The Aged Aged Man Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCE FGFGCHIH AJAJECDC KLMLNINO PQPQRSRS FTUTVWWW XYYYZIZA2 B2WB2WC2A2C2A2 D2SD2SE2BE2SE2E2E2E2 E2E2E2E2SE2BI'll tell thee everything I can | A |
There's little to relate | B |
I saw an aged aged man | A |
A sitting on a gate | B |
Who are you aged man I said | C |
And how is it you live | D |
And his answer trickled through my head | C |
Like water through a sieve | E |
- | |
He said I look for butterflies | F |
That sleep among the wheat | G |
I make them into mutton pies | F |
And sell them in the street | G |
I sell them unto men he said | C |
Who sail on stormy seas | H |
And that's the way I get my bread mdash | I |
A trifle if you please | H |
- | |
But I was thinking of a plan | A |
To dye one's whiskers green | J |
And always use so large a fan | A |
That they could not be seen | J |
So having no reply to give | E |
To what the old man said | C |
I cried Come tell me how you live | D |
And thumped him on the head | C |
- | |
His accents mild took up the tale | K |
He said I go my ways | L |
And when I find a mountain rill | M |
I set it in a blaze | L |
And thence they make a stuff they call | N |
Rowland's Macassar Oil mdash | I |
Yet twopence halfpenny is all | N |
They give me for my toil | O |
- | |
But I was thinking of a way | P |
To feed oneself on batter | Q |
And so go on from day to day | P |
Getting a little fatter | Q |
I shook him well from side to side | R |
Until his face was blue | S |
Come tell me how you live I cried | R |
And what it is you do | S |
- | |
He said I hunt for haddocks' eyes | F |
Among the heather bright | T |
And work them into waistcoat buttons | U |
In the silent night | T |
And these I do not sell for gold | V |
Or coin of silvery shine | W |
But for a copper halfpenny | W |
And that will purchase nine | W |
- | |
I sometimes dig for buttered rolls | X |
Or set limed twigs for crabs | Y |
I sometimes search the grassy knolls | Y |
For wheels of hansom cabs | Y |
And that's the way he gave a wink | Z |
By which I get my wealth mdash | I |
And very gladly will I drink | Z |
Your Honour's noble health | A2 |
- | |
I heard him then for I had just | B2 |
Completed my design | W |
To keep the Menai bridge from rust | B2 |
By boiling it in wine | W |
I thanked him much for telling me | C2 |
The way he got his wealth | A2 |
But chiefly for his wish that he | C2 |
Might drink my noble health | A2 |
- | |
And now if e'er by chance I put | D2 |
My fingers into glue | S |
Or madly squeeze a right hand foot | D2 |
Into a left hand shoe | S |
Or if I drop upon my toe | E2 |
A very heavy weight | B |
I weep for it reminds me so | E2 |
Of that old man I used to know mdash | S |
Whose look was mild whose speech was slow | E2 |
Whose hair was whiter than the snow | E2 |
Whose face was very like a crow | E2 |
With eyes like cinders all aglow | E2 |
Who seemed distracted with his woe | E2 |
Who rocked his body to and fro | E2 |
And muttered mumblingly and low | E2 |
As if his mouth were full of dough | E2 |
Who snorted like a buffalo mdash | S |
That summer evening long ago | E2 |
A sitting on a gate | B |
Lewis Carroll
(1)
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