When I Was King Poem Rhyme Scheme

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 21 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Wonderful Women
by Umaru Kanneh Boima
Freedom To Scratch In Peace
by Olute Aete
Happy New Year
by Felix Menda
Human Beings
by Dana Graslie
Lust
by Wisdom Greatness
An Isolated Tree's Song
by Sayeed Abubakar
A Strange Boy
by Sayeed Abubakar
O Soil
by Sayeed Abubakar
No War, No War-monger
by Sayeed Abubakar
Night's Town
by Sayeed Abubakar

Popular Poets

1. Emily Dickinson(2414 poems)
2. Madison Julius Cawein(1231 poems)
3. Ella Wheeler Wilcox(1136 poems)
4. William Wordsworth(1016 poems)
5. Robert Burns(986 poems)
6. Edgar Albert Guest(945 poems)
7. Thomas Moore(849 poems)
8. Robert Service(831 poems)

Henry Lawson

When I Was King Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Write your comment about When I Was King poem by Henry Lawson

Recent Interactions*

New Poems

Popular Poets

The second time I lived on earth	A
Was several hundred years ago	B
And royal by my second birth	A
I know as much as most men know	B
I was a king who held the reins	C
As never modern monarch can	D
I was a king and I had brains	C
And what was more I was a man	D
Called to the throne in stormy times	E
When things were at their very worst	F
I had to fight and not with rhymes	E
My own self and my kindred first	F
And after that my friends and foes	G
And great abuses born of greed	H
And when I d fairly conquered those	G
I ruled the land a king indeed	H
	-
I found a deal of rottenness	G
Such as in modern towns we find	I
I camped my poor in palaces	G
And tents upon the plain behind	I
I marked the hovels dens and drums	G
In that fair city by the sea	G
And burnt the miles of wretched slums	G
And built the homes as they should be	G
	-
I stripped the baubles from the State	J
And on the land I spent the spoil	K
I hunted off the sullen great	J
And to the farmers gave the soil	K
My people were their own police	G
My courts were free to everyone	L
My priests were to preach love and peace	G
My Judges to see justice done	L
	-
I d studied men and studied kings	G
No crawling cant would I allow	M
I hated mean and paltry things	G
As I can hate them even now	M
A land of men I meant to see	G
A strong and clean and noble race	G
No subject dared kneel down to me	G
But looked his king straight in the face	G
	-
Had I not been a king in fact	N
A king in council hall and tent	O
I might have let them crawl and act	N
The courtier to their heart s content	O
But when I called on other kings	G
And saw men kneel I felt inclined	I
To gently tip the abject things	G
And kick them very hard behind	I
	-
My subjects were not slaves I guess	G
But though the women in one thing	P
A question twas of healthy dress	G
Would dare to argue with their king	P
I had to give in there I own	Q
Though none denied that I was strong	R
Yet they would hear my telephone	Q
If anything went very wrong	R
	-
I also had some poets bright	S
Their songs were grand I will allow	M
They were if I remember right	S
About as bad as bards are now	M
I had to give them best at last	T
And let them booze and let them sing	P
As it is now so in the past	T
They d small respect for gods or king	P
	-
I loved to wander through the streets	G
I carried neither sword nor dirk	U
And watch the building of my fleets	G
And watch my artisans at work	U
At times I would take off my coat	V
And show them how to do a thing	P
Till someone clucking in his throat	V
Would stare and gasp It is the king	P
	-
And I would say Shut up you fools	G
Is it for this my towns I burn	W
You don t know how to handle tools	G
And by my faith you ll have to learn	W
I was a king but what of that	X
A king may warble in the spring	P
And carry eggs home in his hat	X
Provided that he is a king	P
	-
I loved to stroll about the town	Y
With chums at night and talk of things	G
And though I chanced to wear the crown	Y
My friends by intellect were kings	G
When I was doubtful then I might	S
Discuss a matter quietly	G
But when I felt that I was right	S
No power on earth could alter me	G
	-
And now and then it was no sin	Z
Nor folly to relax a bit	A2
I d take my friends into an inn	Z
And call for wine and pay for it	A2
And then of many things we d clack	B2
With loosened tongues and visions clear	C2
I often heard behind my back	B2
The whispered Peace the king is here	D2
	-
The women harped about a queen	E2
I knew they longed to have a court	F2
And flaunt their feathers on the scene	E2
But hitherto I d held the fort	F2
My subjects wanted me no doubt	G2
To give the throne a son and heir	H2
There were some little kings about	G2
But that was neither here nor there	H2
	-
I d no occasion for a wife	I2
A queen as yet was not my plan	D
I d seen a lot of married life	I2
My sire had been a married man	D
A son and heir be hanged I said	J2
How dare you ask for such a thing	P
You fight it out when I am dead	J2
And let the best man be the king	P
	-
Your Majesty we love you well	K2
A candid friend would say to me	G
But there be tales that people tell	K2
Unfitted to thy dignity	G
My dignity be damned I d say	G
Bring me no women s chattering	P
I ll be a man while yet I may	G
When trouble comes I ll be a king	P
	-
I d kept my kingdom clean and strong	R
While other kingdoms were like ours	G
I had no need to brook a wrong	R
I feared not all the rotten Powers	G
I did not eat my heart out then	L2
Nor feebly fight in verse or prose	G
I d take five hundred thousand men	L2
To argue matters with my foes	G
	-
It thrilled me through the mighty tramp	M2
Of arm d men the thundering cheer	C2
The pregnant whisper through the camp	M2
At dead of night The King is here	D2
And though we paid for victory	G
On some fields that were hard to hold	N2
The faith my soldiers had in me	G
Oft strengthened mine a hundredfold	N2
	-
I d chat with soldiers by the fires	G
On rocky heights and river banks	G
I d seek the brains that war requires	G
And take my captains from the ranks	G
And so until the storm was by	O2
And came the peace just war can bring	P
I bore me so that men might cry	O2
With all their hearts God Save the King	P
	-
When I was king the world was wide	N2
And I was strong and I was free	G
I knew no hatred knew no pride	N2
No envy and no treachery	G
I feared no lies I feared no truth	P2
Nor any storm that time might bring	P
I had my love I had my youth	P2
The world was mine when I was king	P
	-
Peace came at last and strange is Fate	N2
The women begged just once alone	Q
To see me robed in royal state	N2
And seated on my father s throne	Q
I thought Shall I this boon deny	O2
And said and twas a paltry thing	P
I ll show the fools just once that I	O2
Can look as well as be a king	P
	-
They dusted out the castle old	N2
And from the closet and the chest	N2
They dug the jewels set in gold	N2
The crown and robes and all the rest	N2
They came with eyes like stars of night	N2
With diamonds set in raven hair	H2
They came with arms and bosoms white	N2
And Oh my God but one was fair	H2
	-
They dressed me as the kings had been	Z
The ancient royal purple spread	N2
And one that was to be my queen	E2
She placed the circlet on my head	N2
They pressed their hearts and bowed to me	G
They knelt with arms uplifted all	Q2
I felt the rush of vanity	G
The pride that goes before the fall	Q2
	-
	-
And then the banquet and the wine	R2
With Satan s music and the glance	G
Of siren eyes Those captains mine	R2
Were reeling in the maddening dance	G
A finger writing on the wall	Q2
While girls sang as the angels sing	P
A drunken boaster in the hall	Q2
The fool that used to be a king	P
I rose again no matter how	M
A woman and a deeper fall	Q2
I move amongst my people now	M
The most degraded of them all	Q2
But if in centuries to come	S2
I live once more and claim my own	Q
I ll see my subjects blind and dumb	S2
Before they set me on a throne	Q