Return To Nature Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFGHHIJKLMN OOPPNNQQRRSSTTUUVVVW DDIXYYZZA2A2B2B2C2C2 D2E2B2B2F2F2G2G2B2B2 H2H2ZZI2I2B2B2J2J2K2 K2L2M2N2N2O2O2P2P2UU Q2R2S2S2EEUUT2T2T2T2 T2T2T2T2U2V2T2T2T2T2 W2W2LX2B2B2I2I2N2N2Y 2Y2N2N2Z2MA3A3T2T2B3 B3L2L2O2O2N2N2C3C3ZZ T2T2D3E3T2T2Y2Y2G2G2 T2T2T2T2F3D3T2T2UUI2 I2G3G3JXH3H3T2T2T2T2 B2B2I3J3My song is of that city which | A |
Has men too poor and men too rich | A |
Where some are sick too richly fed | B |
While others take the sparrows' bread | B |
Where some have beds to warm their bones | C |
While others sleep on hard cold stones | C |
That suck away their bodies' heat | D |
Where men are drunk in every street | D |
Men full of poison like those flies | E |
That still attack the horses' eyes | E |
Where some men freeze for want of cloth | F |
While others show their jewels' worth | G |
And dress in satin fur or silk | H |
Where fine rich ladies wash in milk | H |
While starving mothers have no food | I |
To make them fit in flesh and blood | J |
So that their watery breasts can give | K |
Their babies milk and make them live | L |
Where one man does the work of four | M |
And dies worn out before his hour | N |
While some seek work in vain and grief | O |
Doth make their fretful lives as brief | O |
Where ragged men are seen to wait | P |
For charity that's small and late | P |
While others haunt in idle leisure | N |
Theatre doors to pay for pleasure | N |
No more I'll walk those crowded places | Q |
And take hot dreams from harlots' faces | Q |
I'll know no more those passions' dreams | R |
While musing near these quiet streams | R |
That biting state of savage lust | S |
Which true love absent burns to dust | S |
Gold's rattle shall not rob my ears | T |
Of this sweet music of the spheres | T |
I'll walk abroad with fancy free | U |
Each leafy summer's morn I'll see | U |
The trees all legs or bodies when | V |
They vary in their shapes like men | V |
I'll walk abroad and see again | V |
How quiet pools are pricked by rain | W |
And you shall hear a song as sweet | D |
As when green leaves and raindrops meet | D |
I'll hear the Nightingale's fine mood | I |
Rattling with thunder in the wood | X |
Made bolder by each mighty crash | Y |
Who drives her notes with every flash | Y |
Of lightning through the summer's night | Z |
No more I'll walk in that pale light | Z |
That shows the homeless man awake | A2 |
Ragged and cold harlot and rake | A2 |
That have their hearts in rags and die | B2 |
Before that poor wretch they pass by | B2 |
Nay I have found a life so fine | C2 |
That every moment seems divine | C2 |
By shunning all those pleasures full | D2 |
That bring repentance cold and dull | E2 |
Such misery seen in days gone by | B2 |
That made a coward now I fly | B2 |
To green things like a bird Alas | F2 |
In days gone by I could not pass | F2 |
Ten men but what the eyes of one | G2 |
Would burn me for no kindness done | G2 |
And wretched women I passed by | B2 |
Sent after me a moan or sigh | B2 |
Ah wretched days for in that place | H2 |
My soul's leaves sought the human face | H2 |
And not the Sun's for warmth and light | Z |
And so was never free from blight | Z |
But seek me now and you will find | I2 |
Me on some soft green bank reclined | I2 |
Watching the stately deer close by | B2 |
That in a great deep hollow lie | B2 |
Shaking their tails with all the ease | J2 |
That lambs can First look for the trees | J2 |
Then if you seek me find me quick | K2 |
Seek me no more where men are thick | K2 |
But in green lanes where I can walk | L2 |
A mile and still no human folk | M2 |
Tread on my shadow Seek me where | N2 |
The strange oak tree is that can bear | N2 |
One white leaved branch among the green | O2 |
Which many a woodman has not seen | O2 |
If you would find me go where cows | P2 |
And sheep stand under shady boughs | P2 |
