The Everlasting Mercy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABC DAAAA DEEFFCCGG CDCCHH CCBBCCDDAACCADCCACAC AACICIJJCCBB KKHH BBLLDDMMCC CCCC BBAADDNNDDKKCCBBDD CCMMHHAABBCCCCDDCCBB DDOOKKF FHHPP CCDDCCCCCCQCQ CCBBCCBBCCCCHHCC BBDDCCCCBBCCHHRRAA BBSSBBBBFFDDQ TTBBBBDDCCCCCCCCDDCC C CDCDUUCC VVCCCCJJCCCCOOBB DDDDAACCCCCC CCWWAAJJCCCCCCCCCCBB HHCCCC XYHHFFCCBBCCBBCCBBCC CCZZCC B BBBMMKKAAZZCCBBQQBBC C BBCCHHFFHHMMAAAAZZHH FFBBAAFFBBHHHHHHAA CCA2A2OOB2B2CCAAAKKC CCCXXAACCAA CCC2C2CCCCD2D2 HHAACCCCCCCC RRAAHHBBBBCCZZBBBBWW CCHHBBE2E2CCCCAACC HHCCCCBBBBCCF2F2CCG2 G2CCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCAACCBBCCHHBBBB CCHH CCCCAACHHAAAACCCCBBB B BBCCH2H2CCCCAA CCBBHHHHBBCCHHF2F2CC CCCCF2F2AACCCCAACCCC BBHHBBBBAACC HHCCCCCCCCI2I2HHCCCC HHCCCCCC CCZZBB CCAAF2F2AACCF2F2BBBB CCCF2CCBBBBCCCCCCAAH HCCCBB BBBBF2F2CCF2F2F2F2ZZ CCBBBBCCBBBBCCBBCCHH CCJ2J2CCF2F2F2F2BBK2 K2BBCCBB BBAAAACCI2I2HHAA F2F2BBF2F2BBCCCCAAJJ BBF2F2AACCCBBBBCC CCL2CCCZZOOOO CCWWCCBBM2M2CCCCBBF2 F2 AACCBBBBHHCCN2JM2M2C CCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCO2O2CC CCHHCCBBBBF2F2CCF2F2 F2F2HHBBBB BB P2P2CCCCCCF2F2HHF2F2 CCCCHHCCF2F2Q2Q2CCR2 R2CCCCCCHHCCCC CCAACCCCCCCCF2F2M2M2 CCCCCCCCCCWW CCCCCCF2F2AACCCCCCCC F2F2 F2F2BBF2F2CCCCCCAACC CCS2S2WWJJ CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCHH T2T2AACCCCCCCCJJCCCC CCCC F2F2CCHHCCCCCC CCCCAACCCCCCCCE2E2CC CC CCAAF2F2HHF2F2CCCCCC CCCCCCBB HHCCF2F2CCCCCCCC CCF2F2CCJJAA AACCCCCCCCCCF2F2CCCC CCCCCCCCAACCCCCCE2E2 E2E2HHF2F2 AF2F2CCCCCCF2F2CC AAJJCCCCCCHHCCF2F2CC JJ CCF2F2CCCCCCCCCCCCAA CCJJCCF2F2CC CCAAF2F2CCCCCCCCCCF2 F2JJAACC ZZCCZZ CCCCCCCCF2F2JJJJAAJJ AACCCCJJCCCCCCCCHHCC AACCHHJJCCCCCCJJ HHCCCCCCF2F2CCHHCCF2 F2CCAACCAAAACCCACCF2 F2CCCC CCCCCCCCCCF2F2F2F2AA CCCCCCCCCC F2F2CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC JJCCAACCJJC F2 C AAACCCCAACC F2F2CCAACCCCJJ CCCCCCAACCCCCCCCHHHF 2F2CC AACCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCF2 F2CCF2F2CC ZZCCM2M2CC CCCCCCCCBBCCCC HHCC F2 F2F2U2U2 CCCCCCCCCCF2F2CCCCCC AACCCCWWCCCCCCAACCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHJJ CCCCJJCCCCTT F2F2CCAACCCCJJCCF2F2 CCCCM2M2AAHHE2E2 CCCCCCCCHHF2F2HHJJCC CCCC CCAACCF2F2AACCCCCC CCHHCCHHF2F2CCF2F2E2 E2JJCCCCCCAACCCC AAF2F2CCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCHHZZCC E2E2HH CCCCCCCCCCHHCC CCCCCC

Thy place is biggyd above the sterrys cleer	A
Noon erthely paleys wrouhte in so statly wyse	B
Com on my freend my brothir moost enteer	A
For the I offryd my blood in sacrifise	B
John Lydgate	C
	-
	-
From ' to '	-
I was folk's contrary son	D
I bit my father's hand right through	A
And broke my mother's heart in two	A
I sometimes go without my dinner	A
Now that I know the times I've gi'n her	A
	-
From ' to '	-
I cut my teeth and took to fun	D
I learned what not to be afraid of	E
And what stuff women's lips are made of	E
I learned with what a rosy feeling	F
Good ale makes floors seem like the ceiling	F
And how the moon give shiny light	C
To lads as roll home singing by't	C
My blood did leap my flesh did revel	G
Saul Kane was tokened to the devil	G
	-
From ' to'	C
I lived in disbelief of Heaven	D
I drunk I fought I poached I whored	C
I did despite unto the Lord	C
I cursed 'would make a man look pale	H
And nineteen times I went to gaol	H
	-
Now friends observe and look upon me	C
Mark how the Lord took pity on me	C
By Dead Man's Thorn while setting wires	B
Who should come up but Billy Myers	B
A friend of mine who used to be	C
As black a sprig of hell as me	C
With whom I'd planned to save encroachin'	D
Which fields and coverts each should poach in	D
Now when he saw me set my snare	A
He tells me Get to hell from there	A
This field is mine he says by right	C
If you poach here there'll be a fight	C
Out now he says and leave your wire	A
It's mine	D
It ain't	C
You put	C
You liar	A
You closhy put	C
You bloody liar	A
This is my field	C
This is my wire	A
I'm ruler here	A
You ain't	C
I am	I
I'll fight you for it	C
Right by damn	I
Not now though I've a sprained my thumb	J
We'll fight after the harvest hum	J
And Silas Jones that bookie wide	C
Will make a purse five pounds a side	C
Those were the words that was the place	B
By which God brought me into grace	B
	-
On Wood Top Field the peewits go	K
Mewing and wheeling ever so	K
And like the shaking of a timbrel	H
Cackles the laughter of the whimbrel	H
	-
In the old quarry pit they say	B
Head keeper Pike was made away	B
He walks head keeper Pike for harm	L
He taps the windows of the farm	L
The blood drips from his broken chin	D
He taps and begs to be let in	D
On Wood Top nights I've shaked to hark	M
The peewits wambling in the dark	M
Lest in the dark the old man might	C
Creep up to me to beg a light	C
	-
But Wood Top grass is short and sweet	C
And springy to a boxer's feet	C
At harvest hum the moon so bright	C
Did shine on Wood Top for the fight	C
	-
When Bill was stripped down to his bends	B
I thought how long we two'd been friends	B
And in my mind about that wire	A
I thought He's right I am a liar	A
As sure as skilly's made in prison	D
The right to poach that copse is his'n	D
I'll have no luck tonight thinks I	N
I'm fighting to defend a lie	N
And this moonshiny evening's fun	D
Is worse than aught I've ever done	D
And thinking that way my heart bled so	K
I almost stept to Bill and said so	K
And now Bill's dead I would be glad	C
If I could only think I had	C
But no I put the thought away	B
For fear of what my friends would say	B
They'd backed me see O Lord the sin	D
Done for things there's money in	D
	-
The stakes were drove the ropes were hitched	C
Into the ring my hat I pitched	C
My corner faced the Squire's park	M
Just where the fir trees make it dark	M
The place where I begun poor Nell	H
Upon the woman's road to hell	H
I thought of't sitting in my corner	A
After the time keep struck his warner	A
Two brandy flasks for fear of noise	B
Clinked out the time to us two boys	B
And while the seconds chafed and gloved me	C
I thought of Nell's eyes when she loved me	C
And wondered how my tot would end	C
First Nell cast off and now my friend	C
And in the moonlight dim and wan	D
I knew quite well my luck was gone	D
And looking round I felt a spite	C
At all who'd come to see me fight	C
The five and forty human faces	B
Inflamed by drink and going to races	B
Faces of men who'd never been	D
Merry or true or live or clean	D
Who'd never felt the boxer's trim	O
Of brain divinely knit to limb	O
Nor felt the whole live body go	K
One tingling health from top to toe	K
Nor took a punch nor given a swing	F
	-
But just soaked dead round the ring	F
Until their brains and bloods were foul	H
Enough to make their throttles howl	H
While we whom Jesus died to teach	P
Fought round on round three minutes each	P
	-
And think that you'll understand	C
I thought I'll go and take Bill's hand	C
I'll up and say the fault was mine	D
He shan't make play for these here swine	D
And then I thought that that was silly	C
They'd think I was afraid of Billy	C
They'd think I thought it God forgive me	C
I funked the hiding Bill could give me	C
And that thought made me mad and hot	C
Think that will they Well they shall not	C
They shan't think that I will not I'm	Q
Damned if I will I will not	C
Time	Q
	-
From the beginning of the bout	C
My luck was gone my hand was out	C
Right from the start Bill called the play	B
But I was quick and kept away	B
Till the fourth round when work got mixed	C
And then I knew Bill had me fixed	C
My hand was out why Heaven knows	B
Bill punched me when and where he chose	B
Through two more rounds we quartered wide	C
And all the time my hands seemed tied	C
Bill punched me when and where he pleased	C
The cheering from my backers eased	C
But every punch I heard a yell	H
Of That's the style Bill give him hell	H
No one for me but Jimmy's light	C
Straight left Straight left and Watch his right	C
	-
I don't know how a boxer goes	B
When all his body hums from blows	B
I know I seemed to rock and spin	D
I don't know how I saved my chin	D
I know I thought my only friend	C
Was that clinked flash at each round's end	C
When my two seconds Ed and Jimmy	C
Had sixty seconds help to gimme	C
