The Candle Seller Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFF GGCCHHAAIIFF CCJJKKFFLLMM FFNNOOPPCCCC CCQQRRSSCCTT UUVWCCUUCCXX YYZZA2A2CCB2B2In Hester Street hard by a telegraph post | A |
There sits a poor woman as wan as a ghost | A |
Her pale face is shrunk like the face of the dead | B |
And yet you can tell that her cheeks once were red | B |
But love ease and friendship and glory I ween | C |
May hardly the cause of their fading have been | C |
Poor soul she has wept so she scarcely can see | D |
A skeleton infant she holds on her knee | D |
It tugs at her breast and it whimpers and sleeps | E |
But soon at her cry it awakens and weeps | E |
Two cents my good woman three candles will buy | F |
As bright as their flame be my star in the sky | F |
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Tho' few are her wares and her basket is small | G |
She earns her own living by these when at all | G |
She's there with her baby in wind and in rain | C |
In frost and in snow fall in weakness and pain | C |
She trades and she trades through the good times and slack | H |
No home and no food and no cloak to her back | H |
She's kithless and kinless one friend at the most | A |
And that one is silent the telegraph post | A |
She asks for no alms the poor Jewess but still | I |
Altho' she is wretched forsaken and ill | I |
She cries Sabbath candles to those that come nigh | F |
And all that she pleads is that people will buy | F |
- | |
To honor the sweet holy Sabbath each one | C |
With joy in his heart to the market has gone | C |
To shops and to pushcarts they hurriedly fare | J |
But who for the poor wretched woman will care | J |
A few of her candles you think they will take | K |
They seek the meat patties the fish and the cake | K |
She holds forth a hand with the pitiful cry | F |
Two cents my good women three candles will buy | F |
But no one has listened and no one has heard | L |
Her voice is so weak that it fails at each word | L |
Perchance the poor mite in her lap understood | M |
She hears mother's crying but where is the good | M |
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I pray you how long will she sit there and cry | F |
Her candles so feebly to all that pass by | F |
How long will it be do you think ere her breath | N |
Gives out in the horrible struggle with Death | N |
How long will this frail one in mother love strong | O |
Give suck to the babe at her breast Oh how long | O |
The child mother's tears used to swallow before | P |
But mother's eyes nowadays shed them no more | P |
Oh dry are the eyes now and empty the brain | C |
The heart well nigh broken the breath drawn with pain | C |
Yet ever tho' faintly she calls out anew | C |
Oh buy but two candles good women but two | C |
- | |
In Hester Street stands on the pavement of stone | C |
A small orphaned basket forsaken alone | C |
Beside it is sitting a corpse cold and stark | Q |
The seller of candles will nobody mark | Q |
No none of the passers have noticed her yet | R |
The rich ones on feasting are busily set | R |
And such as are pious you well may believe | S |
Have no time to spare on the gay Sabbath eve | S |
So no one has noticed and no one has seen | C |
And now comes the nightfall and with it serene | C |
The Princess the Sabbath from Heaven descends | T |
And all the gay throng to the synagogue wends | T |
- | |
Within where they pray all is cleanly and bright | U |
The cantor sings sweetly they list with delight | U |
But why in a dream stands the tall chandelier | V |
As dim as the candles that gleam round a bier | W |
The candles belonged to the woman you know | C |
Who died in the street but a short time ago | C |
The rich and the pious have brought them tonight | U |
For mother and child they have set them alight | U |
The rich and the pious their duty have done | C |
Her tapers are lighted who died all alone | C |
The rich and the pious are nobly behaved | X |
A body what matters But souls must be saved | X |
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O synagogue lights be ye witnesses bold | Y |
That mother and child died of hunger and cold | Y |
Where millions are squandered in idle display | Z |
That men all unheeded must starve by the way | Z |
Then hold back your flame blessed lights hold it fast | A2 |
The great day of judgment will come at the last | A2 |
Before the white throne where imposture is vain | C |
Ye lights for the soul ye'll be lighted again | C |
And upward your flame there shall mount as on wings | B2 |
And damn the existing false order of things | B2 |
Morris Rosenfeld
(1)
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