May Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDBBEEBBFFGGBBHI JJBBKKLLMMNNOOMMBBPP LLCCQQRRSSDDTTLLMMBB BBAAUUVVCCWXNNYYZZBB A2B2NNLLSSMMC2C2MMSS D2E2CCC2F2G2H2NNC2F2 LI2BBJ2J2K2K2L2L2DDD 2E2M2M2AABBN2D2BBAAB BBBBBSSBBBBO2O2BBNND DP2P2BBK2K2Q2Q2BBBBN 2D2F2C2R2R2S2S2BBMML 2L2T2T2NNBBO2O2O2O2P 2P2BBAAC2F2O2O2QQBBD U2EEBBBBMMV2W2O2O2BB BBNNC2C2EEW2W2O2O2MM UUL2L2BBF2C2O2O2C2C2 L2L2BBLLMMX2Y2DDBBW2 W2O2O2BBBBBBMMBBZ2X2 BBO2O2KKO2O2A3A3NNNN MMNNL2L2B3C3BBW2W2A3 A3BBO2O2O2O2O2O2BBL2 L2W2W2MMBBB3C3MMBBBB BBW2W2BBL2L2C2F2MMO2 O2C2C2W2W2W2W2BBBBNN C2C2BBBBBBC2C2O2O2BB BBC2C2L2L2BBA3A3O2O2 BBA3A3L2L2C2C2BBBBNN O2O2BBMMO2O2C3B3MMQQ O2O2O2O2L2L2O2O2A3A3 MMA3A3NNBBC2C2BBC2C2 C2C2D2N2BBO2O2NNL2L2 C2C2C2C2O2O2D3E3C2C2 BBF3F3C2MC2MNNBBC2C2

Come queen of months in company	A
Wi all thy merry minstrelsy	B
The restless cuckoo absent long	C
And twittering swallows chimney song	C
And hedge row crickets notes that run	D
From every bank that fronts the sun	D
And swathy bees about the grass	B
That stops wi every bloom they pass	B
And every minute every hour	E
Keep teazing weeds that wear a flower	E
And toil and childhoods humming joys	B
For there is music in the noise	B
The village childern mad for sport	F
In school times leisure ever short	F
That crick and catch the bouncing ball	G
And run along the church yard wall	G
Capt wi rude figured slabs whose claims	B
In times bad memory hath no names	B
Oft racing round the nookey church	H
Or calling ecchos in the porch	I
And jilting oer the weather cock	J
Viewing wi jealous eyes the clock	J
Oft leaping grave stones leaning hights	B
Uncheckt wi mellancholy sights	B
The green grass swelld in many a heap	K
Where kin and friends and parents sleep	K
Unthinking in their jovial cry	L
That time shall come when they shall lye	L
As lowly and as still as they	M
While other boys above them play	M
Heedless as they do now to know	N
The unconcious dust that lies below	N
The shepherd goes wi happy stride	O
Wi moms long shadow by his side	O
Down the dryd lanes neath blooming may	M
That once was over shoes in clay	M
While martins twitter neath his eves	B
Which he at early morning leaves	B
The driving boy beside his team	P
Will oer the may month beauty dream	P
And cock his hat and turn his eye	L
On flower and tree and deepning skye	L
And oft bursts loud in fits of song	C
And whistles as he reels along	C
Cracking his whip in starts of joy	Q
A happy dirty driving boy	Q
The youth who leaves his corner stool	R
Betimes for neighbouring village school	R
While as a mark to urge him right	S
The church spires all the way in sight	S
Wi cheerings from his parents given	D
Starts neath the joyous smiles of heaven	D
And sawns wi many an idle stand	T
Wi bookbag swinging in his hand	T
And gazes as he passes bye	L
On every thing that meets his eye	L
Young lambs seem tempting him to play	M
Dancing and bleating in his way	M
Wi trembling tails and pointed ears	B
They follow him and loose their fears	B
He smiles upon their sunny faces	B
And feign woud join their happy races	B
The birds that sing on bush and tree	A
Seem chirping for his company	A
And all in fancys idle whim	U
Seem keeping holiday but him	U
He lolls upon each resting stile	V
To see the fields so sweetly smile	V
To see the wheat grow green and long	C
And list the weeders toiling song	C
Or short note of the changing thrush	W
Above him in the white thorn bush	X
That oer the leaning stile bends low	N
Loaded wi mockery of snow	N
Mozzld wi many a lushing thread	Y
Of crab tree blossoms delicate red	Y
He often bends wi many a wish	Z
Oer the brig rail to view the fish	Z
Go sturting by in sunny gleams	B
And chucks in the eye dazzld streams	B
