Childhood Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDEFFGGHHEDIIJJ KKLLMMIIDDNGJJOPQQRR IIIIDDIIIISTIIUUDVWW XXDDNNVDLLYYZA2B2C2D 2D2E2E2F2F2| Ah me conceiv'd in sin and born in sorrow | A |
| A nothing here to day but gone to morrow | A |
| Whose mean beginning blushing can't reveal | B |
| But night and darkness must with shame conceal | B |
| My mother's breeding sickness I will spare | C |
| Her nine months' weary burden not declare | C |
| To shew her bearing pangs I should do wrong | D |
| To tell that pain which can't be told by tongue | E |
| With tears into this world I did arrive | F |
| My mother still did waste as I did thrive | F |
| Who yet with love and all alacrity | G |
| Spending was willing to be spent for me | G |
| With wayward cries I did disturb her rest | H |
| Who sought still to appease me with her breast | H |
| With weary arms she danc'd and By By sung | E |
| When wretched I ungrate had done the wrong | D |
| When Infancy was past my Childishness | I |
| Did act all folly that it could express | I |
| My silliness did only take delight | J |
| In that which riper age did scorn and slight | J |
| In Rattles Bables and such toyish stuff | K |
| My then ambitious thoughts were low enough | K |
| My high born soul so straitly was confin'd | L |
| That its own worth it did not know nor mind | L |
| This little house of flesh did spacious count | M |
| Through ignorance all troubles did surmount | M |
| Yet this advantage had mine ignorance | I |
| Freedom from Envy and from Arrogance | I |
| How to be rich or great I did not cark | D |
| A Baron or a Duke ne'r made my mark | D |
| Nor studious was Kings favours how to buy | N |
| With costly presents or base flattery | G |
| No office coveted wherein I might | J |
| Make strong my self and turn aside weak right | J |
| No malice bare to this or that great Peer | O |
| Nor unto buzzing whisperers gave ear | P |
| I gave no hand nor vote for death or life | Q |
| I'd nought to do 'twixt Prince and peoples' strife | Q |
| No Statist I nor Marti'list i' th' field | R |
| Where e're I went mine innocence was shield | R |
| My quarrels not for Diadems did rise | I |
| But for an Apple Plumb or some such prize | I |
| My strokes did cause no death nor wounds nor scars | I |
| My little wrath did cease soon as my wars | I |
| My duel was no challenge nor did seek | D |
| My foe should weltering with his bowels reek | D |
| I had no Suits at law neighbours to vex | I |
| Nor evidence for land did me perplex | I |
| I fear'd no storms nor all the winds that blows | I |
| I had no ships at Sea no fraughts to loose | I |
| I fear'd no drought nor wet I had no crop | S |
| Nor yet on future things did place my hope | T |
| This was mine innocence but oh the seeds | I |
| Lay raked up of all the cursed weeds | I |
| Which sprouted forth in my insuing age | U |
| As he can tell that next comes on the stage | U |
| But let me yet relate before I go | D |
| The sins and dangers I am subject to | V |
| From birth stained with Adam's sinful fact | W |
| From thence I 'gan to sin as soon as act | W |
| A perverse will a love to what's forbid | X |
| A serpent's sting in pleasing face lay hid | X |
| A lying tongue as soon as it could speak | D |
| And fifth Commandment do daily break | D |
| Oft stubborn peevish sullen pout and cry | N |
| Then nought can please and yet I know not why | N |
| As many was my sins so dangers too | V |
| For sin brings sorrow sickness death and woe | D |
| And though I miss the tossings of the mind | L |
| Yet griefs in my frail flesh I still do find | L |
| What gripes of wind mine infancy did pain | Y |
| What tortures I in breeding teeth sustain | Y |
| What crudities my cold stomach hath bred | Z |
| Whence vomits worms and flux have issued | A2 |
| What breaches knocks and falls I daily have | B2 |
| And some perhaps I carry to my grave | C2 |
| Sometimes in fire sometimes in water fall | D2 |
| Strangely preserv'd yet mind it not at all | D2 |
| At home abroad my danger's manifold | E2 |
| That wonder 'tis my glass till now doth hold | E2 |
| I've done unto my elders I give way | F2 |
| For 'tis but little that a child can say | F2 |
Anne Bradstreet
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation