The Escape Of The Old Grey Squirrel Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDBD EFGHFIIJ KLMNLIKOPQQMRS QTSUSQQ CVBHBWUJ SXYSZQXZQQA2 QAB2AQTC2B2T QBB QQQQQ CD2UD2BQBQ QTQE2TQQF2TE2Q HPHNJ BG2AUG2H2H2QI2QI2 QQBQ

Old Grey Squirrel might have beenA
Almost anythingB
Might have been a soldier sailorC
Tinker tailorC
Never a beggar man though nor thiefD
Might have been perhaps a kingB
Or an Indian chiefD
-
He remained a City clerkE
Doubled on a great high stoolF
Totting up from dawn to darkG
Figures figures figures figuresH
Red ink black ink double ruleF
Tot tot totting with his penI
Up and down and round againI
Curious Old Grey SquirrelJ
-
No one ever really knewK
What he did at nightL
In his room so near the roofM
Up those steep and narrow stairsN
Old Grey Squirrel wasn't quiteL
The same as other menI
What he said was always trueK
He was like a little childO
In a thousand thingsP
Something shy and delicateQ
Cold and grave and undefiledQ
Seemed to keep him quite aloofM
You could never call him lonelyR
Though he lived with memory thereS
-
When he knelt beside his bedQ
He had nothing much to sayT
But the simplest little prayerS
Learned in childhood long agoU
And he didn't know or careS
Whether Calvinists might call itQ
Praying for the deadQ
-
Father mother sister brotherC
Memories clear as evening bellsV
Yes the very sort of thingB
All your clever little scribblersH
Love to satirize and stingB
So let's talk of something elseW
He collected stamps you knowU
Commonplace Old SquirrelJ
-
Ah but could you see him thereS
When the day's grey work was doneX
Poring over his new stampsY
With that wise old airS
Looking up the curious placesZ
In his tattered atlas tooQ
Lands of jungle and of sunX
Ivory tusks and dusky facesZ
Whence his latest treasure flewQ
Like a tropic moth he thoughtQ
To flutter round his dying lampA2
-
Visions are not bought and soldQ
But when the foreign mail came inA
Bringing his employers newsB2
Of copper sulphide zinc and tinA
And the red resultant goldQ
Envelopes were thrown awayT
So of course one clearly seesC2
He could pick and he could chooseB2
Having as he used to sayT
'Very great advantages '-
Rarities could not be boughtQ
Bus fares don't leave much for spendingB
On a flight to ZipanguB
-
All the same one never knewQ
All things come to those who waitQ
Isles of palm in rose and blueQ
India China and PeruQ
And the Golden GateQ
-
So he'd turn his treasures overC
Mauve and crimson buff and creamD2
Every stamp an elfin windowU
Opening on a boy's lost dreamD2
'Curious curious that's JamaicaB
That's Hong Kong the twopenny redQ
I've no doubt they are well worth seeingB
Well worth seeing ' Old Squirrel saidQ
-
'Curious' curious was his wordQ
Old Grey Squirrel remembered a dayT
Sitting alone in a whispering fir woodQ
This was in boyhood before they caught himE2
Writing a story of far CathayT
A tale that his friends would think absurdQ
But would make him famous when he was deadQ
'Curious' thinking of all those yearsF2
All those dreams that had drifted awayT
Once he had thought but the years had taught himE2
Taught him better and bowed his headQ
-
'Curious' memory clings and lingersH
Clings the smell of the fir wood clingsP
Through his wrinkled ink stained fingersH
'Curious curious ' trickled the tearsN
Curious Old Grey SquirrelJ
-
No you'd hardly call it weepingB
Old Grey Squirrel could not weepG2
Head on arm he might have beenA
Sleeping but he did not knowU
Most of us are sound asleepG2
And that Christmas Eve it seemsH2
He awoke at last from dreamsH2
Gently as a woman's handQ
Something touched him on the browI2
And he woke in that strange landQ
Where he lives for ever nowI2
-
All things come to those who waitQ
Palms against a deeper blueQ
Far Cathay and ZipanguB
And the Golden GateQ

Alfred Noyes



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