Music In The Flat Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDCEE FFGGHH IIJJKK LLMMHH JJCCNN| When Tom and I were married we took a little flat | A |
| I had a taste for singing and playing and all that | A |
| And Tom who loved to hear me said he hoped | B |
| I would not stop | C |
| All practice like so many wives who let their | D |
| music drop | C |
| So I resolved to set apart an hour or two each day | E |
| To keeping vocal chords and hands in trim to sing and play | E |
| - | |
| The second morning I had been for half and hour or more | F |
| At work on Haydn s masses when a tap came at my door | F |
| A nurse who wore a dainty cap and apron and a smile | G |
| Ran down to ask if I would cease my music for awhile | G |
| The lady in the flat above was very ill she said | H |
| And the sound of my piano was distracting to her head | H |
| - | |
| A fortnight s exercises lost ere I began them when | I |
| The following morning at my door there came that tap again | I |
| A woman with an anguished face implored me to forego | J |
| My music for some days to come a man was dead below | J |
| I shut down my piano till the corpse had left the house | K |
| And spoke to Tom in whispers and was quiet as a mouse | K |
| - | |
| A week of labour limbered up my stiffened hand and voice | L |
| I stole an extra hour from sleep to practice and rejoice | L |
| When ting a ling the door bell rang a discord in my trill | M |
| The baby in the flat across was very very ill | M |
| For ten long days that infant s life was hanging by a thread | H |
| And all that time my instrument was silent as the dead | H |
| - | |
| So pain and death and sickness came in one perpetual row | J |
| When babies were not born above then tenants died below | J |
| The funeral over underneath some one fell ill on top | C |
| And begged me for the love of God to let my music drop | C |
| When trouble went not up or down it stalked across the hall | N |
| And so in spite of my resolve I do not play at all | N |
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
(1)
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About Music In The Flat
Music In The Flat is a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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