Grandmother-s Teaching Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCC DDEEFF GGHHIJ KKLLMM NNOOPP DDQQRR STUUVV WWXXYY ZZA2A2NN B2B2C2C2D2 E2E2ZZEE F2F2G2H2I2I2 J2J2K2K2DD L2L2M2M2UU N2N2J2J2O2O2 P2P2Q2Q2NN FFQ2Q2EE J2J2R2R2F

Grandmother dear you do not know you have lived the old world lifeA
Under the twittering eaves of home sheltered from storm and strifeA
Rocking cradles and covering jams knitting socks for baby feetB
Or piecing together lavender bags for keeping the linen sweetB
Daughter wife and mother in turn and each with a blameless breastC
Then saying your prayers when the nightfall came and quietly dropping to restC
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You must not think Granny I speak in scorn for yours have been well spent daysD
And none ever paced with more faithful feet the dutiful ancient waysD
Grandfather's gone but while he lived you clung to him close and trueE
And mother's heart like her eyes I know came to her straight from youE
If the good old times at the good old pace in the good old grooves would runF
One could not do better I'm sure of that than do as you all have doneF
-
But the world has wondrously changed Granny since the days when you were youngG
It thinks quite different thoughts from then and speaks with a different tongueG
The fences are broken the cords are snapped that tethered man's heart to homeH
He ranges free as the wind or the wave and changes his shore like the foamH
He drives his furrows through fallow seas he reaps what the breakers sowI
And the flash of his iron flail is seen mid the barns of the barren snowJ
-
He has lassoed the lightning and led it home he has yoked it unto his needK
And made it answer the rein and trudge as straight as the steer or steedK
He has bridled the torrents and made them tame he has bitted the champing tideL
It toils as his drudge and turns the wheels that spin for his use and prideL
He handles the planets and weighs their dust he mounts on the comet's carM
And he lifts the veil of the sun and stares in the eyes of the uttermost starM
-
'Tis not the same world you knew Granny its fetters have fallen offN
The lowliest now may rise and rule where the proud used to sit and scoffN
No need to boast of a scutcheoned stock claim rights from an ancient wrongO
All are born with a silver spoon in their mouths whose gums are sound and strongO
And I mean to be rich and great Granny I mean it with heart and soulP
At my feet is the ball I will roll it on till it spins through the golden goalP
-
Out on the thought that my copious life should trickle through trivial daysD
Myself but a lonelier sort of beast watching the cattle grazeD
Scanning the year's monotonous change gaping at wind and rainQ
Or hanging with meek solicitous eyes on the whims of a creaking vaneQ
Wretched if ewes drop single lambs blest so is oilcake cheapR
And growing old in a tedious round of worry surfeit and sleepR
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You dear old Granny how sweet your smile and how soft your silvery hariS
But all has moved on while you sate still in your cap and easy chairT
The torch of knowledge is lit for all it flashes from hand to handU
The alien tongues of the earth converse and whisper from strand to strandU
The very churches are changed and boast new hymns new rites new truthV
Men worship a wiser and greater God than the halfknown God of your youthV
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What marry Connie and set up house and dwell where my fathers dweltW
Giving the homely feasts they gave and kneeling where they kneltW
She is pretty and good and void I am sure of vanity greed or guileX
But she has not travelled nor seen the world and is lacking in air and styleX
Women now are as wise and strong as men and vie with men in renownY
The wife that will help to build my fame was not bred near a country townY
-
What a notion to figure at parish boards and wrangle o'er cess and rateZ
I who mean to sit for the county yet and vote on an Empire's fateZ
To take the chair at the Farmers' Feast and tickle their bumpkin earsA2
Who must shake a senate before I die and waken a people's cheersA2
In the olden days was no choice so sons to the roof of their fathers claveN
But now 'twere to perish before one's time and to sleep in a living graveN
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I see that you do not understand How should you Your memory clingsB2
To the simple music of silenced days and the skirts of vanishing thingsB2
Your fancy wanders round ruined haunts and dwells upon oft told talesC2
Your eyes discern not the widening dawn nor your ears catch the rising galesC2
But live on Granny till I come back and then perhaps you will ownD2
The dear old Past is an empty nest and the Present the brood that is flown ''-
-
And so my dear you've come back at last I always fancied you wouldE2
Well you see the old home of your childhood's days is standing where it stoodE2
The roses still clamber from porch to roof the elder is white at the gateZ
And over the long smooth gravel path the peacock still struts in stateZ
On the gabled lodge as of old in the sun the pigeons sit and cooE
And our hearts my dear are no whit more changed but have kept still warm for youE
-
You'll find little altered unless it be me and that since my last attackF2
But so that you only give me time I can walk to the church and backF2
You bade me not die till you returned and so you see I lived onG2
I'm glad that I did now you've really come but it's almost time I was goneH2
I suppose that there isn't room for us all and the old should depart the firstI2
That's as it should be What is sad is to bury the dead you've nursedI2
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Won't you have bit nor sup my dear Not even a glass of wheyJ2
The dappled Alderney calved last week and the baking is fresh to dayJ2
Have you lost your appetite too in town or is it you've grown over niceK2
If you'd rather have biscuits and cowslip wine they'll bring them up in a triceK2
But what am I saying Your coming down has set me all in a mazeD
I forgot that you travelled here by train I was thinking of coaching daysD
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There sit you down and give me your hand and tell me about it allL2
From the day that you left us keen to go to the pride that had a fallL2
And all went well at the first So it does when we're young and puffed with hopeM2
But the foot of the hill is quicker reached the easier seems the slopeM2
And men thronged round you and women too Yes that I can understandU
When there's gold in the palm the greedy world is eager to grasp the handU
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I heard them tell of your smart town house but I always shook my headN2
One doesn't grow rich in a year and a day in the time of my youth 'twas saidN2
Men do not reap in the spring my dear nor are granaries filled in MayJ2
Save it be with the harvest of former years stored up for a rainy dayJ2
The seasons will keep their own true time you can hurry nor furrow nor sodO2
It's honest labour and steadfast thrift that alone are blest by GodO2
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You say you were honest I trust you were nor do I judge you my dearP2
I have old fashioned ways and it's quite enough to keep one's own conscience clearP2
But still the commandment Thou shalt not steal '' though a simple and ancient ruleQ2
Was not made for modern cunning to baulk nor for any new age to befoolQ2
And if my growing rich unto others brought but penury chill and griefN
I should feel though I never had filched with my hands I was only a craftier thiefN
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That isn't the way they look at it there All worshipped the rising sunF
Most of all the fine lady in pride of purse you fancied your heart had wonF
I don't want to hear of her beauty or birth I reckon her foul and lowQ2
Far better a steadfast cottage wench than grand loves that come and goQ2
To cleave to their husbands through weal through woe is all women have to doE
In growing as clever as men they seem to have matched them in fickleness tooE
-
But there's one in whose heart has your image still dwelt through many an absent dayJ2
As the scent of a flower will haunt a closed room though the flower be taken awayJ2
Connie's not quite so young as she was no doubt but faithfulness never grows oldR2
And were beauty the only fuel of love the warmest hearth soon would grow coldR2
Once you thought that she had not travelled and knew neiF

Alfred Austin



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