Seven Decades Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEDFDGD HIJKLMNKOK PQRHSHTHUH EVWXYXZXHX A2B2C2XQXD2XHX E2PZOF2OXOG2O H2I2C2J2K2J2HJ2L2J2

At ten I read Mayakovsky had diedA
learned my first word of Russian lyublyuB
watched my English teacher poke his earwaxC
with a well chewed HB and get the classD
to join his easy mocking of my essayE
where I'd used verdant herbage for green grassD
So he was right So I hated himF
And he was not really right the assD
A writer knows what he needsG
as came to passD
-
At twenty I got marching orders kitbagH
farewell to love not arms though our sole armsI
were stretchers a freezing Glentress winterJ
where I was coaxing sticks at six to getK
a stove hot for the cooks found myself pickedL
quartermaster's clerk 'this one seems a bitM
less gormless than the bloody others' didN
gas drill in the stinging tent metK
Tam McSherry who farted at willO
a musical setK
-
At thirty I thought life had passed me byP
translated Beowulf for want of loveQ
And one night stands in city centre lanesR
they were dark in those days were wild but bleakH
Sydney Graham in London said 'you knowS
I always thought so' kissed me on the cheekH
And I translated Rilke's LonelinessT
is like a rain and week after week after weekH
strained to unbind myselfU
sweated to speakH
-
At forty I woke up saw it was dayE
found there was love heard a new beat heard BeatsV
sent airmail solidarity to SaW
Paulo's poetic concrete revolutionX
knew Glasgow what knew Glasgow new somehowY
new with me with John with cranes diffusionX
of another concrete revolution not badZ
not good but new And new was no illusionX
a spring of words a sloughingH
an ablutionX
-
At fifty I began to have bad dreamsA2
of Palestine and saw bad things to comeB2
began to write my long unwritten warC2
I was a hundred handed Sindbad thenX
rolled and unrolled carpets of blood and loveQ
raised tents of pain made the dust into menX
and laid the dust with men I supervisedD2
a thesis on Doughty that great EnglishmanX
who brought all Arabia backH
in his hard penX
-
At sixty I was standing by a graveE2
The winds of Lanarkshire were loud and highP
I knew what I had lost what I had hadZ
The East had schooled me about fate but stillO
it was the hardest time oh more it wasF2
the worst of times in self reproach the willO
that failed to act the mass of good not doneX
Forgiveness must be like the springs that fillO
deserted furrows till they waitG2
until untilO
-
At seventy I thought I had come throughH2
like parting a bead curtain in Port SaidI2
to something that was shadowy beforeC2
figures and voices of late times that mightJ2
be surprising yet The beads clash faintlyK2
behind me as I go forward No candle lightJ2
please keep that for Europe Switch the whole thingH
right on When I go in I want it brightJ2
I want to catch whatever is thereL2
in full sightJ2

Edwin Morgan



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