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 2C2C2DA

Speak kindly wife the little ones will growA
Fairest and straightest in the warmest sunB
We talk so often of the seed we sowC
But maybe when we think our labour doneB
And when we look to gather in the grainD
We'll find these stones we fling about againE
Strewing the fruitless sodF
Having crush'd down and stunted the sweet lifeG
That bore the likeness of the life of GodF
All your hard words of bitterness and strifeG
Will lie upon their love as stones would lieH
You think to pick them up but by and byH
You'll find where they have lainD
By the poor meagre crooked ears of grainD
You will be sorry thenE
Speak kindly wife you know not half the wealthI
Kind words bring in Ah I remember whenE
I was a little lad all youth and healthI
How I went wrong for want of one and howC
One saved my life ay keeps it steady nowC
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My mother died you know when I had seenJ
Only a few days' light they say her faceK
Was fair and young and so it might have beenL
I cannot tell But she who took her placeK
Was coarse and hard and had a shrewish tongueM
That fretted all the household into strifeG
Ah how that sharp voice rungM
Through ear and heart through all the peace of lifeG
It drove my father from his home at lengthN
And drove him to the ale house where he learn'dO
To drink away the good name he had earn'dO
And drink away his precious health and strengthN
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I can remember well how he would sighH
Would sigh and turn from his own chimney nookP
And how though wintry winds blew fierce and highH
He fumbled at the door with hands that shookP
And pass'd out slowly as though caring notQ
Whither he went And she who tempted himR
Was first to see the change to mark the blotQ
That made his manhood's beauty blurred and dimR
But had no mercy and no help for himR
I think I see her nowC
Standing with that red flush upon her browC
Hurling her stinging insults thick and fastS
As he was sadly creeping through the doorT
Until he raised his grizzled head and sworeT
And suddenly struck her growing mad at lastS
Was that the way to better him Ah noA
She taunted him and stung his spirit soA
That what was weakness became sin and crimeU
Wife did you ever hearV
What happen'd in that dark and dreadful timeU
One night when I was wide awake for fearW
Straining my baby ears to catch the soundX
Of the fierce voices that were storming nearW
One night I heard a cryH
So sharp so shrill a strange and fearful cryH
And then a heavy fall upon the groundX
And then and then in the grey morning lightY
I saw her lieH
With her hard face so strangely still and whiteY
With a broad purple stain upon her browC
And dusky shadows on her lips and eyesZ
Ah me ah me I think I see her nowC
Wrapped in that awful death sleep as she liesZ
I well remember how I cried and shookP
In childish terror and with what a lookP
I turn'd to all the living faces thereA2
Seeking in vainD
With the first dreary thrill of my despairA2
The one face that I never saw againE
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I was so young a little lad a childB2
And it was hard ay very hard to beC2
So helpless and so ignorant and wildB2
With not a soul to love and care for meC2
She when she storm'd aboutD2
Had roughly used me and had turn'd me outD2
Into the streets to gather what I couldE2
And what I liked of all the evil thereA2
But he my father at odd times he wouldE2
Sit with his arms flung round me in his chairA2
And tell me as he stroked my curly headF2
How he could see the mother that was deadF2
In my blue eyes and in my golden hairA2
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And now I was alone quite quite aloneG2
Ah you can never know how I was toss'dH2
From place to place how like a thing of stoneG2
Frozen for want of just a kindly toneG2
My heart became all its good instincts cross'dH2
And how like some distorted tree I grewI2
Barren of all things beautiful and trueI2
Sullen and hard and reckless I was fitJ2
And ready when the devil laid his snareA2
Quite ready to rush headlong into itJ2
And who was there to careA2
In a wild night a well remember'd nightY
When I was prowling in a darken'd streetK2
Trying to hush the echo of my feetK2
Trying to hide me out of sound and sightY
Just as I heard the bells begin to callL2
From a church tower as I caught a gleamM2
Of marble pillars standing white and tallL2
And saw the streamM2
Of tender mellow light make as it wereN2
A shining pathway in the misty airA2
Whither soft footsteps trodF
Out of the world into the courts of GodF
Just then they found me outD2
They who had watch'd and follow'd me so longO2
They found me as I idly hung aboutD2
That stately doorway and I felt the strongO2
Relentless grip upon my arm I sawP2
The quiet cruel smiling eyes and sawP2
That I was boundX
That night I lay awake upon the groundX
Of a dark cell The moonlight quiver'd inL
Tender and pure and sweet and hover'd roundX
Trying to cool the raging fire withinL
My eyes and heart like tender mother's touchQ2
It wander'd over lips and hands and hairA2
I think I feel it now it came with suchQ2
An unexpected pity to me thereA2
It was so dark and I was all aloneG2
No gentle toneG2
To comfort and to keep me from despairA2
A blessing had been sent ah now I knowA
Just by that little moonbeam its white glowA
Lay on my heart till the tears fell like rainD
The long endured sullen sense of painD
So dark and deepR2
Was stirred and touch'd and almost lighten'd whenE
-
I plunged my face into my hands to weepR2
Somehow the boyish spirit came againE
With just a little of its softness thenE
The burning fever cool'd and I could sleepR2
Ah I remember as I lay there sheC2
I never knew came gliding through my dreamM2
As through the shadows that encompass'd meC2
Glided the tender moonshine I could seeC2
Dim and yet purely bright just in the gleamM2
That cross'd the prison floor a girlish faceK
Divinely beautiful an angel's faceK
And long robes fair and whiteY
Shadow'd with wings that shone like living lightY
I seem'd to feel e'en in that gloomy placeK
The soft sweet kisses strayS2
Over my feverish forehead as I layS2
But when I woke and look'd with glistening eyesZ
Up through the grating I could only seeC2
The pale rose colour dawning in the skiesZ
From whence that message had come down to meC2
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I was so lonely Yet more lonely farT2
In the bright day time when my sight was boundX
By cold hard scornful faces all aroundX
Instead of prison wall and iron barT2
More lonely ay so much more lonely TheyS2
My judges and accusers and the crowdU2
That witness'd all my misery that dayS2
They knew not that my spirit was as proudU2
As sensitive to suffering as theirsV2
They knew the sweet hearth love that makes the caresV2
And storms of life so lightY
And the great safeguard against sin and crimeU
Stood round about their homes by day and nightY
But I had no one in that bitter timeU
No one I thought no one to stand by meC2
No one to teach me or to care for meC2
I pass'd through fire as I stood waiting stoodE2
In that great dreary dreadful crowded placeK
A fire that scorch'd out even the faintest traceK
My tearful dream had left of good and trueI2
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Wearily wearily I laid me downW2
Within my little prison cell that nightY
And then I long'd for death to come and drownW2
The sinful lonely sorrowful earthly lifeG
That always seem'd at strifeG
With God and man I know it was not rightY
I know it dear but it is hard to beC2
Shut out from all the pleasant genial lifeG
That makes life worth and it was hard for meC2
And so I lay and fix'd a vacant stareA2
Upon my grated bars now dimly drawnX2
Across a grey blue thunder cloud for thereA2
The moonlight came and there the rosy dawnX2
Peep'd in a kind and friendly face to seeC2
One thing at least of peace and purityC2
And dark thoughts brooded in my heart and brainD
Such wicked reckless thoughts I woA

Ada Cambridge



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