Cottage Songs Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBC DEFE GHGH IJIJ KLKL D DMDM NONO PQPQ NONO R RGRG RSRS RTRT IUFU F VWVW XUXU YZYZ VA2VB2 FC2FC2 GD2GD2 E2E2E2E2 F2RF2R WG2AG2 R D2KD2K E2OE2O E2FE2F H2I2H2I2 RORO E2SE2S RJ2RJ2 RG2RG2I BY THE CRADLE | A |
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Close her eyes she must not peep | B |
Let her little puds go slack | C |
Slide away far into sleep | B |
Sis will watch till she comes back | C |
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Mother's knitting at the door | D |
Waiting till the kettle sings | E |
When the kettle's song is o'er | F |
She will set the bright tea things | E |
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Father's busy making hay | G |
In the meadow by the brook | H |
Not so very far away | G |
Close its peeps it needn't look | H |
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God is round us everywhere | I |
Sees the scythe glitter and rip | J |
Watches baby gone somewhere | I |
Sees how mother's fingers skip | J |
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Sleep dear baby sleep outright | K |
Mother's sitting just behind | L |
Father's only out of sight | K |
God is round us like the wind | L |
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II SWEEPING THE FLOOR | D |
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Sweep and sweep and sweep the floor | D |
Sweep the dust pick up the pin | M |
Make it clean from fire to door | D |
Clean for father to come in | M |
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Mother said that God goes sweeping | N |
Looking sweeping with a broom | O |
All the time that we are sleeping | N |
For a shilling in the room | O |
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Did he drop it out of glory | P |
Walking far above the birds | Q |
Or did parson make the story | P |
For the thinking afterwards | Q |
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If I were the swept for shilling | N |
I would hearken through the gloom | O |
Roll out fast and fall down willing | N |
Right before the sweeping broom | O |
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III WASHING THE CLOTHES | R |
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This is the way we wash the clo'es | R |
Free from dirt and smoke and clay | G |
Through and through the water flows | R |
Carries Ugly right away | G |
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This is the way we bleach the clo'es | R |
Lay them out upon the green | S |
Through and through the sunshine goes | R |
Makes them white as well as clean | S |
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This is the way we dry the clo'es | R |
Hang them on the bushes about | T |
Through and through the soft wind blows | R |
Draws and drives the wetness out | T |
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Water sun and windy air | I |
Make the clothes clean white and sweet | U |
Lay them now in lavender | F |
For the Sunday folded neat | U |
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IV DRAWING WATER | F |
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Dark as if it would not tell | V |
Lies the water still and cool | W |
Dip the bucket in the well | V |
Lift it from the precious pool | W |
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Up it comes all brown and dim | X |
Telling of the twilight sweet | U |
As it rises to the brim | X |
See the sun and water meet | U |
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See the friends each other hail | Y |
Here you are cries Master Sun | Z |
Mistress Water from the pail | Y |
Flashes back alive with fun | Z |
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Have you not a tale to tell | V |
Water as I take you home | A2 |
Tell me of the hidden well | V |
Whence you first of all did come | B2 |
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Of it you have kept some flavour | F |
Through long paths of darkling strife | C2 |
Water all has still a savour | F |
Of the primal well of life | C2 |
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Could you show the lovely way | G |
Back and up through sea and sky | D2 |
To that well Oh happy day | G |
I would drink and never die | D2 |
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Jesus sits there on its brink | E2 |
All the world's great thirst to slake | E2 |
Offering every one to drink | E2 |
Who will only come and take | E2 |
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Lord of wells and waters all | F2 |
Lord of rains and dewy beads | R |
Unto thee my thirst doth call | F2 |
For the thing thou know'st it needs | R |
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Come home water sweet and cool | W |
Gift of God thou always art | G2 |
Spring up Well more beautiful | A |
Rise in mine straight from his heart | G2 |
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V CLEANING THE WINDOWS | R |
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Wash the window rub it dry | D2 |
Make the ray door clean and bright | K |
He who lords it in the sky | D2 |
Loves on cottage floors to light | K |
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Looking over sea and beck | E2 |
Mountain forest orchard bloom | O |
He can spy the smallest speck | E2 |
Anywhere about the room | O |
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See how bright his torch is blazing | E2 |
In the heart of mother's store | F |
Strange I never saw him gazing | E2 |
So into that press before | F |
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Ah I see the wooden pane | H2 |
In the window dull and dead | I2 |
Father called its loss a gain | H2 |
And a glass one put instead | I2 |
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What a difference it makes | R |
How it melts the filmy gloom | O |
What a little more it takes | R |
Much to brighten up a room | O |
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There I spy a dusty streak | E2 |
There a corner not quite clean | S |
There a cobweb There the sneak | E2 |
Of a spider watching keen | S |
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Lord of suns and eyes that see | R |
Shine into me see and show | J2 |
Leave no darksome spot in me | R |
Where thou dost not shining go | J2 |
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Fill my spirit full of eyes | R |
Doors of light in every part | G2 |
Open windows to the skies | R |
That no moth corrupt my heart | G2 |
George Macdonald
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