The Prime Of Life Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF BBFF GGBB HHII JJKK JJBB LLBB| OH the strength of the toil of those twenty years with father and master and men | A |
| And the clearer brain of the business man who has held his own for ten | A |
| Oh the glorious freedom from business fears and the rest from domestic strife | B |
| The past is dead and the future assured and I m in the prime of life | B |
| - | |
| She bore me old and they kept me old and they worked me early and late | C |
| I carried the loads of my selfish tribe from seven to thirty eight | C |
| I slaved with dad in the dust and heat that my brothers might enjoy | D |
| But I rest to day in the prime of life and I ll live and die a boy | D |
| - | |
| When the last crop failed and the stock were gone did the old man s head go down | E |
| No he started business on what was left in the produce line in town | E |
| They sent my brothers to boarding schools when our way to the front we d won | F |
| They d borrow and borrow but never had aught but contempt for the eldest son | F |
| - | |
| My brothers they went to the world away and they left the home in strife | B |
| They sowed wild oats in the pride of youth and they pawned the prime of life | B |
| They sowed too fast and they sowed too far and they came back one by one | F |
| You couldn t tell which is the eldest son and which is the youngest son | F |
| - | |
| Oh I longed for a love that I could not claim and a breath of the youth denied | G |
| But I stuck to the store when the old man went and the mater until she died | G |
| With Job s own sister and Satan s aunt good Lord and the fiend s own wife | B |
| But I m free of them now it is no matter how and I m in the prime of life | B |
| - | |
| My brothers have turned respectable and are steady as men can be | H |
| The youngest and worst is a leading light and he aims at reforming me | H |
| But I lend and help and I ll fix them up for I can t but see with a sigh | I |
| That the youngest who left us a handsome boy is an older man than I | I |
| - | |
| But it s Lord make us thankful three times a day before they eat their fill | J |
| They can thank the Lord if they like I say but I reckon I pay the bill | J |
| They feel independent I m glad to know for if all I hear is true | K |
| My brothers agree that I do no more than I have a right to do | K |
| - | |
| They ll work in the store while I see the world and I ll let them share the till | J |
| But I sail to day for a year away to go wherever I will | J |
| I sail with the woman who waited for me old sweetheart and brand new wife | B |
| She is handsome and true and she s thirty two and I m in the prime of life | B |
| - | |
| For Capetown and London and Norraway for Germany Holland and France | L |
| For Switzerland Italy anywhere for Greece and for Egypt a glance | L |
| For India China and strange Japan for the East with mystery rife | B |
| I have made enough and I have my love and I m in the prime of life | B |
Henry Lawson
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Prime Of Life poem by Henry Lawson
Best Poems of Henry Lawson