But in the ninth with pain and knocks	B
I stopped I couldn't fight nor box	B
Bill missed his swing the light was tricky	C
But I went down and stayed down dicky	C
Get up cried Jim I said I will	H
Then all the gang yelled Out him bill	H
Out him Bill rushed and Clink Clink Clink	R
Time And Jim's knee and rum to drink	R
And round the ring there ran a titter	A
Saved by the call the bloody quitter	A
	-
They drove a dodge that never fails	B
A pin beneath my finger nails	B
They poured what seemed a running beck	S
Of cold spring water down my neck	S
Jim with a lancet quick as flies	B
Lowered the swelling round my eyes	B
They sluiced my legs and fanned my face	B
Through all that blessed minute's grace	B
They gave my calves a thorough kneading	F
They salved my cuts and stopped the bleeding	F
A gulp of liquor dulled the pain	D
And then the flasks clinked again	D
Time	Q
	-
There was Bill as grim as death	T
He rushed I clinched to get more breath	T
And breath I got though Billy bats	B
Some stinging short arms in my slats	B
And when we broke as I foresaw	B
He swung his right in for the jaw	B
I stopped it on my shoulder bone	D
And at the shock I heard Bill groan	D
A little groan or moan or grunt	C
As though I'd hit his wind a bunt	C
At that I clinched and while we clinched	C
His old time right arm dig was flinched	C
And when we broke he hit me light	C
As though he didn't trust his right	C
He flapped me somehow with his wrist	C
As though he couldn't use his fist	C
And when he hit he winced with pain	D
I thought Your sprained thumb's crocked again	D
So I got strength and Bill gave ground	C
And that round was an easy round	C
	-
During the wait my Jimmy said	C
	-
What's making Billy fight so dead	C
He's all to pieces Is he blown	D
His thumb's out	C
No Then it's your own	D
It's all your own but don't be rash	U
He's got the goods if you've got the cash	U
And what one hand can do he'll do	C
Be careful this next round or two	C
	-
Time There was Bill and I felt sick	V
That luck should play so mean a trick	V
And give me leave to knock him out	C
After he'd plainly won the bout	C
But by the way the man came at me	C
He made it plain he meant to bat me	C
If you'd a seen the way he come	J
You wouldn't think he'd crocked a thumb	J
With all his skill and all his might	C
He clipped me dizzy left and right	C
The Lord knows what the effort cost	C
but he was mad to think he'd lost	C
And knowing nothing else could save him	O
He didn't care what pain it gave him	O
He called the music and the dance	B
For five rounds more and gave no chance	B
	-
Try to imagine if you can	D
The kind of manhood in the man	D
And if you'd like to feel his pain	D
You sprain your thumb and hit the sprain	D
And hit it hard with all your power	A
On something hard for half an hour	A
While someone thumps you black and blue	C
And then you'll know what Billy knew	C
Bill took that pain without a sound	C
Till halfway through the eighteenth round	C
And then I sent him down and out	C
And Silas said Kane wins the bout	C
	-
When Bill came to you understand	C
I ripped the mitten from my hand	C
And across to ask Bill shake	W
My limbs were all one pain and ache	W
I was so weary and so sore	A
I don't think I'd a stood much more	A
Bill in his corner bathed his thumb	J
Buttoned his shirt and glowered glum	J
I'll never shake your hand he said	C
I'd rather see my children dead	C
I've been about had some fun with you	C
But you're a liar and I've done with you	C
You've knocked me out you didn't beat me	C
Look out the next time that you meet me	C
There'll be no friend to watch the clock for you	C
And no convenient thumb to crock for you	C
And I'll take care with much delight	C
You'll get what you'd a got tonight	C
That puts my meaning clear I guess	B
Now get to hell I want to dress	B
	-
	-
	-
I dressed My backers one and all	H
Said Well done you or Good old Saul	H
Saul is a wonder and a fly 'un	C
What'll you have Saul at the Lion	C
With merry oaths they helped me down	C
The stony wood path to the town	C
	-
The moonlight shone on Cabbage Walk	X
It made the limestone look like chalk	Y
It was too late for any people	H
Twelve struck as we went by the steeple	H
A dog barked and an owl was calling	F
The squire's brook was still a falling	F
The carved heads on the church looked down	C
On Russell Blacksmith of this Town	C
And all the graves of all the ghosts	B
Who rise on Christmas Eve in hosts	B
To dance and carol in festivity	C
For joy of Jesus Christ's Nativity	C
Bell ringer Dawe and his two sons	B
Beheld 'em from the bell tower once	B
To and two about about	C
Singing the end of Advent out	C
Dwindling down to windlestraws	B
When the glittering peacock craws	B
As craw the glittering peacock should	C
When Christ's own star come over the wood	C
Lamb of the sky comes out of fold	C
Wandering windy heavens cold	C
So they shone and sang till twelve	Z
When all the bells ring out of theirselve	Z
Rang a peal for Christmas morn	C
Glory men for Christ is born	C
	-
All the old monks' singing places	B
	-
Glimmered quick with flitting faces	B
Singing anthems singing hymns	B
Under carven cherubims	B
Ringer Dave aloft could mark	M
Faces at the window dark	M
Crowding crowding row on row	K
Till all the church began to glow	K
The chapel glowed the nave the choir	A
All he faces became fire	A
Below the eastern window high	Z
To see Christ's star come up the sky	Z
Then they lifted hands and turned	C
And all their lifted fingers burned	C
Burned like the golden altar tallows	B
Burned like a troop of God's own Hallows	B
Bringing to mind the burning time	Q
When all the bells will rock and chime	Q
And burning saints on burning horses	B
Will sweep the planets from their courses	B
And loose the stars to burn up night	C
Lord give us eyes to bear the light	C
	-
We all went quiet down the Scallenge	B
Lest Police Inspector Drew should challenge	B
But 'Spector Drew was sleeping sweet	C
His head upon a charges sheet	C
Under the gas jet flaring full	H
Snorting and snoring like a bull	H
His bull cheeks puffed his bull lips plowing	F
His ugly yellow front teeth showing	F
Just as we peeped we saw him fumble	H
And scratch his head and shift and mumble	H
Down in the lane so thick and dark	M
The tan yards stank of bitter bark	M
The curate's pigeons gave a flutter	A
A cart went courting down the gutter	A
And none else stirred a foot or feather	A
The houses put their heads together	A
Talking perhaps so dark and sly	Z
Of all the folk they'd seen go by	Z
Children and men and women merry all	H
Who'd some day pass that way to burial	H
It was all dark but at the turning	F
The Lion had a window burning	F
So in we went and up the stairs	B
Treading as still as cats and hares	B
The way the stairs creaked made you wonder	A
If dead men's bones were hidden under	A
At head of stairs upon the landing	F
A woman with a lamp was standing	F
she greet each gent at head of stairs	B
With Step in gents and take your chairs	B
The punch'll come when kettle bubble	H
But don't make noise or there'll be trouble	H
'Twas Doxy Jane a bouncing girl	H
With eyes all sparks and hair all curl	H
And cheeks all red and lips all coal	H
And thirst for men instead of soul	H
She's trod her pathway to the fire	A
Old Rivers had his nephew by her	A
	-
I step aside from Tom and Jimmy	C
To find if she'd a kiss to gimme	C
I blew out lamp 'fore she could speak	A2
She said If you ain't got a cheek	A2
And then beside me in the dim	O
Did he beat you or you beat him	O
Why I beat him though that was wrong	B2
She said You must be turble strong	B2
I'd be afraid you'd beat me too	C
You'd not I said I wouldn't do	C
Never	A
No never	A
Never	A
No	K
O Saul Here's missus Let me go	K
It wasn't missus so I didn't	C
Whether I mid do or I midn't	C
Until she'd promised we should meet	C
Next evening six at top of street	C
When we could have a quiet talk	X
On that low wall up Worcester Walk	X
And while we whispered there together	A
I give her silver for a feather	A
And felt a drunkenness like wine	C
And shut out Christ in husks and swine	C
I felt the dart strike through my liver	A
God punish me for't and forgive her	A
	-
Each one could be a Jesus mild	C
Each one has been a little child	C