Crumbs from his pocket oft to watch	A2
The swarming struttle come to catch	B2
Them where they to the bottom sile	N
Sighing in fancys joy the while	N
Hes cautiond not to stand so nigh	L
By rosey milkmaid tripping bye	L
Where he admires wi fond delight	S
And longs to be there mute till night	S
He often ventures thro the day	M
At truant now and then to play	M
Rambling about the field and plain	C2
Seeking larks nests in the grain	C2
And picking flowers and boughs of may	M
To hurd awhile and throw away	M
Lurking neath bushes from the sight	S
Of tell tale eyes till schools noon night	S
Listing each hour for church clocks hum	D2
To know the hour to wander home	E2
That parents may not think him long	C
Nor dream of his rude doing wrong	C
Dreading thro the night wi dreaming pain	C2
To meet his masters wand again	F2
Each hedge is loaded thick wi green	G2
And where the hedger late hath been	H2
Tender shoots begin to grow	N
From the mossy stumps below	N
While sheep and cow that teaze the grain	C2
will nip them to the root again	F2
They lay their bill and mittens bye	L
And on to other labours hie	I2
While wood men still on spring intrudes	B
And thins the shadow solitudes	B
Wi sharpend axes felling down	J2
The oak trees budding into brown	J2
Where as they crash upon the ground	K2
A crowd of labourers gather round	K2
And mix among the shadows dark	L2
To rip the crackling staining bark	L2
From off the tree and lay when done	D
The rolls in lares to meet the sun	D
Depriving yearly where they come	D2
The green wood pecker of its home	E2
That early in the spring began	M2
Far from the sight of troubling man	M2
And bord their round holes in each tree	A
In fancys sweet security	A
Till startld wi the woodmans noise	B
It wakes from all its dreaming joys	B
The blue bells too that thickly bloom	N2
Where man was never feared to come	D2
And smell smocks that from view retires	B
Mong rustling leaves and bowing briars	B
And stooping lilys of the valley	A
That comes wi shades and dews to dally	A
White beady drops on slender threads	B
Wi broad hood leaves above their heads	B
Like white robd maids in summer hours	B
Neath umberellas shunning showers	B
These neath the barkmens crushing treads	B
Oft perish in their blooming beds	B
Thus stript of boughs and bark in white	S
Their trunks shine in the mellow light	S
Beneath the green surviving trees	B
That wave above them in the breeze	B
And waking whispers slowly bends	B
As if they mournd their fallen friends	B
Each morning now the weeders meet	O2
To cut the thistle from the wheat	O2
And ruin in the sunny hours	B
Full many wild weeds of their flowers	B
Corn poppys that in crimson dwell	N
Calld 'head achs' from their sickly smell	N
And carlock yellow as the sun	D
That oer the may fields thickly run	D
And 'iron weed' content to share	P2
The meanest spot that spring can spare	P2
Een roads where danger hourly comes	B
Is not wi out its purple blooms	B
And leaves wi points like thistles round	K2
Thickset that have no strength to wound	K2
That shrink to childhoods eager hold	Q2
Like hair and with its eye of gold	Q2
And scarlet starry points of flowers	B
Pimpernel dreading nights and showers	B
Oft calld 'the shepherds weather glass'	B
That sleep till suns have dyd the grass	B
Then wakes and spreads its creeping bloom	N2
Till clouds or threatning shadows come	D2
Then close it shuts to sleep again	F2
Which weeders see and talk of rain	C2
And boys that mark them shut so soon	R2
will call them 'John go bed at noon	R2
And fumitory too a name	S2
That superstition holds to fame	S2
Whose red and purple mottled flowers	B
Are cropt by maids in weeding hours	B
To boil in water milk and way	M
