To H.a.b. On My Forty-seventh Birthday Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABBCBC CDCDDEDE EFEFFGFG GHGHIJHJ JKJKKAKA| WHEN one is forty years and seven | A |
| Is seven and forty sad years old | B |
| He looks not onward for his Heaven | A |
| The future is too blank and cold | B |
| Its pale flowers smell of graveyard mould | B |
| He looks back to his lifeful past | C |
| If age is silver youth is gold | B |
| Could youth but last could youth but last | C |
| - | |
| He turns back toward his youthful past | C |
| A throb with life and love and hope | D |
| Whose long dead joys in memory last | C |
| Whose shining days had ample scope | D |
| He turns and lingers on the slope | D |
| Whose dusk leads down to sightless death | E |
| The sun once crowned that darkening cope | D |
| And song once thrilled this weary breath | E |
| - | |
| Ali he plods wearily to death | E |
| Adown the gloaming into night | F |
| But other lives breathe joyous breath | E |
| In morning's boundless golden light | F |
| Their feet are swift their eyes are bright | F |
| Their hearts beat rhythms of hope and love | G |
| Their being is a pure delight | F |
| In earth below and heaven above | G |
| - | |
| And you have hope and joy and love | G |
| And you have youth's abounding life | H |
| Whose crystal currents flow above | G |
| The stones and sands of care and strife | H |
| May all your years with joys be rifc | I |
| May you grow calmly to your prime | J |
| A maiden sweet a cherished wife | H |
| A happy mother in due time | J |
| - | |
| All good you wish me past my prime | J |
| I wish with better hope to you | K |
| And richer blessings than old Time | J |
| And Fate or Fortune found my due | K |
| For you are kind and good and true | K |
| And so when you are forty seven | A |
| May spouse and children in your view | K |
| Make Home the happiest life long Heaven | A |
James Thomson
(1)
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