A little child with laughing look	C2
A lovely white unwritten book	C2
A book that God will take my friend	C
As each goes out a journey's end	C
The Lord Who gave us Earth and Heaven	C
Takes that as thanks for all He's given	C
The book He lent is given back	D2
All blotted red and smutted black	D2
	-
Open the door said Jim and call	H
Jane gasped They'll see me Loose me Saul	H
She pushed me by and ducked downstair	A
With half the pins out of her hair	A
I went inside the lit room rollen	C
Her scented handkerchief I'd stolen	C
What would you fancy Saul they said	C
A gin punch hot and then to bed	C
Jane fetch the punch bowl to the gemmen	C
And mind you don't put too much lemon	C
Our good friend Saul has had a fight of it	C
Now smoke up boys and make a night of it	C
	-
The room was full of men and stink	R
Of bad cigars and heavy drink	R
Riley was nodding to the floor	A
And gurgling as he wanted more	A
His mouth was wide his face was pale	H
His swollen face was sweating ale	H
And one of those assembled Greeks	B
Had corked black crosses on his cheeks	B
Thomas was having words with Goss	B
He wouldn't pay the fight was cross	B
And Goss told Tom that cross or no	C
The bets go as the verdicts go	C
By all I've ever heard or read of	Z
So pay or else I'll knock your head off	Z
Jim Gurvil said his smutty say	B
About a girl down Bye Street way	B
And how the girl from Froggatt's circus	B
Died giving birth in Newent work'us	B
And Dick told how the Dymock wench	W
Bore twins poor things on Dog Hill bench	W
And how he'd owned to one Court	C
And how Judge made him sorry for't	C
Jack set a jew's harp twanging drily	H
gimme another cup said Riley	H
A dozen more were in their glories	B
With laughs and smokes and smutty stories	B
And Jimmy joked and took his sup	E2
And sang his song of Up come up	E2
Jane brought the bowl of stewing gin	C
And poured the egg and lemon in	C
And whisked it up and served it out	C
While bawdy questions went about	C
Jack chucked her chin and Jim accost her	A
With bits out of the Maid of Gloster	A
And fifteen arms went round her waist	C
And then men ask Are Barmaids chaste	C
	-
O young men pray to be kept whole	H
from bringing down a weaker soul	H
Your minute's joy so meet in doin'	C
May be the woman's door to ruin	C
The door to wandering up and down	C
A painted whore with half a crown	C
The bright mind fouled the beauty gay	B
All eaten out and fallen away	B
By drunken days and weary tramps	B
From pub to pub by city lamps	B
Till men despise the game they started	C
Till health and beauty are departed	C
and in a slum the reeking hag	F2
Mumbles a crust with toothy jag	F2
Or gets the river's help to end	C
The life too wrecked for man to mend	C
We spat and smoked and took our swipe	G2
Till Silas up and tap his pipe	G2
And begged us all to pay attention	C
Because he'd several things to mention	C
We'd seen the fight Hear hear That's you	C
But still one task remained to do	C
That task was his he didn't shun it	C
To give the purse to him as won it	C
With this remark from start to out	C
He'd never seen a brisker bout	C
There was the purse At that he'd leave it	C
Let Kane come forward to receive it	C
	-
I took the purse and hemmed and bowed	C
And called for gin punch for the crowd	C
And when the second bowl was done	C
I called Let's have another one	C
Si's wife come in and sipped and sipped	C
As women will till she was pipped	C
And Si hit Dicky Twot a clouter	A
Because he put his arms about her	A
But after Si got overtasked	C
She sat and kissed whoever asked	C
My Doxy Jane was splashed by this	B
I took her on my knee to kiss	B
And Tom cried out O damn the gin	C
Why can't we all have women in	C
Bess Evans now or Sister Polly	H
Or those two housemaids at the Folly	H
Let someone nip to Biddy Price's	B
They'd all come in a brace of trices	B
Rose Davies Sue and Betsy Perks	B
One man one girl and damn all Turks	B
But no More gin they cried Come on	C
We'll have the girls in when it's gone	C
So round the g in went hot and heady	H
Hot Hollands punch on top of deady	H
	-
Hot Hollands punch on top of stout	C
Puts madness in and wisdom out	C
From drunken man to drunken man	C
The drunken madness raged and ran	C
I'm climber Joe who climbed the spire	A
You're climber Joe the bloody liar	A
Who says I lie I do	C
You lie	H
I climbed the spire and had a fly	H
I'm French Suzanne the Circus Dancer	A
I'm going to dance a bloody Lancer	A
If I'd my rights I'm Squire's heir	A
By rights I'd be a millionaire	A
By rights I'd be the lord of you	C
But Farmer Scriggins had his do	C
He done me so I've had to hoove it	C
I've got it all wrote down to prove it	C
And one of these dark winter nights	B
He'll learn I mean to have my rights	B
I'll bloody him a bloody fix	B
I'll bloody burn his bloody ricks	B
	-
From three long hours of gin and smokes	B
And two girls' breath and fifteen blokes	B
A warmish night and windows shut	C
The room stank like a fox's gut	C
The heat and smell and drinking deep	H2
Began to stun the gang to sleep	H2
Some fell downstairs to sleep on mat	C
Some snored it sodden where they sat	C
Dick Twot had lost a tooth and wept	C
But all the drunken others slept	C
Jane slept beside me in the chair	A
And I got up I wanted air	A
	-
I opened window wide and leaned	C
Out of that pigstye of the fiend	C
And felt a cool wind go like grace	B
About the sleeping market place	B
The clock struck three and sweetly slowly	H
The bells chimed Holy Holy Holy	H
And in a second's pause there fell	H
The cold note of the chapel bell	H
And then a cock crew flapping wings	B
And summat made me think of things	B
How long those ticking clocks had gone	C
From church to chapel on and on	C
Ticking the time out ticking slow	H
To men and girls who'd come and go	H
And how they ticked in belfry dark	F2
When half the town was bishop's park	F2
And how they'd run a chime full tilt	C
The night after the church was built	C
And that night was Lambert's Feast	C
The night I'd fought and been a beast	C
And how a change had come And then	C
I thought You tick to different men	C
What with the fight and what with drinking	F2
And being awake alone there thinking	F2
My mind began to carp and tetter	A
If this life's all the beasts are better	A
And then I thought I wish I'd seen	C
The many towns this town has been	C
I wish I knew if they'd a got	C
A kind of summat we've a not	C
If them as built the church so fair	A
Were half the chaps folk say they were	A
For they'd the skill to draw their plan	C
And skill's a joy to any man	C
And they'd the strength not skill alone	C
To build it beautiful in stone	C
And strength and skill together thus	B
O they were happier men than us	B
But if they were they had to die	H
The same as every one and I	H
And no one lives again but dies	B
And all the bright goes out of eyes	B
and all the skill goes out of hands	B
And all the wise brain understands	B
And all the beauty all the power	A
Is cut down like a withered flower	A
In all the show from birth to rest	C
I give the poor dumb cattle best	C
	-
I wondered then why life should be	H
And what would be the end of me	H
When youth and health and strength were gone	C
And cold old age came creeping on	C
A keeper's gun The Union ward	C
Or that new quod at Hereford	C
And looking round I felt disgust	C
At all the nights of drink and lust	C
And all the looks of all the swine	C
Who'd said that they were friends of mine	C
And yet I knew when morning came	I2
The morning would be just the same	I2
for I'd have drinks and Jane would meet me	H
And drunken Silas Jones would greet me	H
And I'd risk quod and keeper's gun	C
Till all the silly game was done	C
For parson chaps are mad supposin'	C
A chap can change the road he's chosen	C
And then the Devil whispered Saul	H
Why should you want to live at all	H
Why fret and sweat and try to mend	C
It's all the same thing in the end	C
But when it's done he said it's ended	C
Why stand it since it can't be mended	C
And in my heart I heard him plain	C
Throw yourself down and end it Kane	C
	-
Why not said I Why not But no	C
I won't I've never had my go	C
I've not had all the world can give	Z
Death by and by but first I'll live	Z
The world owes me my time of times	B
