or that rise | O2 |
In the dim forest crowded with old oaks | P2 |
Answer A race that long has passed away | G |
Built them a disciplined and populous race | N |
Heaped with long toil the earth while yet the Greek | Q2 |
Was hewing the Pentelicus to forms | R2 |
Of symmetry and rearing on its rock | S2 |
The glittering Parthenon These ample fields | T2 |
Nourished their harvests here their herds were fed | U2 |
When haply by their stalls the bison lowed | U2 |
And bowed his maned shoulder to the yoke | V2 |
All day this desert murmured with their toils | W2 |
Till twilight blushed and lovers walked and wooed | U2 |
In a forgotten language and old tunes | X2 |
From instruments of unremembered form | Y2 |
Gave the soft winds a voice The red man came | C |
The roaming hunter tribes warlike and fierce | Z2 |
And the mound builders vanished from the earth | A3 |
The solitude of centuries untold | U2 |
Has settled where they dwelt The prairie wolf | B3 |
Hunts in their meadows and his fresh dug den | C3 |
Yawns by my path The gopher mines the ground | U2 |
Where stood their swarming cities All is gone | D3 |
All save the piles of earth that hold their bones | E3 |
The platforms where they worshipped unknown gods | F3 |
The barriers which they builded from the soil | G3 |
To keep the foe at bay till o'er the walls | H3 |
The wild beleaguerers broke and one by one | I3 |
The strongholds of the plain were forced and heaped | U2 |
With corpses The brown vultures of the wood | U2 |
Flocked to those vast uncovered sepulchres | H3 |
And sat unscared and silent at their feast | U2 |
Haply some solitary fugitive | J3 |
Lurking in marsh and forest till the sense | H3 |
Of desolation and of fear became | C |
Bitterer than death yielded himself to die | U2 |
Man's better nature triumphed then Kind words | H3 |
Welcomed and soothed him the rude conquerors | H3 |
Seated the captive with their chiefs he chose | H3 |
A bride among their maidens and at length | K3 |
Seemed to forget yet ne'er forgot the wife | M2 |
Of his first love and her sweet little ones | H3 |
Butchered amid their shrieks with all his race | H3 |
- | |
Thus change the forms of being Thus arise | H3 |
Races of living things glorious in strength | K3 |
And perish as the quickening breath of God | U2 |
Fills them or is withdrawn The red man too | U2 |
Has left the blooming wilds he ranged so long | L3 |
And nearer to the Rocky Mountains sought | U2 |
A wilder hunting ground The beaver builds | H3 |
No longer by these streams but far away | G |
On waters whose blue surface ne'er gave back | M3 |
The white man's face among Missouri's springs | H3 |
And pools whose issues swell the Oregan | I3 |
He rears his little Venice In these plains | H3 |
The bison feeds no more Twice twenty leagues | H3 |
Beyond remotest smoke of hunter's camp | N3 |
Roams the majestic brute in herds that shake | O3 |
The earth with thundering steps yet here I meet | U2 |
His ancient footprints stamped beside the pool | P3 |
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Still this great solitude is quick with life | M2 |
Myriads of insects gaudy as the flowers | H3 |
They flutter over gentle quadrupeds | H3 |
And birds that scarce have learned the fear of man | Q3 |
Are here and sliding reptiles of the ground | U2 |
Startlingly beautiful The graceful deer | R3 |
Bounds to the wood at my approach The bee | S3 |
A more adventurous colonist than man | Q3 |
With whom he came across the eastern deep | T3 |
Fills the savannas with his murmurings | H3 |
And hides his sweets as in the golden age | U3 |
Within the hollow oak I listen long | L3 |
To his domestic hum and think I hear | K2 |
The sound of that advancing multitude | U2 |
Which soon shall fill these deserts From the ground | U2 |
Comes up the laugh of children the soft voice | H3 |
Of maidens and the sweet and solemn hymn | V3 |
Of Sabbath worshippers The low of herds | H3 |
Blends with the rustling of the heavy grain | W3 |
Over the dark brown furrows All at once | H3 |
A fresher wind sweeps by and breaks my dream | X3 |
And I am in the wilderness alone | Y3 |
William Cullen Bryant
(1)
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