Childish Recollections Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CDCE FGFG HIHI JKLK MKNK OKOK KPKP QORO KSKS KTKT KSKS KUKU UUUU UVUV KOKO WOWO KXKYPerhaps it is foolish to remark it but there are times and places when I am a child at those things | A |
MACKENZIE | B |
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Each scene of youth to me's a pleasing toy | C |
Which memory like a lover doats upon | D |
And mix'd with them I am again a boy | C |
With tears and sighs regretting pleasures gone | E |
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Ah with enthusiast excesses wild | F |
The scenes of childhood meet my moist'ning eye | G |
And with the very weakness of a child | F |
I feel the raptures of delights gone by | G |
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And still I fancy as around I stroll | H |
Each boyish scene to mark the sport and game | I |
Others are living with a self like soul | H |
That think and love such trifles just the same | I |
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An old familiar spot I witness here | J |
With young companions where we oft have met | K |
Tho' since we play'd 'tis bleach'd with many a year | L |
The sports as warmly thrill my bosom yet | K |
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Here winds the dyke where oft we jump'd across | M |
'Tis just as if it were but yesternight | K |
There hangs the gate we call'd our wooden horse | N |
Where we in see saw ridings took delight | K |
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And every thing shines round me just as then | O |
Mole hills and trees and bushes speckling wild | K |
That freshen all those pastimes up agen | O |
O grievous day that chang'd me from a child | K |
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To seek the plaything and the pleasing toy | K |
The painted pooty shell and summer flowers | P |
How blest was I when I was here a boy | K |
What joys were mine in those delightful hours | P |
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On this same bank I bound my posies up | Q |
And cull'd the sweetest blossoms one by one | O |
The cowslips still entice me down to stoop | R |
But all the feelings they inspir'd are gone | O |
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Though in the midst of each endear'd delight | K |
Where still the cowslips to the breezes bow | S |
Though all my childish scenes are in my sight | K |
Sad manhood marks me an intruder now | S |
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Here runs the brook which I have damm'd and stopt | K |
With choking sods and water weeds and stones | T |
And watch'd with joy till bursting off it plopt | K |
In rushing gushes of wild murmuring groans | T |
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Here stands the tree with clasping ivy bound | K |
Which oft I've climb'd to see the men at plough | S |
And checquer'd fields for many a furlong round | K |
Rock'd by the winds upon its topmost bough | S |
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Ah on this bank how happy have I felt | K |
When here I sat and mutter'd nameless songs | U |
And with the shepherd boy and neatherd knelt | K |
Upon yon rush beds plaiting whips and thongs | U |
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Fond memory warms as here with gravel shells | U |
I pil'd my fancied cots and walled rings | U |
And scoop'd with wooden knife my little wells | U |
And fill'd them up with water from the springs | U |
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Ah memory sighs now hope my heart beguiles | U |
To build as yet snug cots to cheer despair | V |
While fate at distance mocks with grinning smiles | U |
And calls my structures castles in the air | V |
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Now e'en the thistles quaking in the wind | K |
The very rushes nodding o'er the green | O |
Hold each expressive language to my mind | K |
And like old comrades tell of what has been | O |
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O sweet of sweets from infancy that flow | W |
When can we witness bliss so sweet as then | O |
Might I but have my choice of joy below | W |
I'd only ask to be a boy agen | O |
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Life owns no joy so pleasant as the past | K |
That banish'd pleasure wrapt in memory's womb | X |
It leaves a flavour sweet to every taste | K |
Like the sweet substance of the honey comb | Y |
John Clare
(1)
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