For washes on an holiday	M
To make their beauty fair and sleak	L2
And scour the tan from summers cheek	L2
And simple small forget me not	T2
Eyd wi a pinshead yellow spot	T2
I'th' middle of its tender blue	N
That gains from poets notice due	N
These flowers the toil by crowds destroys	B
And robs them of their lowly joys	B
That met the may wi hopes as sweet	O2
As those her suns in gardens meet	O2
And oft the dame will feel inclind	O2
As childhoods memory comes to mind	O2
To turn her hook away and spare	P2
The blooms it lovd to gather there	P2
My wild field catalogue of flowers	B
Grows in my ryhmes as thick as showers	B
Tedious and long as they may be	A
To some they never weary me	A
The wood and mead and field of grain	C2
I coud hunt oer and oer again	F2
And talk to every blossom wild	O2
Fond as a parent to a child	O2
And cull them in my childish joy	Q
By swarms and swarms and never cloy	Q
When their lank shades oer morning pearls	B
Shrink from their lengths to little girls	B
And like the clock hand pointing one	D
Is turnd and tells the morning gone	U2
They leave their toils for dinners hour	E
Beneath some hedges bramble bower	E
And season sweet their savory meals	B
Wi joke and tale and merry peals	B
Of ancient tunes from happy tongues	B
While linnets join their fitful songs	B
Perchd oer their heads in frolic play	M
Among the tufts of motling may	M
The young girls whisper things of love	V2
And from the old dames hearing move	W2
Oft making 'love knotts' in the shade	O2
Of blue green oat or wheaten blade	O2
And trying simple charms and spells	B
That rural superstition tells	B
They pull the little blossom threads	B
From out the knapweeds button heads	B
And put the husk wi many a smile	N
In their white bosoms for awhile	N
Who if they guess aright the swain	C2
That loves sweet fancys trys to gain	C2
Tis said that ere its lain an hour	E
Twill blossom wi a second flower	E
And from her white breasts hankerchief	W2
Bloom as they ne'er had lost a leaf	W2
When signs appear that token wet	O2
As they are neath the bushes met	O2
The girls are glad wi hopes of play	M
And harping of the holiday	M
A hugh blue bird will often swim	U
Along the wheat when skys grow dim	U
Wi clouds slow as the gales of spring	L2
In motion wi dark shadowd wing	L2
Beneath the coming storm it sails	B
And lonly chirps the wheat hid quails	B
That came to live wi spring again	F2
And start when summer browns the grain	C2
They start the young girls joys afloat	O2
Wi 'wet my foot' its yearly note	O2
So fancy doth the sound explain	C2
And proves it oft a sign of rain	C2
About the moor 'mong sheep and cow	L2
The boy or old man wanders now	L2
Hunting all day wi hopful pace	B
Each thick sown rushy thistly place	B
For plover eggs while oer them flye	L
The fearful birds wi teazing cry	L
Trying to lead their steps astray	M
And coying him another way	M
And be the weather chill or warm	X2
Wi brown hats truckd beneath his arm	Y2
Holding each prize their search has won	D
They plod bare headed to the sun	D
Now dames oft bustle from their wheels	B
Wi childern scampering at their heels	B
To watch the bees that hang and swive	W2
In clumps about each thronging hive	W2
And flit and thicken in the light	O2
While the old dame enjoys the sight	O2
And raps the while their warming pans	B
A spell that superstition plans	B
To coax them in the garden bounds	B
As if they lovd the tinkling sounds	B
And oft one hears the dinning noise	B
Which dames believe each swarm decoys	B
Around each village day by day	M
Mingling in the warmth of may	M
Sweet scented herbs her skill contrives	B
To rub the bramble platted hives	B
Fennels thread leaves and crimpld balm	Z2
