The Hungry Forties Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFGH IJIJ KLML LLLL DNDO LPLP DKDK DLDL PPPP LQLQ LRLR| Thou wants my vote young man wi' t' carpet bags | A |
| Weel sit thee down an' hark what I've to say | B |
| It's noan so varry oft wer kitchen flags | A |
| Are mucked by real live lords down Yelland way | B |
| - | |
| I've read thy speyks i' t' paper of a neet | C |
| Thou lets a vast o' words flow off thy tongue | D |
| Thou's gotten facts an' figures plain as t' leet | C |
| An' argiments to slocken owd an' young | D |
| - | |
| But what are facts an' figures 'side o' truths | E |
| We've bowt wi' childer' tears an' brokken lives | F |
| An' what are argiments o' cockered youths | G |
| To set agean yon groans o' caitiff wives | H |
| - | |
| 'Twere hungry forties when I were a lad | I |
| An' fowks were clemmed an' weak i' t' airm an' brain | J |
| We lived on demick'd taties bread gone sad | I |
| An' wakkened up o' neets croodled wi' pain | J |
| - | |
| When t' quartern loaf were raised to one and four | K |
| We'd watter brewis swedes stown out o' t' field | L |
| Farmers were t' landlords' jackals an' us poor | M |
| Tewed in Egyptian bondage unrepealed | L |
| - | |
| I mind them times when lads marched down our street | L |
| Wi' penny loaves on pikes all steeped i' blooid | L |
| It's breead or blooid they cried We've nowt to eat | L |
| To Hell wi' all that taxes t' people's fooid | L |
| - | |
| There was a papist duke that com aleng | D |
| Wi' curry powders an' he telled our boss | N |
| That when fowk's bellies felt pination's teng | D |
| For breead yon stinkin' powders they mun soss | O |
| - | |
| I went to wark when I were eight yeer owd | L |
| I tended galloways an' sammed up coils | P |
| 'Twere warm i' t' pit aboon 't were despert cowd | L |
| An' clothes were nobbut spetches darns an' hoils | P |
| - | |
| Thro' six to eight I worked then two mile walk | D |
| Across yon sumpy fields to t' kitchen door | K |
| I've often fainted face as white as chalk | D |
| Then fall'n lang length upon wer cobble floor | K |
| - | |
| My mother addled seven and six a week | D |
| Slavin' all t' day at Akeroyd's weyvin' shed | L |
| Fayther at t' grunstone wrowt while he fell sick | D |
| Steel filin's gate intul his lungs he said | L |
| - | |
| I come thee then no thank for all thy speyks | P |
| Thou might as weel have spared thisen thy pains | P |
| I see no call to laik at ducks an' drakes | P |
| Wi' t' bitter truth that's burnt intul our brains | P |
| - | |
| Corn laws be damned said dad i' forty eight | L |
| Corn laws be damned say I i' nineteen five | Q |
| Tariff reform choose how will have to wait | L |
| Down Yelland way so lang as I'm alive | Q |
| - | |
| If thou an' thine sud tax us workers' fooid | L |
| An' thrust us back in our owd misery | R |
| May t' tears o' our deead childer thin thy blooid | L |
| An' t' curse o' t' hungry forties leet on thee | R |
Frederic William Moorman
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About The Hungry Forties
The Hungry Forties is a poem by Frederic William Moorman. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about The Hungry Forties poem by Frederic William Moorman
Best Poems of Frederic William Moorman