And that time's coming now by crimes	B
	-
A madness took me then I felt	C
I'd like to hit the world a belt	C
I felt that I could fly through air	A
A screaming star with blazing hair	A
A rushing comet crackling numbing	F2
The folk with fear of judgment coming	F2
A 'Lijah in a fiery car	A
Coming to tell folk what they are	A
That's what I'll do I shouted loud	C
I'll tell this sanctimonious crowd	C
This town of window peeping prying	F2
Maligning peering hinting lying	F2
Male and female human blots	B
Who would but daren't be whores and sots	B
That they're so steeped in petty vice	B
That they're less excellent than lice	B
That touching one of them will dirt you	C
Dirt you with the stain of mean	C
Cheating trade and going between	C
Pinching starving scraping hoarding	F2
To see if Sue the prentice lean	C
Dares to touch the margarine	C
Fawning cringing oiling boots	B
Raging in the crowd's pursuits	B
Flinging stones at all the Stephens	B
Standing firm with all the evens	B
Making hell for all the odd	C
All the lonely ones of God	C
Those poor lonely ones who find	C
Dogs more mild than human kind	C
For dogs I said are nobles born	C
To most of you you cockled corn	C
I've known dogs to leave their dinner	A
Nosing a kind heart in a sinner	A
Poor old Crafty wagged his tail	H
The day I first came home from jail	H
When all my folk so primly clad	C
Glowered black and thought me mad	C
And muttered how they'd all expected	C
I've thought of that old dog for years	B
And of how near I come to tears	B
	-
But you you minds of bread and cheese	B
Are less divine tha n that dog's fleas	B
You suck blood from kindly friends	B
And kill them when it serves your ends	B
Double traitors double black	F2
Stabbing only in the back	F2
Stabbing with the knives you borrow	C
From the friends you bring to sorrow	C
You stab all that's true and strong	F2
Truth and strength you say are wrong	F2
Meek and mild and sweet and creeping	F2
Repeating canting cadging peeping	F2
That's the art and that's the life	Z
To win a man his neighbour's wife	Z
All that's good and all that's true	C
You kill that so I'll kill you	C
At that I tore my clothes in shreds	B
And hurled them on the window leads	B
I flung my boots through both the winders	B
And knocked the glass to little flinders	B
The punch bowl and the tumblers followed	C
and then I seized the lamps and holloed	C
And down the stairs and tore back bolts	B
As mad as twenty blooded colts	B
And out into the street I pass	B
As mad as two year olds at grass	B
A naked madman saving grand	C
A blazing lamp in either hand	C
I yelled like twenty drunken sailors	B
The devil's come among the tailors	B
A blaze of flame behind me streamed	C
And then I clashed the lamps and screamed	C
I'm Satan newly come from hell	H
And then I spied the fire bell	H
	-
I've been a ringer so I know	C
How best to make a big bell go	C
So on to bell rope swift swoop	J2
And stick my one foot in the loop	J2
And heave a down swig till I groan	C
Awake you swine you devil's own	C
I made the fire bell awake	F2
I felt the bell rope throb and shake	F2
I felt the air mingle and clang	F2
And beat the walls a muffled bang	F2
And stifle back and boom and bay	B
Like muffled peals on Boxing Day	B
And then surge up and gather shape	K2
And spread great pinions and escape	K2
And each great bird of clanging shrieks	B
O Fire Fire from iron beaks	B
My shoulders cracked to send around	C
Those shrieking birds made out of sound	C
With news of fire in their bills	B
They heard 'em plain beyond Wall Hills	B
	-
Up go the winders out come heads	B
I heard the springs go creak in beds	B
But still I heave and sweat and tire	A
And still the clang goes Fire Fire	A
Where is it then Who is it there	A
You ringer stop and tell us where	A
Run round and let the Captain know	C
It must be bad he's ringing so	C
It's in the town I see the flame	I2
Look there Look there how red it came	I2
Where is it then O stop the bell	H
I stopped and called It's fire of hell	H
And this is Sodom and Gomorrah	A
And now I'll burn you up begorra	A
	-
By this time firemen were mustering	F2
The half dressed stable men were flustering	F2
Backing the horses out of stalls	B
While this man swears and that man bawls	B
Don't take th'old mare Back Toby back	F2
Back Lincoln Where's the fire Jack	F2
Damned if I know Out Preston way	B
No It's at Chancey's Pitch they say	B
It's sixteen ricks at Pauntley burnt	C
You back old Darby out I durn't	C
They ran the big red engine out	C
And put 'em to with damn and shout	C
And then they start to raise the shire	A
Who brought the news and where's the fire	A
They's moonlight lamps and gas to light 'em	J
I give a screech owl's screech to fright 'em	J
And snatch from underneath their noses	B
The nozzles of the fire hoses	B
I am the fire Back stand back	F2
Or else I'll fetch your skulls a crack	F2
D'you see these copper nozzles here	A
They weigh ten pounds a piece my dear	A
I'm fire of hell come up this minute	C
To burn this town and burn you clean	C
You cogwheels in a stopped machine	C
You hearts of snakes and brains of pigeons	B
You dead devout of dead religions	B
You offspring of the hen and ass	B
By Pilate ruled and Caiaphas	B
Now your account is totted Learn	C
Hell's flames are loose and you shall burn	C
	-
At that I leaped and screamed and ran	C
I heard their cries go Catch him man	C
Who was it Down him Out him Em	L2
Duck him at pump we'll see who'll burn	C
A policeman clutched a fireman clutched	C
A dozen others snatched and touched	C
By God he's stripped down to his buff	Z
By God we'll make him warm enough	Z
After him Catch him Out him Scrob him	O
We'll give him hell By God we'll mob him	O
We'll duck him scrout him flog him fratch him	O
All right I said But first you'll catch him	O
	-
The men who don't know to the root	C
The joy of being swift of foot	C
Have never known divine and fresh	W
The glory of the gift of flesh	W
Nor felt the feet exult not gone	C
Along a dim road on and on	C
Knowing again the bursting glows	B
the mating hare in April knows	B
Who tingles to the pads with mirth	M2
At being the swiftest thing on earth	M2
O if you want to know delight	C
Run naked in an autumn night	C
And laugh as I laughed then to find	C
A running rabble drop behind	C
and whang on ever door you pass	B
Two copper nozzles tipped with brass	B
And double whang at every turning	F2
And yell All hell's loose and burning	F2
	-
I beat my brass and shouted fire	A
At doors of parson lawyer squire	A
at all three doors I threshed and slammed	C
And yelled aloud that they were damned	C
I clodded squire's glass with turves	B
Because he spring gunned his preserves	B
Through parson's glass my nozzle swishes	B
Because he stood for loaves and fishes	B
but parson's glass I spared a tittle	H
He give me a orange once when little	H
And he who gives a child a treat	C
Makes joy bells ring in Heaven's street	C
And he who gives a child a home	N2
Build palaces in Kingdom come	J
and she who gives a baby birth	M2
Brings Saviour Christ again to Earth	M2
For life is joy and mind is fruit	C
And body's precious earth and root	C
But lawyer's glass well never mind	C
Th' old Adam's strong in me I find	C
God pardon man and may God's son	C
Forgive the evil things I've done	C
	-
What more By Dirty Lane I crept	C
Back to the Lion where I slept	C
The raging madness hot and floodin'	C
Boiled itself out and left me sudden	C
Left me worn out and sick and cold	C
Aching as though I'd all grown old	C
So there I lay and there they found me	C
On door mat with a curtain round me	C
Si took my heels and Jane my head	C
And laughed and carried me to bed	C
And from the neighbouring street they reskied	C
My boots and trousers coat and weskit	C
They bath bricked both the nozzles bright	C
To be mementoes of the night	C
And knowing what I should awake with	O2
They flanelled me a quart to slake with	O2
And sat and shook till half past two	C
Expecting Police Inspector Drew	C
I woke and drank nd went to meat	C
In clothes still dirty from the street	C
Down in the bar I hear 'em tell	H
How someone rang the fire bell	H
And how th'inspector's search had thriven	C
And how five pounds reward was given	C
And shepherd Boyce of Marley glad us	B
