The Kind Word Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFGFGHHDDEIEICC JKLKMGMGNOON HPHPQRQRRCCSTTSAAUVU WXWHHXYHYCZCZPPA2DA2 E B2C2B2C2D2D2E2A2E2A2 F2F2A2 G2H2G2G2H2I2I2J2A2J2 A2YK2K2YL2M2L2M2N2A2 FFD2O2D2O2P2P2XXLXLQ 2A2Q2A2G2G2A2AADDR2E R2EER2C2M2C2C2M2KKYY KS2S2ZC2ZC2 T2XXT2S2U2S2U2V2V2YU YUC2C2E2KKI2 W2YW2GGYC2GC2A2X2A2X 2C2C2DASpeak kindly wife the little ones will grow | A |
Fairest and straightest in the warmest sun | B |
We talk so often of the seed we sow | C |
But maybe when we think our labour done | B |
And when we look to gather in the grain | D |
We'll find these stones we fling about again | E |
Strewing the fruitless sod | F |
Having crush'd down and stunted the sweet life | G |
That bore the likeness of the life of God | F |
All your hard words of bitterness and strife | G |
Will lie upon their love as stones would lie | H |
You think to pick them up but by and by | H |
You'll find where they have lain | D |
By the poor meagre crooked ears of grain | D |
You will be sorry then | E |
Speak kindly wife you know not half the wealth | I |
Kind words bring in Ah I remember when | E |
I was a little lad all youth and health | I |
How I went wrong for want of one and how | C |
One saved my life ay keeps it steady now | C |
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My mother died you know when I had seen | J |
Only a few days' light they say her face | K |
Was fair and young and so it might have been | L |
I cannot tell But she who took her place | K |
Was coarse and hard and had a shrewish tongue | M |
That fretted all the household into strife | G |
Ah how that sharp voice rung | M |
Through ear and heart through all the peace of life | G |
It drove my father from his home at length | N |
And drove him to the ale house where he learn'd | O |
To drink away the good name he had earn'd | O |
And drink away his precious health and strength | N |
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I can remember well how he would sigh | H |
Would sigh and turn from his own chimney nook | P |
And how though wintry winds blew fierce and high | H |
He fumbled at the door with hands that shook | P |
And pass'd out slowly as though caring not | Q |
Whither he went And she who tempted him | R |
Was first to see the change to mark the blot | Q |
That made his manhood's beauty blurred and dim | R |
But had no mercy and no help for him | R |
I think I see her now | C |
Standing with that red flush upon her brow | C |
Hurling her stinging insults thick and fast | S |
As he was sadly creeping through the door | T |
Until he raised his grizzled head and swore | T |
And suddenly struck her growing mad at last | S |
Was that the way to better him Ah no | A |
She taunted him and stung his spirit so | A |
That what was weakness became sin and crime | U |
Wife did you ever hear | V |
What happen'd in that dark and dreadful time | U |
One night when I was wide awake for fear | W |
Straining my baby ears to catch the sound | X |
Of the fierce voices that were storming near | W |
One night I heard a cry | H |
So sharp so shrill a strange and fearful cry | H |
And then a heavy fall upon the ground | X |
And then and then in the grey morning light | Y |
I saw her lie | H |
With her hard face so strangely still and white | Y |
With a broad purple stain upon her brow | C |
And dusky shadows on her lips and eyes | Z |
Ah me ah me I think I see her now | C |
Wrapped in that awful death sleep as she lies | Z |
I well remember how I cried and shook | P |
In childish terror and with what a look | P |
I turn'd to all the living faces there | A2 |
Seeking in vain | D |
With the first dreary thrill of my despair | A2 |
The one face that I never saw again | E |
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I was so young a little lad a child | B2 |
And it was hard ay very hard to be | C2 |
So helpless and so ignorant and wild | B2 |
With not a soul to love and care for me | C2 |
She when she storm'd about | D2 |
Had roughly used me and had turn'd me out | D2 |
Into the streets to gather what I could | E2 |
And what I liked of all the evil there | A2 |
But he my father at odd times he would | E2 |
Sit with his arms flung round me in his chair | A2 |
And tell me as he stroked my curly head | F2 |
How he could see the mother that was dead | F2 |
In my blue eyes and in my golden hair | A2 |
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And now I was alone quite quite alone | G2 |
Ah you can never know how I was toss'd | H2 |
From place to place how like a thing of stone | G2 |
Frozen for want of just a kindly tone | G2 |
My heart became all its good instincts cross'd | H2 |
And how like some distorted tree I grew | I2 |
