The Old Gentleman With The Amber Snuff-box Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIAJKL MMNOPPJQRRST UUVVWWNOXX YZA2B2C2MD2E2 KF2DG2H2I2J2K2A L2M2N2G| The old gentleman tapping his amber snuff box | A |
| A heart shaped snuff box with a golden clasp | B |
| Stared at the dying fire 'I'd like them all | C |
| To understand when I am gone ' he muttered | D |
| 'But how to do it delicately I can't | E |
| Apologize I'll hint at it in verse | F |
| And to be sure that Rosalind reads it through | G |
| I'll make it an appendix to my will ' | H |
| Still cynical you see He couldn't help it | I |
| He had seen much felt much He snapped the snuff box | A |
| Shook his white periwig trimmed a long quill pen | J |
| And then began to write most carefully | K |
| These couplets in the old heroic style | L |
| - | |
| O had I known in boyhood only known | M |
| The few sad truths that time has made my own | M |
| I had not lost the best that youth can give | N |
| Nay life itself in learning how to live | O |
| This laboring heart would not be tired so soon | P |
| This jaded blood would jog to a livelier tune | P |
| And some few friends could I begin again | J |
| Should know more happiness and much less pain | Q |
| I should not wound in ignorance nor turn | R |
| In foolish pride from those for whom I yearn | R |
| I should have kept nigh half the friends I've lost | S |
| And held for dearest those I wronged the most | T |
| - | |
| Yet when I see more cunning men evade | U |
| With colder tact the blunders that I made | U |
| Sometimes I wonder if the better part | V |
| Is not still mine who lacked their subtle art | V |
| For I have conned my book in harsher schools | W |
| And learned from struggling what they worked by rules | W |
| Learned with some pain more quickly to forgive | N |
| My fellow blunderers while they learn to live | O |
| Learned with some tears to keep a steadfast mind | X |
| And think more kindly of my own poor kind | X |
| - | |
| He read the verses through shaking his wig | Y |
| 'Perhaps perhaps' he whispered to himself | Z |
| 'I'd better leave it to the will of God | A2 |
| They might upset my own I do not think | B2 |
| They'd understand Jocelyn might perhaps | C2 |
| And Dick if only they were left alone | M |
| But Rosalind never nor that nephew of mine | D2 |
| The witty politician No No No | E2 |
| They'd say my mind was wandering I'm afraid ' | - |
| So with a frozen face reluctantly | K |
| He tossed his verses into the dying fire | F2 |
| And watched the sparks fly upward | D |
| There at dawn | G2 |
| They found him cold and stiff by the cold hearth | H2 |
| His amber snuff box in his ivory hand | I2 |
| 'You see ' they said 'he never needed friends | J2 |
| He had that curious antique frozen way | K2 |
| He had no heart only an amber snuff box | A |
| He died quite happily taking a pinch of snuff ' | - |
| - | |
| His nephew that engaging politician | L2 |
| Inherited the snuff box and remarked | M2 |
| His epitaph should be 'Snuffed Out ' The clubs | N2 |
| Laughed and the statesman's reputation grew | G |
Alfred Noyes
(1)
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About The Old Gentleman With The Amber Snuff-box
The Old Gentleman With The Amber Snuff-box is a poem by Alfred Noyes. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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