By saying was blokes from mad'us	B
Or two young rips lodged at the Prince	B
Whom none had seen nor heard of since	B
Or that young blade from Worcester Walk	F2
You know how country people talk	F2
Young Joe the ostler come in sad	C
He said th'old mare had bit his dad	C
He said there'd come a blazing screeching	F2
Daft Bible prophet chap a preaching	F2
Had put th'old mare in such a taking	F2
she'd thought the bloody earth was quaking	F2
And others come and spread a tale	H
Of cut throats out of Gloucester jail	H
And how we needed extra cops	B
With all them Welsh come picking hops	B
With drunken Welsh in all our sheds	B
We might be murdered in our beds	B
	-
By all accounts both men and wives	B
Had had the scare up of their lives	B
	-
I ate and drank and gathered strength	P2
And stretched along the bench full length	P2
Or crossed to window seat to pat	C
Black Silas Jones's little cat	C
At four I called You devil's own	C
The second trumpet shall be blown	C
The second trump the second blast	C
Hell's flames are loosed and judgment's passed	C
Too late for mercy now Take warning	F2
I'm death and hell and Judgment morning	F2
I hurled the bench into the settle	H
I banged the table on the kettle	H
I sent Joe's quart of cider spinning	F2
Lo here begins my second inning	F2
Each bottle mug and jug and pot	C
I smashed to crocks in half a tot	C
And Joe and Si and Nick and Percy	C
I rolled together topsy versy	C
And as I ran I heard 'em call	H
Now damn to hell what's gone with Saul	H
Out into street I ran uproarious	C
The devil dancing in me glorious	C
And as I ran I yell and shriek	F2
Come on now turn the other cheek	F2
Across the way by almshouse pump	Q2
I see old puffing parson stump	Q2
Old parson red eyed as a ferret	C
From nightly wrestlings with the spirit	C
I ran acrosss and barred his path	R2
His turkey gills went red as wrath	R2
And then he froze as parsons can	C
The police will deal with you my man	C
Not yet said I not yet they won't	C
And now you'll hear me like or don't	C
The English Church both is and was	C
A subsidy of Caiaphas	C
I don't believe in Prayer or Bible	H
They're lies all through and you're a libel	H
A libel on the Devil's plan	C
When first he miscreated man	C
You mumble through a formal code	C
To get which martyrs burned and blowed	C
	-
I look on martyrs as mistakes	C
But still they burned for it at stakes	C
Your only fire's the jolly fire	A
Where you can guzzle port with Squire	A
And back and praise his damned opinions	C
About his temporal dominions	C
You let him give the man who digs	C
A filthy hut unfit for pigs	C
Without a well without a drain	C
With mossy thatch that lets in rain	C
Without a 'lotment 'less he rent it	C
And never meat unless he scent it	C
But weekly doles of 'leven shilling	F2
To make a grown man strong and willing	F2
To do the hardest work on earth	M2
And feed his wife when she gives birth	M2
And feed his little children's bones	C
I tell you man the Devil groans	C
With all your main and all your might	C
You back what is against what's right	C
You let the Squire do things like these	C
You back him in't and give him ease	C
You take his hand and drink his wine	C
And he's a hog but you're a swine	C
For you take gold to teach God's ways	C
And teach man how to sing God's praise	C
And now I'll tell you what you teach	W
In downright honest English speech	W
	-
You teach the ground down starving man	C
That Squire's greed's Jehovah's plan	C
You get his learning circumvented	C
Lest it should make him discontented	C
Better a brutal starving nation	C
Than men with thoughts above their station	C
You let him neither read nor think	F2
You goad his wretched soul to drink	F2
And then to jail the drunken boor	A
O sad intemperance of the poor	A
You starve his soul till it's rapscallion	C
Then blame his flesh for being stallion	C
You send your wife around to paint	C
The golden glories of restraint	C
How moral exercise bewild'rin'	C
Would soon result in fewer children	C
You work a day in Squire's fields	C
And see what sweet restraint it yields	C
A woman's day at turnip picking	F2
Your hearts too fat for plough or ricking	F2
	-
And you whom luck taught French and Greek	F2
Have purple flaps on either cheek	F2
A stately house and time for knowledge	B
And gold to send your sons to college	B
That pleasant place where getting learning	F2
Is also key to money earning	F2
But quite your damndest want of grace	C
Is what you do to save your face	C
The way you sit astride the gates	C
By padding wages out of rates	C
Your Christmas gifts of shoddy blankets	C
That every working soul may thank its	C
Loving parson loving squire	A
Through whom he can't afford a fire	A
Your well packed bench your prison pen	C
To keep them something less than men	C
Your friendly clubs to help 'em bury	C
Your charities of midwifery	C
Your bidding children duck and cap	S2
To them who give them workhouse pap	S2
O what you are and what you preach	W
And what you do and what you teach	W
Is not God's Word nor honest schism	J
But Devil's scant and pauperism	J
	-
By this time many folk had gathered	C
To listen to me while I blathered	C
I said my piece and when I'd said it	C
I'll do the purple parson credit	C
He sunk as sometimes parsons can	C
His coat's excuses in the man	C
You'd think the Squire and I are kings	C
Who made the existing state of things	C
And made it ill I answer No	C
States are not made nor patched they grow	C
Grow slow through centuries of pain	C
And grow correctly in the main	C
But only grow by certain laws	C
Of certain bits in certain jaws	C
You want to doctor that Let be	C
You cannot patch a growing tree	C
Put these two words beneath your hat	C
These two securus judicat	C
The social states of human kinds	C
Are made by multitudes of minds	C
And after multitudes of years	C
A little human growth appears	C
Worth having even to the soul	H
Who sees most plain it's not the whole	H
	-
This state is dull and evil both	T2
I keep it in the path of growth	T2
You think the Church an outworn fetter	A
Kane keep it till you've built a better	A
And keep the existing social state	C
I quite agree it's out of date	C
One does too much another shirks	C
Unjust I grant but still it works	C
To get the whole world out of bed	C
And washed and dressed and warmed and fed	C
To work and back to bed again	C
Believe me Saul costs worlds of pain	C
Then as to whether true or sham	J
That book of Christ Whose priest I am	J
The Bible is a lie say you	C
where do you stand suppose it true	C
Goodbye But if you've more to say	C
My doors are open night and day	C
Meanwhile my friend 'twould be no sin	C
To mix more water in your gin	C
We're neither saints nor Philip Sidneys	C
But mortal men with mortal kidneys	C
	-
	-
	-
He took his snuff and wheezed a greeting	F2
And waddled off to mother's meeting	F2
I hung my head upon my chest	C
I give old purple parson best	C
For while the Plough tips round the Pole	H
The trained mind outs the upright soul	H
As Jesus said the trained mind might	C
Being wiser than the sons of light	C
But trained men's minds are spread so thin	C
They let all sorts of darkness in	C
Whatever light man finds they doubt it	C
They love not light but talk about it	C
	-
But parson'd proved to people's eyes	C
That I was drunk and he was wise	C
And people grinned and women tittered	C
And little children mocked and twittered	C
So blazing mad I stalked to bar	A
To show how noble drunkards are	A
And guzzled spirits like a beast	C
To show contempt for Church and priest	C
Until by six my wits went round	C
Like hungry pigs in parish pound	C
At half past six rememb'ring Jane	C
I staggered into street again	C
With mind made up or primed for gin	C
To bash the coop who'd run me in	C
For well I knew I'd have to cock up	E2
My legs that night inside the lock up	E2
And it was my most fixed intent	C
To have a fight before I went	C
Our Fates are strange and no one now his	C
Our lovely Saviour Christ disposes	C
	-
Jane wasn't where we'd planned the jade	C
She'd thought me drunk and hadn't stayed	C
So I went up the Walk to look for her	A
And lingered by the little brook for her	A
And dowsed my face and drank at spring	F2
And watched two wild ducks on the wing	F2