Where furious squirrels shake a tree | U |
As though they'd like to bury me | U |
Under a leaf shower heavy and | Q2 |
I laugh at them for spite and stand | R2 |
Seek me no more in human ways | S2 |
Who am a coward since those days | S2 |
My mind was burned by poor men's eyes | E |
And frozen by poor women's sighs | E |
Then send your pearls across the sea | U |
Your feathers scent and ivory | U |
You distant lands but let my bales | T2 |
Be brought by Cuckoos Nightingales | T2 |
That come in spring from your far shores | T2 |
Sweet birds that carry richer stores | T2 |
Than men can dream of when they prize | T2 |
Fine silks and pearls for merchandise | T2 |
And dream of ships that take the floods | T2 |
Sunk to their decks with such vain goods | T2 |
Bringing that traitor silk whose soft | U2 |
Smooth tongue persuades the poor too oft | V2 |
From sweet content and pearls whose fires | T2 |
Make ashes of our best desires | T2 |
For I have heard the sighs and whines | T2 |
Of rich men that drink costly wines | T2 |
And eat the best of fish and fowl | W2 |
Men that have plenty and still growl | W2 |
Because they cannot like kings live | L |
Alas they whine we cannot save | X2 |
Since I have heard those rich ones sigh | B2 |
Made poor by their desires so high | B2 |
I cherish more a simple mind | I2 |
That I am well content to find | I2 |
My pictures in the open air | N2 |
And let my walls and floors go bare | N2 |
That I with lovely things can fill | Y2 |
My rooms whene'er sweet Fancy will | Y2 |
I make a fallen tree my chair | N2 |
And soon forget no cushion's there | N2 |
I lie upon the grass or straw | Z2 |
And no soft down do I sigh for | M |
For with me all the time I keep | A3 |
Sweet dreams that do I wake or sleep | A3 |
Shed on me still their kindly beams | T2 |
Aye I am richer with my dreams | T2 |
Than banks where men dull eyed and cold | B3 |
Without a tremble shovel gold | B3 |
A happy life is this I walk | L2 |
And hear more birds than people talk | L2 |
I hear the birds that sing unseen | O2 |
On boughs now smothered with leaves green | O2 |
I sit and watch the swallows there | N2 |
Making a circus in the air | N2 |
That speed around straight going crow | C3 |
As sharks around a ship can go | C3 |
I hear the skylark out of sight | Z |
Hid perfectly in all this light | Z |
The dappled cows in fields I pass | T2 |
Up to their bosoms in deep grass | T2 |
Old oak trees with their bowels gone | D3 |
I see with spring's green finery on | E3 |
I watch the buzzing bees for hours | T2 |
To see them rush at laughing flowers | T2 |
And butterflies that lie so still | Y2 |
I see great houses on the hill | Y2 |
With shining roofs and there shines one | G2 |
It seems that heaven has dropped the sun | G2 |
I see yon cloudlet sail the skies | T2 |
Racing with clouds ten times its size | T2 |
I walk green pathways where love waits | T2 |
To talk in whispers at old gates | T2 |
Past stiles on which I lean alone | F3 |
Carved with the names of lovers gone | D3 |
I stand on arches whose dark stones | T2 |
Can turn the wind's soft sighs to groans | T2 |
I hear the Cuckoo when first he | U |
Makes this green world's discovery | U |
And re creates it in my mind | I2 |
Proving my eyes were growing blind | I2 |
I see the rainbow come forth clear | G3 |
And wave her coloured scarf to cheer | G3 |
The sun long swallowed by a flood | J |
So do I live in lane and wood | X |
Let me look forward to each spring | H3 |
As eager as the birds that sing | H3 |
And feed my eyes on spring's young flowers | T2 |
Before the bees by many hours | T2 |
My heart to leap and sing her praise | T2 |
Before the birds by many days | T2 |
Go white my hair and skin go dry | B2 |
But let my heart a dewdrop lie | B2 |
Inside those leaves when they go wrong | I3 |
As fresh as when my life was young | J3 |
William Henry Davies
(2)
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