Pictures of Memory
Alice Cary 1820 (Mount Healthy) – 1871
Among the beautiful pictures
That hang on Memory’s wall.
Is one of a dim old forest,
That seemeth best of all:
Not for its gnarled oaks olden.
Dark with the mistletoe;
Not for the violets golden
That sprinkle the vale below.
Not for the milk-white lilies
That lean from the fragrant hedge.
Coquetting all day with the sunbeams,
And stealing their shining edge;
Not for the vines on the upland
Where the bright red berries be.
Nor the pinks, nor the pale, sweet cowslip,
It seemeth the best to me.
I once had a little brother,
With eyes that were dark and deep—
In the lap of that old dim forest
He lieth in peace asleep:
Light as the down of the thistle.
Free as the winds that blow.
We roved there the beautiful summers.
The summers of long ago;
But his feet on the hills grew weary,
And, one of the autumn eves,
I made for my little brother
A bed of the yellow leaves.
Sweetly his pale arms folded
My neck in a meek embrace,
As the light of immortal beauty
Silently covered his face:
And when the arrows of sunset
Lodged in the tree-tops bright,
He fell, in his saint-like beauty,
Asleep by the gates of light.
Therefore, of all the pictures
That hang on Memory's wall,
The one of the old dim forest
Seemeth the best of all.
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Submitted by halel on July 13, 2020
Modified on April 22, 2023
- 1:09 min read
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Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCBD EDEXF AFXGXG HICIXE AEGJHJ XKGKXLGLABCB |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,231 |
Words | 232 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 12 |
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"Pictures of Memory" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 17 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/53957/pictures-of-memory>.
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