Water Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B CCDDEEDDFFGGHH IIEEJJKKLLMANN OOPPFF NNQQ R STUUVV WWXXYYAMZZA2A2B2B2C2 C2 D2D2FFOOE2E2F2F2 G2G2H2H2I2I2J2J2 K2K2OO L2L2M2M2N2N2O2O2 OOE2E2JJ DDH2H2 P2P2Q2Q2QQ R2 AARRS2S2NNMMRRMT2MMN N MMU2U2V2V2H2H2MMW2W2 X2X2 MMFrom Farmer Harrington's Calendar | A |
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APRIL | B |
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RAIN rain rain for three good solid fluid weeks | C |
Till the air swims and all creation leaks | C |
And street cars furnish still less room to spare | D |
And hackmen several times have earned their fare | D |
The omnibuses lumber through the din | E |
And carry clay outside as well as in | E |
The elevated trains with jerky care | D |
Haul half way comfort through the dripping air | D |
The gutters gallop past the liquid scene | F |
As brisk as meadow brooks though not so clean | F |
What trees the city keeps for comfort's sake | G |
Are shedding tears as if their hearts would break | G |
And water tries to get by storming steady | H |
That fourth of all the world it hasn't already | H |
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And men are not so sweet as men could wish | I |
In air that wouldn't offend a moderate fish | I |
Few places can be found outside or in | E |
Where this dark featured weather has not been | E |
For man has always striven and in vain | J |
To roof his disposition from the rain | J |
I've strolled about this morning several miles | K |
'Mongst men who get their living by their smiles | K |
I've set my old umbrella up to drip | L |
In places where I claimed relationship | L |
Or rather where my heart did and that's more | M |
Than blood connection is sixteen times o'er | A |
I've journeyed up and down through half Broadway | N |
And did not see a first class smile to day | N |
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And so in spite of all that I can do | O |
These gold bowed spectacles are growing blue | O |
And my old heart must bear along the road | P |
A fanciful but rather heavy load | P |
A painful pressure from a hand unseen | F |
Most any one knows nearly what I mean | F |
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I think I'll powder up this dark skinned day | N |
By going to night to hear the actors play | N |
They'll make me laugh and tone me up a bit | Q |
And get me out of this unnatural fit | Q |
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o'clock P M | R |
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Got back alive and that's worth thinking on | S |
From where there's been such lots of killing done | T |
Mercy it was a somewhat skittish sight | U |
So many people butchered in one night | U |
'Twas just a lot of people playing crime | V |
A sort of murder picnic all the time | V |
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We found the theatre with handbills spread | W |
Near where the notice in the paper said | W |
The weather had slacked up an hour or so | X |
And Wife thought she would condescend to go | X |
And after stumbling over several chaps | Y |
Who thought they'd met us somewhere else perhaps | Y |
And cheerfully addressed us o'er and o'er | A |
As if they'd known us several years or more | M |
Persisting in affording us a chance | Z |
To buy our tickets at a slight advance | Z |
The theatres employ these men I've heard | A2 |
To greet their patrons with a friendly word | A2 |
And light their way in with kind word and smile | B2 |
And make a dollar out of them meanwhile | B2 |
We brushed past these remarkable dead beats | C2 |
Some tickets bought and scrambled to our seats | C2 |
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After a piece of music by the band | D2 |
The curtain rose before a castle grand | D2 |
And soldiers talking with a half scared mien | F |
About a spook that one of them had seen | F |
When lo this ghost appears plump to their view | O |
And will not talk although they beg him to | O |
I whispered to my wife that I'd a freak | E2 |
That a newspaper man could make him speak | E2 |
But suddenly my comments had to cease | F2 |
For Wife encouraged me to hold my peace | F2 |
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When lo this ghost who thus far might have come | G2 |
Out of a sky asylum for the dumb | G2 |
Speaks with a queer but rather human sound | H2 |
When once his son the Prince gets on the ground | H2 |
And taking him aside ten feet almost | I2 |
Tells the poor boy that he's his father's ghost | I2 |
Whose own false brother softly to him crept | J2 |
And poured him full of poison while he slept | J2 |
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Then the young man got mad though to my mind | K2 |
'Twas lunacy of quite a knowing kind | K2 |
And went to work with an apparent view | O |
Of killing off 'most every one he knew | O |
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I haven't the time his actions all to state | L2 |
I'll only say he managed it first rate | L2 |
And some way killed all relatives he saw | M2 |
From uncle to prospective father in law | M2 |
And when he got through those he hadn't snuffed out | N2 |
Were hardly worth while bothering about | N2 |
I mustn't forget to say that this poor elf | O2 |
Became at last a good square corpse himself | O2 |
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I looked around and the whole building through | O |
Women were shedding tears as if 'twas true | O |
And Wife was 'most too much concerned to speak | E2 |
And even my old eyes had sprung a leak | E2 |
'Twas a moist time and I remarked 'Tis plain | J |
We've come out of the rain into the rain | J |
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I got so full of funeral sitting there | D |
Then when we once more sniffed the clean live air | D |
It seemed a piece of good luck all around | H2 |
To get away once more alive and sound | H2 |
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That's what they call a tragedy where Death | P2 |
Flies 'round till he himself gets out of breath | P2 |
And with sword slashes and cold poison filled | Q2 |
All who amount to anything get killed | Q2 |
It's part of life some time again I'll view it | Q |
But take a good square rest before I do it | Q |
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From Arthur Selwyn's Note book | R2 |
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Here on this sea beach I wander | A |
Why of the storms am I fonder | A |
Than of the sunlight above them | R |
And the clouds why do I love them | R |
Waves of the sky onward sweeping | S2 |
Or to the ocean waves leaping | S2 |
Why do I court this fierce day | N |
Dashing my face full of spray | N |
Why when the waves strike the shore | M |
With their strong leonine roar | M |
Does my soul fiercely entreat them | R |
Rush out with rapture to meet them | R |
Why do I love to descry | M |
War in the fields of the sky | T2 |
Why does the chain lightning's glare | M |
Ploughing blue meadows of air | M |
Look to my vision alway | N |
Sweet as a star in the day | N |
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You who in fair summer weather | M |
Seek this sea city together | M |
Built for tumultuous rest | U2 |
With the famed ocean chief guest | U2 |
Not half the pleasure you've known | V2 |
That I here wand'ring alone | V2 |
On these wet sand fields have found | H2 |
Hearing the ocean's own sound | H2 |
Viewing fierce waves from afar | M |
Strive with the winter in war | M |
Storms that tumultuously roll | W2 |
Far through my innermost soul | W2 |
Here you encounter at last | X2 |
Harmonies wondrous and vast | X2 |
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What did I find on the shore | M |
Must I rehearse it once more | M |
William Mckendree Carleton
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