Pigeon Toes Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABAACDCEFEFGHGH AIJIAAAA KLMLNEKE OPAPAEAE JEAEAGAG QRKRSTST AMAMAASA AUAUVAVA AWAXAAAA WYEYZUZU A2B2C2B2 AD2AD2 EE2ERA dusty clearing in the scrubs | A |
Of barren western lands | A |
Where out of sight or sign of hope | B |
The wretched school house stands | A |
A roof that glares at glaring days | A |
A bare unshaded wall | C |
A fence that guards no blade of green | D |
A dust storm over all | C |
The books and slates are packed away | E |
The maps are rolled and tied | F |
And for an hour I breathe and lay | E |
My ghastly mask aside | F |
I linger here to save my head | G |
From voices shrill and thin | H |
That rasp for ever in the shed | G |
The home I m boarding in | H |
- | |
The heat and dirt and wretchedness | A |
With which their lives began | I |
Bush mother nagging day and night | J |
And sullen brooding man | I |
The minds that harp on single strings | A |
And never bright by chance | A |
The rasping voice of paltry things | A |
The hopeless ignorance | A |
- | |
I had ideals when I came here | K |
A noble purpose had | L |
But all that they can understand | M |
Is axe to grind or mad | L |
I brood at times till comes a fear | N |
That sets my brain awhirl | E |
I fight a strong man s battle here | K |
And I am but a girl | E |
- | |
I hated paltriness and deemed | O |
A breach of faith a crime | P |
I listen now to scandal s voice | A |
In sewing lesson time | P |
There is a thought that haunts me so | A |
And gathers strength each day | E |
Shall I as narrow minded grow | A |
As mean of soul as they | E |
- | |
The feuds that rise from paltry spite | J |
Or from no cause at all | E |
The brooding dark suspicious minds | A |
I suffer for it all | E |
They do not dream the Teacher knows | A |
What brutal thoughts are said | G |
The children call me Pigeon Toes | A |
Green Eyes and Carrot Head | G |
- | |
On phantom seas of endless change | Q |
My thoughts to madness roam | R |
The only thing that keeps me here | K |
The thoughts of those at home | R |
The hearts that love and cling to me | S |
That I love best on earth | T |
My mother left in poverty | S |
My brother blind from birth | T |
- | |
On burning West Australian fields | A |
In that great dreadful land | M |
Where all day long the heat waves flow | A |
O er the seas of glowing sand | M |
My elder brother toils and breaks | A |
That great true heart of his | A |
To rescue us from poverty | S |
To rescue me from this | A |
- | |
And one is with him where he goes | A |
My brother s mate and mine | U |
He never called me Pigeon Toes | A |
He said my eyes were fine | U |
And his face comes before me now | V |
And hope and courage rise | A |
The lines of life the troubled brow | V |
Firm mouth and kind grey eyes | A |
- | |
I preach content and gentleness | A |
And mock example give | W |
They little think the Teacher hates | A |
And loathes the life they live | X |
I told the infants fairy tales | A |
But half an hour since | A |
They little dream how Pigeon Toes | A |
Prays for a fairy Prince | A |
- | |
I have one prayer and God forgive | W |
A selfish prayer and wild | Y |
I kneel down by the infants stool | E |
For I am but a child | Y |
And pray as I ve prayed times untold | Z |
That Heaven will set a sign | U |
To guide my brother to the gold | Z |
For mother s sake and mine | U |
- | |
A dust cloud on the lonely road | A2 |
And I am here alone | B2 |
I lock the door till it be past | C2 |
For I have nervous grown | B2 |
- | |
God spare me disappointment s blow | A |
He stops beside the gate | D2 |
A voice thrill feeling that I know | A |
My brother No His mate | D2 |
- | |
His eyes a proud triumphant smile | E |
His arms outstretched and Come | E2 |
For Jack and I have made our pile | E |
And I m here to take you home | R |
Henry Lawson
(1)
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