The moon come pale the wind come cool	H
A big pike leapt in Lower Pool	H
The Peacock screamed the clouds were straking	F2
My cut cheek felt the weather breaking	F2
An orange sunset waned and thinned	C
Foretelling rain and western wind	C
And while I watched I heard distinct	C
The metals on the railway clinked	C
The blood edged clouds were all in tatters	C
The sky and earth seemed mad as hatters	C
they had a death look wild and odd	C
Of something dark foretold by God	C
And seeing it so I felt so shaken	C
I wouldn't keep the road I'd taken	C
But wandered back towards the inn	C
Resolved to brace myself with gin	C
And as I walked I said It's strange	B
There's Death let loose to night and Change	B
	-
In Cabbage Walk I made a haul	H
Of two big pears from lawyer's wall	H
And munching one I took the lane	C
Back into Market place again	C
Lamp lighter Dick had passed the turning	F2
And all the Homend lamps were burning	F2
The windows shone the shops were busy	C
But that strange Heaven made me dizzy	C
The sky had all God's warning writ	C
In bloody marks all over it	C
And over all I thought there was	C
A ghastly light besides the gas	C
The Devil's tasks and Devil's rages	C
Were giving me the Devil's wages	C
	-
In Market place it's always light	C
The big shop windows make it bright	C
And in the press of people buying	F2
I spied a little fellow crying	F2
Because his mother'd gone inside	C
And left him there and so he cried	C
And mother'd beat him when she found him	J
And mother's whip would curl right round him	J
And mother'd say h'ed done to crost her	A
Though there being crowds about he'd lost her	A
	-
Lord give to men who are old and rougher	A
The things that little children suffer	A
And let keep bright and undefiled	C
The young years of the little child	C
I pat his head at edge of street	C
And gi'm my second pear to eat	C
Right under lamp I pat his head	C
I'll stay till mother come I said	C
And stay I did and joked and talked	C
And shoppers wondered as they walked	C
There's that Saul Kane the drunken blaggard	C
Talking to little Jimmy Jaggard	C
The drunken blaggard reeks of drink	F2
Whatever will his mother think	F2
Wherever has his mother gone	C
Nip round to Mrs Jaggard's John	C
And say her Jimmy's out again	C
In Market place with boozer Kane	C
When he come out to day he staggered	C
O Jimmy Jaggard Jimmy Jaggard	C
His mother's gone inside to bargain	C
Run in and tell her Polly Margin	C
And tell her poacher Kane is tipsy	C
And selling Jimmy to a gipsy	C
Run in to Mrs Jaggard Ellen	C
Or else dear knows there'll be no tellin'	C
And don't dare leave yer till you've fount her	A
You'll find her at the linen counter	A
I told a tale to Jim's delight	C
Of where the tom cats go by night	C
And how when moonlight came they went	C
Among the chimneys black and bent	C
From roof to roof from house to house	C
With little baskets full of mouse	C
All red and white both joint and chnop	E2
Like meat out of a butcher's shop	E2
Then all along the wall they creep	E2
And everyone is fast asleep	E2
And honey hunting moths go by	H
And by the bread batch crickets cry	H
Then on they hurry never waiting	F2
To lawyer's backyard cellar grating	F2
where Jaggard's cat with clever paw '	-
Unhooks a broke brick's secret door	A
Then down into the cellar black	F2
Across the wood slug's slimy track	F2
Into an old cask's quiet hollow	C
Where they've got seats for what's to follow	C
Then each tom cats light little candles	C
And O the stories and the scandals	C
And O the songs and Christmas carols	C
And O the milk from little barrels	C
They light a fire fit for roasting	F2
And how good mouse meat smells when toasting	F2
Then down they sit to merry feast	C
While moon goes west and sun comes east	C
	-
Sometimes they make so merry there	A
Old lawyer comes to head of stair	A
To 'fend with fist and poker took firm	J
His parchments channeled by the bookworm	J
And all his deeds and all his packs	C
Of withered ink and sealing wax	C
And there he stands with candle raised	C
And listens like a man amazed	C
Or like ghost a man stands dumb at	C
He says Hush Hush I'm sure there's summat	C
He hears outside the brown owl call	H
He hears the death tick tap the wall	H
the gnawing of the wainscot mouse	C
The creaking ujp and down the house	C
The unhooked window's hinges ranging	F2
The sounds that say the wind is changing	F2
At last he turns and shakes his head	C
It's nothing I'll go back to bed	C
	-
And just then Mrs Jaggard came	J
To view and end her Jimmy's shame	J
	-
She made on rush and gi'm a bat	C
And shook him like a dog a rat	C
I can't turn round but what you're straying	F2
I'll give you tales and gipsy playing	F2
I'll give you wand'ring off like this	C
And listening to whatever 'tis	C
You'll laugh the little side of the can	C
You'll have the whip for his my man	C
And not a bite of meat nor bread	C
You'll touch before you go to bed	C
Some day you'll break your mother's heart	C
After God knows she done her part	C
Working her arms off day and night	C
Trying to keep your collars white	C
Look at your face too in the street	C
What dirty filth've you found to eat	C
Now don't you blubber here boy or	A
I'll give you sum't to blubber for	A
She snatched him off from where we stand	C
And knocked the pear core from his hand	C
and looked at me You Devil's limb	J
How dare you talk to Jaggard's Jim	J
You drunken poaching boozing brute you	C
If Jaggard was a man he'd shoot you	C
She glared all this but didn't speak	F2
she gasped white hollows in her cheek	F2
Jimmy was writhing screaming wild	C
The shoppers thought I'd killed the child	C
	-
I had to speak so I begun	C
You oughtn't beat your little son	C
He did no harm but seeing him there	A
I talked to him and gi'm a pear	A
I'm sure the poor child meant no wrong	F2
It's all my fault he stayed so long	F2
He'd not have stayed mum I'll be bound	C
If I'd not chanced to come around	C
It's all my fault he stayed not his	C
I kept him here that's how it is	C
Oh And how dare you then says she	C
How dare yo tempt my boy from me	C
How dare you do't you drunken swine	C
Is he your child or is he mine	C
A drunken sot they've had the beak to	C
Has got his dirty whores to speak to	C
His dirty mates with home he drink	F2
Not little children one would think	F2
Look on him there she says Look on him	J
And smell the stinking gin upon him	J
The lowest sot the drunknest liar	A
The dirtiest dog in all the shire	A
Nice friends for any woman's son	C
After ten years and all she's done	C
	-
For I've had eight and buried five	Z
And only three are left alive	Z
I've given them all we could afford	C
I've taught them all to fear the Lord	C
They've had the best we had to give	Z
The only three the Lord let live	Z
	-
For Minnie whom I love the worst	C
Died mad in childbirth with her first	C
And John and Mary died of measles	C
And Rob was drowned at the Teasels	C
And little Nan dear little sweet	C
A cart run over in the street	C
Her little shift was all one stain	C
I prayed God put her out of pain	C
And all the rest are gone or going	F2
The road to hell and there's no knowing	F2
For all I've done and all I've made them	J
I'd better not have overlaid them	J
For Susan went the ways of shame	J
The time the 'till'ry regiment came	J
And t'have her child without a father	A
I think I'd have her buried father	A
And Dicky boozes God forgimme	J
And now't's to be the same with Jimmy	J
And all I've done and all I've bore	A
Has made a drunkard and a whore	A
A bastard boy who wasn't meant	C
And Jimmy gwine where Dicky went	C
For Dick began the self same way	C
And my old hairs are going gray	C
And my poor man's a withered knee	J
And all the burden falls on me	J
I've washed eight little children's limbs	C
I've taught eight little souls their hymns	C
I've risen sick and lain down pinched	C
And borne it all and never flinched	C
But to see him the town's disgrace	C
With God's commandments broke in's face	C
Who never worked not he nor earned	C
Nor will do till the seas are burned	C
Who never did since he was whole	H
A hand's turn for a human soul	H
But poached and stole and gone with women	C
And swilled down gin enough to swim in	C
To see him only lift a finger	A
