When Your Pants Begin To Go Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCC DDEEBB FFGGHH IIJJHH AAKKFF LLM HH NNOOHH PPQQHH| When you wear a cloudy collar and a shirt that isn't white | A |
| And you cannot sleep for thinking how you'll reach to morrow night | A |
| You may be a man of sorrows and on speaking terms with Care | B |
| And as yet be unacquainted with the Demon of Despair | B |
| For I rather think that nothing heaps the trouble on your mind | C |
| Like the knowledge that your trousers badly need a patch behind | C |
| - | |
| I have noticed when misfortune strikes the hero of the play | D |
| That his clothes are worn and tattered in a most unlikely way | D |
| And the gods applaud and cheer him while he whines and loafs around | E |
| And they never seem to notice that his pants are mostly sound | E |
| But of course he cannot help it for our mirth would mock his care | B |
| If the ceiling of his trousers showed the patches of repair | B |
| - | |
| You are none the less a hero if you elevate your chin | F |
| When you feel the pavement wearing through the leather sock and skin | F |
| You are rather more heroic than are ordinary folk | G |
| If you scorn to fish for pity under cover of a joke | G |
| You will face the doubtful glances of the people that you know | H |
| But of course you're bound to face them when your pants begin to go | H |
| - | |
| If when flush you took your pleasures failed to make a god of Pelf | I |
| Some will say that for your troubles you can only thank yourself | I |
| Some will swear you'll die a beggar but you only laugh at that | J |
| While your garments hand together and you wear a decent hat | J |
| You may laugh at their predictions while your soles are wearing low | H |
| But a man's an awful coward when his pants begin to go | H |
| - | |
| Though the present and the future may be anything but bright | A |
| It is best to tell the fellows that you're getting on all right | A |
| And a man prefers to say it 'tis a manly lie to tell | K |
| For the folks may be persuaded that you're doing very well | K |
| But it's hard to be a hero and it's hard to wear a grin | F |
| When your most important garment is in places very thin | F |
| - | |
| Get some sympathy and comfort from the chum who knows you best | L |
| That your sorrows won't run over in the presence of the rest | L |
| There's a chum that you can go to when you feel inclined to whine | M |
| He'll declare your coat is tidy and he'll say Just look at mine ' | - |
| Though you may be patched all over he will say it doesn't show | H |
| And he'll swear it can't be noticed when your pants begin to go | H |
| - | |
| Brother mine and of misfortune times are hard but do not fret | N |
| Keep your courage up and struggle and we'll laugh at these things yet | N |
| Though there is no corn in Egypt surely Africa has some | O |
| Keep your smile in working order for the better days to come | O |
| We shall often laugh together at the hard times that we know | H |
| And get measured by the tailor when our pants begin to go | H |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| Now the lady of refinement in the lap of comfort rocked | P |
| Chancing on these rugged verses will pretend that she is shocked | P |
| Leave her to her smelling bottle 'tis the wealthy who decide | Q |
| That the world should hide its patches 'neath the cruel look of pride | Q |
| And I think there's something noble and I swear there's nothing low | H |
| In the pride of Human Nature when its pants begin to go | H |
Henry Lawson
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about When Your Pants Begin To Go poem by Henry Lawson
Best Poems of Henry Lawson