A Voice From The Factories Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABBCBCDE FDFDDGDGHE DIDIIJIDJK LMLMMCMCCK NCNCCOCOOK KDKDDPDPPK QRQSSTSTTK PUPUUDUDDP DDDDDFDFFP PVPVVKVKKP PDPDDPDPP WP PDPDDXDXXP DPDPPYPAAK DPDPPCPCCK PCPCCRCRRK ZDZDDA2DB2A2K PFPFFDFD K DIDIIDID D DCDCCDCDDD C2| WHEN fallen man from Paradise was driven | A |
| Forth to a world of labour death and care | B |
| Still of his native Eden bounteous Heaven | A |
| Resolved one brief memorial to spare | B |
| And gave his offspring an imperfect share | B |
| Of that lost happiness amid decay | C |
| Making their first approach to life seem fair | B |
| And giving for the Eden past away | C |
| CHILDHOOD the weary life's long happy holyday | D |
| II | E |
| - | |
| Sacred to heavenly peace those years remain | F |
| And when with clouds their dawn is overcast | D |
| Unnatural seem the sorrow and the pain | F |
| Which rosy joy flies forth to banish fast | D |
| Because that season's sadness may not last | D |
| Light is their grief a word of fondness cheers | G |
| The unhaunted heart the shadow glideth past | D |
| Unknown to them the weight of boding fears | G |
| And soft as dew on flowers their bright ungrieving tears | H |
| III | E |
| - | |
| See the Stage Wonder taught to earn its bread | D |
| By the exertion of an infant skill | I |
| Forsake the wholesome slumbers of its bed | D |
| And mime obedient to the public will | I |
| Where is the heart so cold that does not thrill | I |
| With a vexatious sympathy to see | J |
| That child prepare to play its part and still | I |
| With simulated airs of gaiety | D |
| Rise to the dangerous rope and bend the supple knee | J |
| IV | K |
| - | |
| Painted and spangled trembling there it stands | L |
| Glances below for friend or father's face | M |
| Then lifts its small round arms and feeble hands | L |
| With the taught movements of an artist's grace | M |
| Leaves its uncertain gilded resting place | M |
| Springs lightly as the elastic cord gives way | C |
| And runs along with scarce perceptible pace | M |
| Like a bright bird upon a waving spray | C |
| Fluttering and sinking still whene'er the branches play | C |
| V | K |
| - | |
| Now watch a joyless and distorted smile | N |
| Its innocent lips assume the dancer's leer | C |
| Conquering its terror for a little while | N |
| Then lets the TRUTH OF INFANCY appear | C |
| And with a stare of numbed and childish fear | C |
| Looks sadly towards the audience come to gaze | O |
| On the unwonted skill which costs so dear | C |
| While still the applauding crowd with pleased amaze | O |
| Ring through its dizzy ears unwelcome shouts of praise | O |
| VI | K |
| - | |
| What is it makes us feel relieved to see | K |
| That hapless little dancer reach the ground | D |
| With its whole spirit's elasticity | K |
| Thrown into one glad safe triumphant bound | D |
| Why are we sad when as it gazes round | D |
| At that wide sea of paint and gauze and plumes | P |
| Once more awake to sense and sight and sound | D |
| The nature of its age it re assumes | P |
| And one spontaneous smile at length its face illumes | P |
| VII | K |
| - | |
| Because we feel for Childhood's years and strength | Q |
| Unnatural and hard the task hath been | R |
| Because our sickened souls revolt at length | Q |
| And ask what infant innocence may mean | S |
| Thus toiling through the artificial scene | S |
| Because at that word CHILDHOOD start to birth | T |
| All dreams of hope and happiness serene | S |
| All thoughts of innocent joy that visit earth | T |
| Prayer slumber fondness smiles and hours of rosy mirth | T |
| VIII | K |
| - | |
| And therefore when we hear the shrill faint cries | P |
| Which mark the wanderings of the little sweep | U |
| Or when with glittering teeth and sunny eyes | P |
| The boy Italian's voice so soft and deep | U |
| Asks alms for his poor marmoset asleep | U |
| They fill our hearts with pitying regret | D |
| Those little vagrants doomed so soon to weep | U |
| As though a term of joy for all was set | D |
| And that their share of Life's long suffering was not yet | D |
| IX | P |
| - | |
| Ever a toiling child doth make us sad | D |
| 'T is an unnatural and mournful sight | D |
| Because we feel their smiles should be so glad | D |
| Because we know their eyes should be so bright | D |
| What is it then when tasked beyond their might | D |
| They labour all day long for others' gain | F |
| Nay trespass on the still and pleasant night | D |
| While uncompleted hours of toil remain | F |
| Poor little FACTORY SLAVES for You these lines complain | F |
| X | P |
| - | |
| Beyond all sorrow which the wanderer knows | P |
| Is that these little pent up wretches feel | V |
| Where the air thick and close and stagnant grows | P |
| And the low whirring of the incessant wheel | V |
| Dizzies the head and makes the senses reel | V |
