Grandpa's Christmas Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDDD EFEFDGDG DBDBADAD HIHIH HE GDGDGJGJ KLKLMNMN GEGEOPOP GBGBQNQN RLRLSQSQ GTGUAVA EPEPQFQIn his great cushioned chair by the fender | A |
An old man sits dreaming to night | B |
His withered hands licked by the tender | A |
Warm rays of the red anthracite | B |
Are folded before him all listless | C |
His dim eyes are fixed on the blaze | D |
While over him sweeps the resistless | D |
Flood tide of old days | D |
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He hears not the mirth in the hallway | E |
He hears not the sounds of good cheer | F |
That through the old homestead ring alway | E |
In the glad Christmas time of the year | F |
He heeds not the chime of sweet voices | D |
As the last gifts are hung on the tree | G |
In a long vanished day he rejoices | D |
In his lost Used to be | G |
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He has gone back across dead Decembers | D |
To his childhood's fair land of delight | B |
And his mother's sweet smile he remembers | D |
As he hangs up his stocking at night | B |
He remembers the dream haunted slumber | A |
All broken and restless because | D |
Of the visions that came without number | A |
Of dear Santa Claus | D |
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Again in his manhood's beginning | H |
He sees himself thrown on the world | I |
And into the vortex of sinning | H |
By Pleasure's strong arms he is hurled | I |
He hears the sweet Christmas bells ringing | H |
'Repent ye repent ye and pray ' | - |
But he joins with his comrades in singing | H |
A bacchanal lay | E |
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Again he stands under the holly | G |
With a blushing face lifted to his | D |
For love has been stronger than folly | G |
And has turned him from vice unto bliss | D |
And the whole world is lit with new glory | G |
As the sweet vows are uttered again | J |
While the Christmas bells tell the old story | G |
Of peace unto men | J |
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Again with his little brood 'round him | K |
He sits by the fair mother wife | L |
He knows that the angels have crowned him | K |
With the truest best riches of life | L |
And the hearts of the children untroubled | M |
Are filled with the gay Christmas tide | N |
And the gifts for sweet Maudie are doubled | M |
'Tis her birthday beside | N |
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Again ah dear Jesus have pity | G |
He finds in the chill waning day | E |
That one has come home from the city | G |
Frail Maudie whom love led astray | E |
She lies with her babe on her bosom | O |
Half hid by the snow's fleecy spread | P |
A bud and a poor trampled blossom | O |
And both are quite dead | P |
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So fair and so fragile just twenty | G |
How mocking the bells sound to night | B |
She starved in this great land of plenty | G |
When she tried to grope back to the light | B |
Christ are Thy disciples inhuman | Q |
Or only for men hast Thou died | N |
No mercy is shown to a woman | Q |
Who once steps aside | N |
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Again he leans over the shrouded | R |
Still form of the mother and wife | L |
Very lonely the way seems and clouded | R |
As he looks down the vista of life | L |
With the sweet Christmas chimes there is blended | S |
The knell for a life that is done | Q |
And he knows that his joys are all ended | S |
And his waiting begun | Q |
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So long have the years been so lonely | G |
As he counts them by Christmases gone | T |
'I am homesick ' he murmurs 'if only | G |
The Angel would lead the way on | U |
I am cold in this chill winter weather | A |
Why Maudie dear where have you been | V |
And you too sweet wife and together | A |
O Christ let me in ' | - |
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The children ran in from the hallway | E |
'Were you calling us grandpa ' they said | P |
Then shrank with that fear that comes alway | E |
When young eyes look their first on the dead | P |
The freedom so longed for is given | Q |
The children speak low and draw near | F |
'Dear grandpa keeps Christmas in Heaven | Q |
With grandma this year ' | - |
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
(1)
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