The Things That Matter Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH IJIJKLKL MNMNOPOQ RSTSUVUW XYXYZA2ZA2 B2C2B2C2BVBV| NOW that I've nearly done my days | A |
| And grown too stiff to sweep or sew | B |
| I sit and think till I'm amaze | A |
| About what lots of things I know | B |
| Things as I've found out one by one | C |
| And when I'm fast down in the clay | D |
| My knowing things and how they're done | C |
| Will all be lost and thrown away | D |
| - | |
| There's things I know as won't be lost | E |
| Things as folks write and talk about | F |
| The way to keep your roots from frost | E |
| And how to get your ink spots out | F |
| What medicine's good for sores and sprains | G |
| What way to salt your butter down | H |
| What charms will cure your different pains | G |
| And what will bright your faded gown | H |
| - | |
| But more important things than these | I |
| They can't be written in a book | J |
| How fast to boil your greens and peas | I |
| And how good bacon ought to look | J |
| The feel of real good wearing stuff | K |
| The kind of apple as will keep | L |
| The look of bread that's rose enough | K |
| And how to get a child asleep | L |
| - | |
| Whether the jam is fit to pot | M |
| Whether the milk is going to turn | N |
| Whether a hen will lay or not | M |
| Is things as some folks never learn | N |
| I know the weather by the sky | O |
| I know what herbs grow in what lane | P |
| And if sick men are going to die | O |
| Or if they'll get about again | Q |
| - | |
| Young wives come in a smiling grave | R |
| With secrets that they itch to tell | S |
| I know what sort of times they'll have | T |
| And if they'll have a boy or gell | S |
| And if a lad is ill to bind | U |
| Or some young maid is hard to lead | V |
| I know when you should speak 'em kind | U |
| And when it's scolding as they need | W |
| - | |
| I used to know where birds ud set | X |
| And likely spots for trout or hare | Y |
| And God may want me to forget | X |
| The way to set a line or snare | Y |
| But not the way to truss a chick | Z |
| To fry a fish or baste a roast | A2 |
| Nor how to tell when folks are sick | Z |
| What kind of herb will ease them most | A2 |
| - | |
| Forgetting seems such silly waste | B2 |
| I know so many little things | C2 |
| And now the Angels will make haste | B2 |
| To dust it all away with wings | C2 |
| O God you made me like to know | B |
| You kept the things straight in my head | V |
| Please God if you can make it so | B |
| Let me know something when I'm dead | V |
Edith Nesbit
(2)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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