The Shakedown On The Floor Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEEFEAFEG EAAAFHIH EEEEADCD AEJECGEG AAEAEGEG KJAJFLML AAFAFBNB| Set me back for twenty summers | A |
| For I m tired of cities now | B |
| Set my feet in red soil furrows | A |
| And my hands upon the plough | B |
| With the two Black Brothers trudging | C |
| On the home stretch through the loam | D |
| While along the grassy siding | C |
| Come the cattle grazing home | D |
| And I finish ploughing early | E |
| And I hurry home to tea | E |
| There s my black suit on the stretcher | F |
| And a clean white shirt for me | E |
| There s a dance at Rocky Rises | A |
| And when all the fun is o er | F |
| For a certain favoured party | E |
| There s a shake down on the floor | G |
| - | |
| You remember Mary Carey | E |
| Bushmen s favourite at the Rise | A |
| With her sweet small freckled features | A |
| Red gold hair and kind grey eyes | A |
| Sister daughter to her mother | F |
| Mother sister to the rest | H |
| And of all my friends and kindred | I |
| Mary Carey loved me best | H |
| - | |
| Far too shy because she loved me | E |
| To be dancing oft with me | E |
| What cared I because she loved me | E |
| If the world were there to see | E |
| But we lingered by the slip rails | A |
| While the rest were riding home | D |
| Ere the hour before the dawning | C |
| Dimmed the great star clustered dome | D |
| - | |
| Small brown hands that spread the mattress | A |
| While the old folk winked to see | E |
| How she d find an extra pillow | J |
| And an extra sheet for me | E |
| For a moment shyly smiling | C |
| She would grant me one kiss more | G |
| Slip away and leave me happy | E |
| By the shake down on the floor | G |
| - | |
| Rock me hard in steerage cabins | A |
| Rock me soft in wide saloons | A |
| Lay me on the sand hill lonely | E |
| Under waning western moons | A |
| But wherever night may find me | E |
| Till I rest for evermore | G |
| I will dream that I am happy | E |
| On the shake down on the floor | G |
| - | |
| Ah she often watched at sunset | K |
| For her people told me so | J |
| Where I left her at the slip rails | A |
| More than fifteen years ago | J |
| And she faded like a flower | F |
| And she died as such girls do | L |
| While away in Northern Queensland | M |
| Working hard I never knew | L |
| - | |
| And we suffer for our sorrows | A |
| And we suffer for our joys | A |
| From the old bush days when mother | F |
| Spread the shake down for the boys | A |
| But to cool the living fever | F |
| Comes a cold breath to my brow | B |
| And I feel that Mary s spirit | N |
| Is beside me even now | B |
Henry Lawson
(1)
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About The Shakedown On The Floor
The Shakedown On The Floor is a poem by Henry Lawson. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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