To make my little Jimmy linger	A
In spite of all his mother's prayers	C
And all her ten long years of cares	C
and all her broken spirit's cry	H
That drunkard's finger puts them by	H
And Jimmy turns And now I see	J
That just as Dick was Jim will be	J
And all my life will have been in vain	C
I might have spared myself the pain	C
And done the world a blessed riddance	C
If I'd a drowned 'em all like kittens	C
And he the sot so strong and proud	C
Who'd make white shirts of a mother's shroud	C
He laughs now it's a joke to him	J
Though it's the gates of hell for Jim	J
	-
I've had my heart burnt out like coal	H
And drops of blood wrung from my soul	H
Day in day out in pain and tears	C
For five and twenty wretched years	C
And he he's ate the fat and sweet	C
And loafed and spat at top of street	C
And drunk and leched from day till morrow	C
And never known a moment's sorrow	C
He come out drunk from th'inn to look	F2
the day my little Nan was took	F2
He sat there drinking glad and gay	C
The night my girl was led astray	C
He praised my Dick for singing well	H
The night Dick took the road to hell	H
And when my corpse goes stiff and blind	C
Leaving four helpless souls behind	C
He will be there still drunk and strong	F2
It do seem hard It do seem wring	F2
But Woe to him by whom the offense	C
Says our Lord Jesus' Testaments	C
Whatever seems God doth not slumber	A
Though he lets pass times without number	A
He'll come with trump to call his own	C
And t his world's way'll be overthrown	C
He'll come with glory and with fire	A
To cast great darkness on the liar	A
To burn the drunkard and the treacher	A
And do his judgment on the lecher	A
To glorify the spirit's faces	C
Of those whose ways were stony places	C
Who chose with Ruth the better part	C
O Lord i see Thee as Thou are	A
O God the fiery four edged sword	C
The thunder of the wrath outpoured	C
The fiery four faced creatures burning	F2
And all the four faced wheels all turning	F2
Coming with trump and fiery saint	C
Jim take me home I'm turning faint	C
They went and some cried Good old sod	C
She put it to him straight by God	C
	-
Summat whe was or looked or said	C
Went home and made me hang my head	C
I slunk away into the night	C
Knowing deep down that she was right	C
I'd often hear d religious ranters	C
And put them down as windy canters	C
But this old mother made me see	C
the harm I done by being me	C
Being both strong and given to sin	C
I 'stracted weaker vessels in	C
So back to bar to get more drink	F2
I didn't dare begin to think	F2
And there were drinks and drunken singing	F2
As though this life were dice for flinging	F2
Dice to be flung and nothing furder	A
And Christ's blood just another murder	A
Come on drinks round salue drink hearty	C
Now Jane the punch bowl for the party	C
If any here won't drink with me	C
I'll knock his bloody eyes out See	C
Come on cigars round rum for mine	C
Sing us a smutty song some swine	C
But though the drinks and songs went round	C
That thought remained it was not drowned	C
And when I'd rise to get a light	C
I'd think What's come to me tonight	C
	-
There's always crowds when drinks are standing	F2
The house doors slammed along the landing	F2
The rising wind was gusty yet	C
And those who cam in late were wet	C
And all my body's nerves were snappin'	C
With sense of summat 'bout to happen	C
And music seemed to come and go	C
And seven lights danced in a row	C
There used be a custom then	C
Miss Bourne the Friend went round at ten	C
To all the pubs in all the place	C
To bring the drunkards' souls to grace	C
Some sulked of course and some were stirred	C
But none give her a dirty word	C
A tall pale woman grey and bent	C
Folk said of her that she was sent	C
She wore Friend's clothes and women smiled	C
But she'd a heart just like a child	C
She come to us near closing time	J
when we were at some smutty rhyme	J
And I was mad and ripe for fun	C
I wouldn't a minded what I done	C
So when she come so prim and grey	A
I pound the bar and sing Hooray	A
Here's Quaker come to bless and kiss us	C
Come have a gin and bitters missus	C
Or may be Quaker girls so prim	J
Would rather start a bloody hymn	J
Now Dick oblige A hymn you swine	C
Pipe up the 'Officer of the Line '	-
A song to make one's belly ache	F2
Or 'Nell and Roger at the Wake '	-
Or that sweet song the talk in town	C
'The lady fair and Abel Brown '	-
'O who's that knocking at the door '	-
Miss Bourne'll play the music score	A
The men stood dumb as cattle are	A
They grinned but thought I'd gone too far	A
There come a hush and no one break it	C
They wondered how Miss Bourne would take it	C
She up to me with black eyes wide	C
She looked as though her spirit cried	C
She took my tumbler from the bar	A
Beside where all the matches are	A
And poured it out upon the floor dust	C
Among the fag ends spit and saw dust	C
	-
Saul Kane she said when next you drink	F2
Do me the gentleness to think	F2
That every drop of drink accursed	C
Makes Christ within you die of thirst	C
That every dirty word you say	A
Is one more flint upon his way	A
Another thorn about His head	C
Another mock by where He tread	C
Another nail another cross	C
All that you are is that Christ's loss	C
The clock run down and struck a chime	J
And Mrs Si said Closing time	J
	-
The wet was pelting on the pane	C
And something broke inside my brain	C
I heard the rain drip from the gutters	C
And Silas putting up the shutters	C
While one by one the drinkers went	C
I got a glimpse of what it meant	C
How she and I had stood before	A
In some old town by some old door	A
Waiting intent while someone knocked	C
Before the door for ever locked	C
She was so white that I was scared	C
A gas jet turned the wrong way flared	C
And Silas snapped the bars in place	C
Miss Bourne stood white and searched my face	C
When Silas done with ends of tunes	C
He 'gan a gathering the spittoons	C
His wife primmed lips and took the till	H
Miss Bourne stood still and I stood still	H
Miss Bourne stood still and I stood still	H
And Tick Slow Tick Slow went the clock	F2
She said He waits until you knock	F2
She turned at that and went out swift	C
Si grinned and winked his missus sniffed	C
	-
I heard her clang the Lion door	A
I marked a drink drop roll to floor	A
It took up scraps of sawdust furry	C
And crinkled on a half inch blurry	C
A drop from my last glass of gin	C
And someone waiting to come in	C
A hand upon the door latch gropen	C
Knocking the man inside to open	C
I know the very words I said	C
They bayed like bloodhounds in my head	C
The water's going out to sea	C
And there's a great moon calling me	C
But there's a great sun calls the moon	C
And all God's bells will carol soon	C
For joy and glory and delight	C
Of someone coming home to night	C
Out into darkness out to night	C
My flaring heart gave plenty light	C
So wild it was there was no knowing	F2
Whether the clouds or stars were blowing	F2
Blown chimney pots and folk blown blind	C
And puddles glimmering in my mind	C
And chinking glass from windows banging	F2
And inn signs swung like people hanging	F2
And in my heart the drink unpriced	C
The burning cataracts of Christ	C
	-
I did not think I did not strive	Z
The deep peace burnt my me alive	Z
The bolted door had broken in	C
I knew that I had done with sin	C
I knew that Christ had given me birth	M2
To brother all the souls on earth	M2
And every bird and every beast	C
Should share the crumbs broke at the feast	C
	-
	-
O glory of the lighted mind	C
How dead I'd been how dumb how blind	C
The station brook to my new eyes	C
Was babbling out of Paradise	C
The waters rushing from the rain	C
Were singing Christ has risen again	C
I thought all earthly creatures knelt	C
From rapture of the joy I felt	C
The narrow station wall's brick ledge	B
The wild hop withering in the hedge	B
The lights in huntsmans' upper storey	C
Were parts of an eternal glory	C
Were God's eternal garden flowers	C
I stood in bliss at this for hours	C
	-
O glory of the lighted soul	H
The dawn came up on Bradlow Knoll	H
The dawn with glittering on the grasses	C
The dawn which pass and never passes	C
	-
It's dawn I said And chimney's smoking	F2
And all the blessed fields are soaking '	-