| There shut for ever from the gladdening sky | K |
| Vice premature and Care's corroding seal | V |
| Stamp on each sallow cheek their hateful die | K |
| Line the smooth open brow and sink the saddened eye | K |
| XI | P |
| - | |
| For them the fervid summer only brings | P |
| A double curse of stifling withering heat | D |
| For them no flowers spring up no wild bird sings | P |
| No moss grown walks refresh their weary feet | D |
| No river's murmuring sound no wood walk sweet | D |
| With many a flower the learned slight and pass | P |
| Nor meadow with pale cowslips thickly set | D |
| Amid the soft leaves of its tufted grass | P |
| Lure them a childish stock of treasures to amass | P |
| - | |
| Page | W |
| XII | P |
| - | |
| Have we forgotten our own infancy | P |
| That joys so simple are to them denied | D |
| Our boyhood's hopes our wanderings far and free | P |
| Where yellow gorse bush left the common wide | D |
| And open to the breeze The active pride | D |
| Which made each obstacle a pleasure seem | X |
| When rashly glad all danger we defied | D |
| Dashed through the brook by twilight's fading gleam | X |
| Or scorned the tottering plank and leapt the narrow stream | X |
| XIII | P |
| - | |
| In lieu of this from short and bitter night | D |
| Sullen and sad the infant labourer creeps | P |
| He joys not in the glow of morning's light | D |
| But with an idle yearning stands and weeps | P |
| Envying the babe that in its cradle sleeps | P |
| And ever as he slowly journeys on | Y |
| His listless tongue unbidden silence keeps | P |
| His fellow labourers playmates hath he none | A |
| Walk by as sad as he nor hail the morning sun | A |
| XIV | K |
| - | |
| Mark the result Unnaturally debarred | D |
| All nature's fresh and innocent delights | P |
| While yet each germing energy strives hard | D |
| And pristine good with pristine evil fights | P |
| When every passing dream the heart excites | P |
| And makes even guarded virtue insecure | C |
| Untaught unchecked they yield as vice invites | P |
| With all around them cramped confined impure | C |
| Fast spreads the moral plague which nothing new shall cure | C |
| XV | K |
| - | |
| Yes this reproach is added infamous | P |
| In realms which own a Christian monarch's sway | C |
| Not suffering only is their portion thus | P |
| Compelled to toil their youthful lives away | C |
| Excessive labour works the SOUL'S decay | C |
| Quenches the intellectual light within | R |
| Crushes with iron weight the mind's free play | C |
| Steals from us LEISURE purer thoughts to win | R |
| And leaves us sunk and lost in dull and native sin | R |
| XVI | K |
| - | |
| Yet in the British Senate men rise up | Z |
| The freeborn and the fathers of our land | D |
| And while these drink the dregs of Sorrow's cup | Z |
| Deny the sufferings of the pining band | D |
| With nice drawn calculations at command | D |
| They prove rebut explain and reason long | A2 |
| Proud of each shallow argument they stand | D |
| And prostitute their utmost powers of tongue | B2 |
| Feebly to justify this great and glaring wrong | A2 |
| XVII | K |
| - | |
| So rose with such a plausible defence | P |
| Of the unalienable RIGHT OF GAIN | F |
| Those who against Truth's brightest eloquence | P |
| Upheld the cause of torture and of pain | F |
| And fear of Property's Decrease made vain | F |
| For years the hope of Christian Charity | D |
| To lift the curse from SLAVERY'S dark domain | F |
| And send across the wide Atlantic sea | D |
| The watchword of brave men the thrilling shout 'BE FREE ' | - |
| XVIII | K |
| - | |
| What is to be a slave Is't not to spend | D |
| A life bowed down beneath a grinding ill | I |
| To labour on to serve another's end | D |
| To give up leisure health and strength and skill | I |
| And give up each of these against your will | I |
| Hark to the angry answer 'Theirs is not | D |
| A life of slavery if they labour still | I |
| We pay their toil Free service is their lot | D |
| And what their labour yields by us is fairly got ' | - |
| XIX | D |
| - | |
| Oh Men blaspheme not Freedom Are they free | D |
| Who toil until the body's strength gives way | C |
| Who may not set a term for Liberty | D |
| Who have no time for food or rest or play | C |
| But struggle through the long unwelcome day | C |
| Without the leisure to be good or glad | D |
| Such is their service call it what you may | C |
| Poor little creatures overtasked and sad | D |
| Your Slavery hath no name yet is its Curse as bad | D |
| XX | D |
| - | |
| Again an an | C2 |
Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About A Voice From The Factories
A Voice From The Factories is a poem by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about A Voice From The Factories poem by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton
Best Poems of Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton
