The Ages Of Man Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEEFFDDGGHHIIJJ HHKLMMNO| Laid in my quiet bed in study as I were | A |
| I saw within my troubled head a heap of thoughts appear | B |
| And every thought did show so lively in mine eyes | C |
| That now I sigh'd and then I smil'd as cause of thought did rise | C |
| I saw the little boy in thought how oft that he | D |
| Did wish of God to scape the rod a tall young man to be | D |
| The young man eke that feels his bones with pains oppress'd | E |
| How he would be a rich old man to live and lie at rest | E |
| The rich old man that sees his end draw on so sore | F |
| How he would be a boy again to live so much the more | F |
| Whereat full oft I smil'd to see how all these three | D |
| From boy to man from man to boy would chop and change degree | D |
| And musing thus I think the case is very strange | G |
| That man from wealth to live in woe doth ever seek to change | G |
| Thus thoughtful as I lay I saw my wither'd skin | H |
| How it doth show my dinted jaws the flesh was worn so thin | H |
| And eke my toothless chaps the gates of my right way | I |
| That opes and shuts as I do speak do thus unto me say | I |
| Thy white and hoarish hairs the messengers of age | J |
| That show like lines of true belief that this life doth assuage | J |
| Bids thee lay hand and feel them hanging on thy chin | H |
| The which do write two ages past the third now coming in | H |
| Hang up therefore the bit of thy young wanton time | K |
| And thou that therein beaten art the happiest life define | L |
| Whereat I sigh'd and said Farewell my wonted joy | M |
| Truss up thy pack and trudge from me to every little boy | M |
| And tell them thus from me their time most happy is | N |
| If to their time they reason had to know the truth of this | O |
Henry Howard
(1)
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