To scent the new house of the swarm	X2
The thresher dull as winter days	B
And lost to all that spring displays	B
Still mid his barn dust forcd to stand	O2
Swings his frail round wi weary hand	O2
While oer his head shades thickly creep	K
And hides the blinking owl asleep	K
And bats in cobweb corners bred	O2
Sharing till night their murky bed	O2
The sunshine trickles on the floor	A3
Thro every crevice of the door	A3
And makes his barn where shadows dwell	N
As irksome as a prisoners cell	N
And as he seeks his daily meal	N
As schoolboys from their tasks will steal	N
ile often stands in fond delay	M
To see the daisy in his way	M
And wild weeds flowering on the wall	N
That will his childish sports recall	N
Of all the joys that came wi spring	L2
The twirling top the marble ring	L2
The gingling halfpence hussld up	B3
At pitch and toss the eager stoop	C3
To pick up heads the smuggeld plays	B
Neath hovels upon sabbath days	B
When parson he is safe from view	W2
And clerk sings amen in his pew	W2
The sitting down when school was oer	A3
Upon the threshold by his door	A3
Picking from mallows sport to please	B
Each crumpld seed he calld a cheese	B
And hunting from the stackyard sod	O2
The stinking hen banes belted pod	O2
By youths vain fancys sweetly fed	O2
Christning them his loaves of bread	O2
He sees while rocking down the street	O2
Wi weary hands and crimpling feet	O2
Young childern at the self same games	B
And hears the self same simple names	B
Still floating on each happy tongue	L2
Touchd wi the simple scene so strong	L2
Tears almost start and many a sigh	W2
Regrets the happiness gone bye	W2
And in sweet natures holiday	M
His heart is sad while all is gay	M
How lovly now are lanes and balks	B
For toils and lovers sunday walks	B
The daisey and the buttercup	B3
For which the laughing childern stoop	C3
A hundred times throughout the day	M
In their rude ramping summer play	M
So thickly now the pasture crowds	B
In gold and silver sheeted clouds	B
As if the drops in april showers	B
Had woo'd the sun and swoond to flowers	B
The brook resumes its summer dresses	B
Purling neath grass and water cresses	B
And mint and flag leaf swording high	W2
Their blooms to the unheeding eye	W2
And taper bowbent hanging rushes	B
And horse tail childerns bottle brushes	B
And summer tracks about its brink	L2
Is fresh again where cattle drink	L2
And on its sunny bank the swain	C2
Stretches his idle length again	F2
Soon as the sun forgets the day	M
The moon looks down on the lovly may	M
And the little star his friend and guide	O2
Travelling together side by side	O2
And the seven stars and charleses wain	C2
Hangs smiling oer green woods agen	C2
The heaven rekindles all alive	W2
Wi light the may bees round the hive	W2
Swarm not so thick in mornings eye	W2
As stars do in the evening skye	W2
All all are nestling in their joys	B
The flowers and birds and pasture boys	B
The firetail long a stranger comes	B
To his last summer haunts and homes	B
To hollow tree and crevisd wall	N
And in the grass the rails odd call	N
That featherd spirit stops the swain	C2
To listen to his note again	C2
And school boy still in vain retraces	B
The secrets of his hiding places	B
In the black thorns crowded copse	B
Thro its varied turns and stops	B
The nightingale its ditty weaves	B
Hid in a multitude of leaves	B
The boy stops short to hear the strain	C2
And 'sweet jug jug' he mocks again	C2
The yellow hammer builds its nest	O2
By banks where sun beams earliest rest	O2
That drys the dews from off the grass	B
Shading it from all that pass	B
Save the rude boy wi ferret gaze	B
That hunts thro evry secret maze	B
He finds its pencild eggs agen	C2