It's dawn and there's an engine shunting	F2
And hounds for huntsman's going hunting	F2
It's dawn and I must wander north	U2
Along the road Christ led me forth	U2
	-
So up the road I wander slow	C
Past where the snowdrops used to grow	C
With celandines in early springs	C
When rainbows were triumphant things	C
And dew so bright and flowers so glad	C
Eternal joy to lass and lad	C
And past the lovely brook I paced	C
The brook whose source I never traced	C
The brook the one of two which rise	C
In my green dream in Paradise	C
In wells where heavenly buckets clink	F2
To give God's wandering thirsty drink	F2
By those clean cots of carven stone	C
Where the clear water sings alone	C
Then down past that white blossomed pond	C
And past the chestnut trees beyond	C
And past the bridge the fishers knew	C
Where yellow flag flowers once grew	C
Where we'd go gathering cops of clover	A
In sunny June times long since over	A
O clover cops half white half red	C
O beauty from beyond the dead	C
O blossom key to earth and heaven	C
O souls that Christ has new forgiven	C
Then down the hill to gipsies' pitch	W
By where the brook clucks in the ditch	W
A gipsy's camp was in the copse	C
Three felted tents with beehive tops	C
And round black marks where fires had been	C
And one old waggon painted green	C
And three ribbed horses wrenching grass	C
And three wild boys to watch me pass	C
And one old woman by the fire	A
Hulking a rabbit warm from wire	A
I loved to see the horses bait	C
I felt I walked at Heaven's gate	C
That Heaven's gate was opened wide	C
Yet still the gipsies camped outside	C
The waste souls will prefer the wild	C
Long after life is meek and mild	C
Perhaps when man has entered in'	C
His perfect city free from sin	C
The campers will come past the walls	C
With old lame horses full of galls	C
And waggons hung about with withies	C
And burning coke in tinker's stithies	C
And see the golden town and choose	C
And think the wild to good to lose	C
And camp outside as these camped then	C
With wonder at the entering men	C
So past and past the stone heap white	C
That dewberry trailers hid from sight	C
And down the field so full of springs	C
Where mewing peewits clap their wings	C
And past the trap made for the mill	H
Into the field below the hill	H
There was a mist along the stream	J
A wet mist dim like in a dream	J
I heard the heavy breath of cows	C
And waterdrops from th'alder boughs	C
And eels or snakes in dripping grass	C
Whipping aside to let me pass	C
The gate was backed against the ryme	J
To pass the cows at milking time	J
And by the gate as I went out	C
A moldwarp rooted earth wi's snout	C
A few steps up the Callow's Lane	C
Brought me above the mist again	C
The two great fields arose like death	T
Above the mists of human breath	T
	-
All earthly things that bless d morning	F2
Were everlasting joy and warning	F2
The gate was Jesus'way made plain	C
the mole was Satan foiled again	C
black blinded Satan snouting way	A
Along the red of Adam's clay	A
The mist was error and damnatiion	C
The lane the road unto salvation	C
Out of the mist into the light	C
O bless d gift of inner sight	C
The past was faded like a dream	J
There come the jingling of a team	J
A ploughman's voice a clink of chain	C
Slow hoofs and harness under strain	C
Up the slow slope a team came bowing	F2
Old Callow at his autumn ploughing	F2
Old Callow stooped above the hales	C
Ploughing the stubble into wales	C
His grave eyes looking straight ahead	C
Shearing a long straight furrow red	C
His plough foot high to give it earth	M2
To bring new food for men to birth	M2
O wet red swathe of earth laid bare	A
O truth O strength O gleaming share	A
O patient eyes that watch the goal	H
O ploughman of the sinner's soul	H
O Jesus drive the coulter deep	E2
To plough my living man from sleep	E2
	-
Slow up the hill the plough team plod	C
Old Callow at the task of God	C
Helped by man's wit helped by the brute	C
Turning a stubborn clay to fruit	C
His eyes forever on some sign	C
To help him plough a perfect line	C
At top of rise the plough team stopped	C
The fore horse bent his head and cropped	C
Then the chains chack the brasses jingle	H
The lean reins gather through the cringle	H
The figures move against the sky	F2
The clay wave breaks as they go by	F2
I kneeled there in the muddy fallow	H
I knew that Christ was there with Callow	H
That Christ was standing there with me	J
That Christ had taught me what to be	J
That I should plough and as I ploughed	C
My Saviour Christ would sing aloud	C
And as I drove the clods apart	C
Christ would be ploughing in my heart	C
Through rest harrow and bitter roots	C
Through all my bad life's rotten fruits	C
	-
O Christ who holds the open gate	C
O Christ who drives the furrow straight	C
O Christ the plough O Christ the laughter	A
Of holy white birds flying after	A
Lo all my heart's field red and torn	C
And Thou wilt bring the young green corn	C
The young green corn divinely springing	F2
The young green corn forever singing	F2
And when the field is fresh and fair	A
Thy bless d feet shall glitter there	A
And we will walk the weeded field	C
And tell the holden harvests's yield	C
The corn that makes the holy bread	C
By which the soul of man is fed	C
The holy bread the food unpriced	C
Thy everlasting mercy Christ	C
	-
The share will jar on many a stone	C
Thou wilt not let me stand alone	C
And I shall feel thou wilt not fail	H
Thy hand on mine upon the hale	H
Near Bullen Bank on Gloucester Road	C
Thy everlasting mercy showed	C
The ploughman patient on the hill	H
Forever there forever still	H
Ploughing the hill with steady yoke	F2
Of pine trees lightning struck and broke	F2
I've marked the May Hill ploughman stay	C
There on his hill day after day	C
Driving his team against the sky	F2
While men and women live and die	F2
And now and then he seems to stoop	E2
To clear the coulter with the scoop	E2
Or touch an ox to haw or gee	J
While Severn stream goes out to sea	J
The sea with all her ships and sails	C
And that great smoky port in Wales	C
And Gloucester tower bright i' the sun	C
All know that patient wandering one	C
And sometimes when they burn the leaves	C
The bonfires' smoking trails and heaves	C
And girt red flam s twink and twire	A
As though he ploughed the hill afire	A
And in men's hearts in many lands	C
A spiritual ploughman stands	C
Forever waiting waiting now	C
The heart's Put in man zook the plough	C
	-
By this the sun was all one glitter	A
The little birds were all atwitter	A
Out of a tuft a little lark	F2
Went higher up than I could mark	F2
His little throat was all one thirst	C
To sing until his heart should burst	C
To sing aloft in golden light	C
His song from blue air out of sight	C
The mist drove by and now the cows	C
Came plodding up to milking house	C
Followed by Frank the Callow's cowman	C
Who whistled Adam was a ploughman	C
There came such cawing from the rooks	C
Such running chuck from little brooks	C
One thought it March just budding green	C
With hedgerows full of celandine	C
An otter' out of stream and played	C
Two hares come loping up and stayed	C
Wide eyed and tender eared but bold	C
Sheep bleated up from Penny's fold	C
I heard a partridge covey call	H
The morning sun was bright on all	H
Down the long slope the plough team drove	Z
The tossing rooks arose and hove	Z
A stone struck on the share A word	C
Came to the team The red earth stirred	C
	-
I crossed the hedge by shooter's gap	E2
I hitched my boxer's belt a strap	E2
I jumped the ditch and crossed the fallow	H
I took the hales from framer Callow	H
	-
How swift the summer goes	C
Forget me not pink rose	C
The young grass when I started	C
And now the hay is carted	C
And now my song is ended	C
And all the summer splended	C
The blackbirds' second brood	C
Routs beech leaves in the wood	C
The pink and rose have speeded	C
Forget me not has seeded	C
Only the winds that blew	H
The rain that makes things new	H
The earth that hides things old	C
And blessings manifold	C
	-
O lovely lily clean	C
O lily springing green	C
O lily bursting white	C
Dear lily of delight	C
Spring my heart agen	C
That I may flower to men	C

John Masefield

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