Barren of all things beautiful and true | I2 |
Sullen and hard and reckless I was fit | J2 |
And ready when the devil laid his snare | A2 |
Quite ready to rush headlong into it | J2 |
And who was there to care | A2 |
In a wild night a well remember'd night | Y |
When I was prowling in a darken'd street | K2 |
Trying to hush the echo of my feet | K2 |
Trying to hide me out of sound and sight | Y |
Just as I heard the bells begin to call | L2 |
From a church tower as I caught a gleam | M2 |
Of marble pillars standing white and tall | L2 |
And saw the stream | M2 |
Of tender mellow light make as it were | N2 |
A shining pathway in the misty air | A2 |
Whither soft footsteps trod | F |
Out of the world into the courts of God | F |
Just then they found me out | D2 |
They who had watch'd and follow'd me so long | O2 |
They found me as I idly hung about | D2 |
That stately doorway and I felt the strong | O2 |
Relentless grip upon my arm I saw | P2 |
The quiet cruel smiling eyes and saw | P2 |
That I was bound | X |
That night I lay awake upon the ground | X |
Of a dark cell The moonlight quiver'd in | L |
Tender and pure and sweet and hover'd round | X |
Trying to cool the raging fire within | L |
My eyes and heart like tender mother's touch | Q2 |
It wander'd over lips and hands and hair | A2 |
I think I feel it now it came with such | Q2 |
An unexpected pity to me there | A2 |
It was so dark and I was all alone | G2 |
No gentle tone | G2 |
To comfort and to keep me from despair | A2 |
A blessing had been sent ah now I know | A |
Just by that little moonbeam its white glow | A |
Lay on my heart till the tears fell like rain | D |
The long endured sullen sense of pain | D |
So dark and deep | R2 |
Was stirred and touch'd and almost lighten'd when | E |
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I plunged my face into my hands to weep | R2 |
Somehow the boyish spirit came again | E |
With just a little of its softness then | E |
The burning fever cool'd and I could sleep | R2 |
Ah I remember as I lay there she | C2 |
I never knew came gliding through my dream | M2 |
As through the shadows that encompass'd me | C2 |
Glided the tender moonshine I could see | C2 |
Dim and yet purely bright just in the gleam | M2 |
That cross'd the prison floor a girlish face | K |
Divinely beautiful an angel's face | K |
And long robes fair and white | Y |
Shadow'd with wings that shone like living light | Y |
I seem'd to feel e'en in that gloomy place | K |
The soft sweet kisses stray | S2 |
Over my feverish forehead as I lay | S2 |
But when I woke and look'd with glistening eyes | Z |
Up through the grating I could only see | C2 |
The pale rose colour dawning in the skies | Z |
From whence that message had come down to me | C2 |
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I was so lonely Yet more lonely far | T2 |
In the bright day time when my sight was bound | X |
By cold hard scornful faces all around | X |
Instead of prison wall and iron bar | T2 |
More lonely ay so much more lonely They | S2 |
My judges and accusers and the crowd | U2 |
That witness'd all my misery that day | S2 |
They knew not that my spirit was as proud | U2 |
As sensitive to suffering as theirs | V2 |
They knew the sweet hearth love that makes the cares | V2 |
And storms of life so light | Y |
And the great safeguard against sin and crime | U |
Stood round about their homes by day and night | Y |
But I had no one in that bitter time | U |
No one I thought no one to stand by me | C2 |
No one to teach me or to care for me | C2 |
I pass'd through fire as I stood waiting stood | E2 |
In that great dreary dreadful crowded place | K |
A fire that scorch'd out even the faintest trace | K |
My tearful dream had left of good and true | I2 |
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Wearily wearily I laid me down | W2 |
Within my little prison cell that night | Y |
And then I long'd for death to come and drown | W2 |
The sinful lonely sorrowful earthly life | G |
That always seem'd at strife | G |
With God and man I know it was not right | Y |
I know it dear but it is hard to be | C2 |
Shut out from all the pleasant genial life | G |
That makes life worth and it was hard for me | C2 |
And so I lay and fix'd a vacant stare | A2 |
Upon my grated bars now dimly drawn | X2 |
Across a grey blue thunder cloud for there | A2 |
The moonlight came and there the rosy dawn | X2 |
Peep'd in a kind and friendly face to see | C2 |
One thing at least of peace and purity | C2 |
And dark thoughts brooded in my heart and brain | D |
Such wicked reckless thoughts I wo | A |
Ada Cambridge
(1)
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