All streakd wi lines as if a pen	C2
By natures freakish hand was took	L2
To scrawl them over like a book	L2
And from these many mozzling marks	B
The school boy names them 'writing larks'	B
Bum barrels twit on bush and tree	A3
Scarse bigger then a bumble bee	A3
And in a white thorns leafy rest	O2
It builds its curious pudding nest	O2
Wi hole beside as if a mouse	B
Had built the little barrel house	B
Toiling full many a lining feather	A3
And bits of grey tree moss together	A3
Amid the noisey rooky park	L2
Beneath the firdales branches dark	L2
The little golden crested wren	C2
Hangs up his glowing nest agen	C2
And sticks it to the furry leaves	B
As martins theirs beneath the eaves	B
The old hens leave the roost betimes	B
And oer the garden pailing climbs	B
To scrat the gardens fresh turnd soil	N
And if unwatchd his crops to spoil	N
Oft cackling from the prison yard	O2
To peck about the houseclose sward	O2
Catching at butterflys and things	B
Ere they have time to try their wings	B
The cattle feels the breath of may	M
And kick and toss their heads in play	M
The ass beneath his bags of sand	O2
Oft jerks the string from leaders hand	O2
And on the road will eager stoop	C3
To pick the sprouting thistle up	B3
Oft answering on his weary way	M
Some distant neighbours sobbing bray	M
Dining the ears of driving boy	Q
As if he felt a fit of joy	Q
Wi in its pinfold circle left	O2
Of all its company bereft	O2
Starvd stock no longer noising round	O2
Lone in the nooks of foddering ground	O2
Each skeleton of lingering stack	L2
By winters tempests beaten black	L2
Nodds upon props or bolt upright	O2
Stands swarthy in the summer light	O2
And oer the green grass seems to lower	A3
Like stump of old time wasted tower	A3
All that in winter lookd for hay	M
Spread from their batterd haunts away	M
To pick the grass or lye at lare	A3
Beneath the mild hedge shadows there	A3
Sweet month that gives a welcome call	N
To toil and nature and to all	N
Yet one day mid thy many joys	B
Is dead to all its sport and noise	B
Old may day where's thy glorys gone	C2
All fled and left thee every one	C2
Thou comst to thy old haunts and homes	B
Unnoticd as a stranger comes	B
No flowers are pluckt to hail the now	C2
Nor cotter seeks a single bough	C2
The maids no more on thy sweet morn	C2
Awake their thresholds to adorn	C2
Wi dewey flowers May locks new come	D2
And princifeathers cluttering bloom	N2
And blue bells from the woodland moss	B
And cowslip cucking balls to toss	B
Above the garlands swinging hight	O2
Hang in the soft eves sober light	O2
These maid and child did yearly pull	N
By many a folded apron full	N
But all is past the merry song	L2
Of maidens hurrying along	L2
To crown at eve the earliest cow	C2
Is gone and dead and silent now	C2
The laugh raisd at the mocking thorn	C2
Tyd to the cows tail last that morn	C2
The kerchief at arms length displayd	O2
Held up by pairs of swain and maid	O2
While others bolted underneath	D3
Bawling loud wi panting breath	E3
'Duck under water' as they ran	C2
Alls ended as they ne'er began	C2
While the new thing that took thy place	B
Wears faded smiles upon its face	B
And where enclosure has its birth	F3
It spreads a mildew oer her mirth	F3
The herd no longer one by one	C2
Goes plodding on her morning way	M
And garlands lost and sports nigh gone	C2
Leaves her like thee a common day	M
Yet summer smiles upon thee still	N
Wi natures sweet unalterd will	N
And at thy births unworshipd hours	B
Fills her green lap wi swarms of flowers	B
To crown thee still as thou hast been	C2
Of spring and summer months the queen	C2

John Clare

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