The Ballad Of The Elder Son Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Henry Lawson

The Ballad Of The Elder Son Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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A son of elder sons I am	A
Whose boyhood days were cramped and scant	B
Through ages of domestic sham	A
And family lies and family cant	B
Come elder brothers mine and bring	C
Dull loads of care that you have won	D
And gather round me while I sing	C
The ballad of the elder son	D
	-
Twas Christ who spake in parables	E
To picture man was his intent	F
A simple tale He simply tells	G
And He Himself makes no comment	F
A morbid sympathy is felt	H
For prodigals the selfish ones	I
The crooked world has ever dealt	H
Unjustly by the elder sons	I
	-
The elder son on barren soil	J
Where life is crude and lands are new	K
Must share the father s hardest toil	J
And share the father s troubles too	K
With no child thoughts to meet his own	L
His childhood is a lonely one	D
The youth his father might have known	L
Is seldom for the eldest son	D
	-
It seems so strange but fate is grim	M
And Heaven s ways are hard to track	N
Though ten young scamps come after him	M
The rod falls heaviest on his back	N
And well I ll say it might be caused	O
By a half sense of injustice done	D
That vague resentment parents feel	P
So oft towards the eldest son	D
	-
He too must bear the father s name	Q
He loves his younger brother too	K
And feels the younger brother s shame	Q
As keenly as his parents do	K
The mother s prayers the father s curse	R
The sister s tears have all been done	D
We seldom see in prose or verse	R
The prayers of the elder son	D
	-
But let me to the parable	S
With eyes on facts but fancy free	T
And don t belie me if I tell	U
The story as it seems to me	T
For mind I do not mean to sneer	V
I was religious when a child	W
I wouldn t be surprised to hear	X
That Christ himself had sometimes smiled	W
	-
A certain squatter had two sons	I
Up Canaan way some years ago	Y
The graft was hard on those old runs	I
And it was hot and life was slow	Y
The younger brother coolly claimed	Z
The portion that he hadn t earned	A2
And sought the life for which untamed	A2
And high young spirits always yearned	A2
	-
A year or so he knocked about	A2
And spent his cheques on girls and wine	B2
And getting stony in the drought	A2
He took a job at herding swine	B2
And though he is a hog that swigs	I
And fools with girls till all is blue	K
Twas rather rough to shepherd pigs	I
And have to eat their tucker too	K
	-
When he came to himself he said	A2
I take my Bible from the shelf	C2
There s nothing like a feed of husks	I
To bring a young man to himself	C2
And when you re done with wine and girls	I
Right here a moral seems to shine	B2
And are hard up you ll find no pearls	I
Are cast by friends before your swine	B2
	-
When he came to himself he said	A2
He reckoned pretty shrewdly too	K
The rousers in my father s shed	A2
Have got more grub than they can chew	K
I ve been a fool but such is fate	A2
I guess I ll talk the guv nor round	A2
I ve acted cronk I ll tell him straight	A2
He s had his time too I ll be bound	A2
	-
I ll tell him straight I ve had my fling	C
I ll tell him I ve been on the beer	V
But put me on at anything	C
I ll graft with any bounder here	X
He rolled his swag and struck for home	D2
He was by this time pretty slim	M
And when the old man saw him come	E2
Well you know how he welcomed him	M
	-
They ve brought the best robe in the house	I
The ring and killed the fatted calf	F2
And now they hold a grand carouse	I
And eat and drink and dance and laugh	F2
And from the field the elder son	D
Whose character is not admired	A2
Comes plodding home when work is done	D
And very hot and very tired	A2
	-
He asked the meaning of the sound	A2
Of such unwonted revelry	T
They said his brother had been found	A2
He d found himself it seemed to me	T
Twas natural in the elder son	D
To take the thing a little hard	A2
And brood on what was past and done	D
While standing outside in the yard	A2
	-
Now he was hungry and knocked out	A2
And would if they had let him be	T
Have rested and cooled down no doubt	A2
And hugged his brother after tea	T
And welcomed him and hugged his dad	A2
And filled the wine cup to the brim	M
But just when he was feeling bad	A2
The old man came and tackled him	M
	-
He well might say with bitter tears	I
While music swelled and flowed the wine	B2
Lo I have served thee many years	I
Nor caused thee one grey hair of thine	B2
Whate er thou bad st me do I did	A2
And for my brother made amends	I
Thou never gavest me a kid	A2
That I might make merry with my friends	I
	-
He was no honest clod and glum	E2
Who could not trespass sing nor dance	I
He could be merry with a chum	E2
It seemed if he had half a chance	I
Perhaps if further light we seek	G2
He knew and herein lay the sting	C
His brother would clear out next week	G2
And promptly pop the robe and ring	C
	-
The father said The wandering one	D
The lost is found this son of mine	B2
But thou art always with me son	D
Thou knowest all I have is thine	B2
It seemed the best robe and the ring	C
The love and fatted calf were not	A2
But this was just a little thing	C
The old man in his joy forgot	A2
	-
The father s blindness in the house	I
The mother s fond and foolish way	H2
Have caused no end of ancient rows	I
Right back to Cain and Abel s day	H2
The world will blame the eldest born	I2
But well when all is said and done	D
No coat has ever yet been worn	I2
That had no colour more than one	D
	-
Oh if I had the power to teach	J2
The strength for which my spirit craves	I
The cant of parents I would preach	J2
Who slave and make their children slaves	I
For greed of gain and that alone	L
Their youth they steal their hearts they break	K2
And then the wretched misers moan	L
We did it for our children s sake	K2
	-
And all I have the paltry bribe	L2
That he might slave contented yet	A2
While envied by his selfish tribe	L2
The birthright he might never get	A2
The worked out farm and endless graft	A2
The mortgaged home the barren run	D
The heavy hopeless overdraft	A2
The portion of the elder son	D
	-
He keeps his parents when they re old	A2
He keeps a sister in distress	I
His wife must work and care for them	M2
And bear with all their pettishness	I
The mother s moan is ever heard	A2
And whining for the worthless one	D
She seldom has a kindly word	A2
To say about her eldest son	D
	-
Tis he in spite of sneer and jibe	L2
Who stands the friend when others fail	N2
He bears the burdens of his tribe	L2
And keeps his brother out of jail	N2
He lends the quid and pays the fine	B2
And for the family pride he smarts	I
For reasons I cannot divine	B2
They hate him in their heart of hearts	I
	-
A satire on this world of sin	O2
Where parents seldom understand	A2
That night the angels gathered in	O2
The firstborn of that ancient land	A2
Perhaps they thought in those old camps	I
While suffering for the blow that fell	U
They might have better spared the scamps	I
And Josephs that they loved so well	U
	-
Sometimes the Eldest takes the track	N
When things at home have got too bad	A2
He comes not crawling canting back	N
To seek the blind side of his dad	A2
He always finds a knife and fork	P2
And meat between on which to dine	B2
And though he sometimes deals in pork	P2
You ll never catch him herding swine	B2
	-
The happy home the overdraft	A2
His birthright and his prospects gay	H2
And likewise his share of the graft	A2
He leaves the rest to grab And they	H2
Who d always do the thing by halves	I
If anything for him was done	D
Would kill a score of fatted calves	I
To welcome home the eldest son	D