Our Banker Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAAA BBCC DDEE A FF GGAA HHII JJKK AAAA LCAA MMNN AAOO AAAA PPA| OLD TIME in whose bank we deposit our notes | A |
| Is a miser who always wants guineas for groats | A |
| He keeps all his customers still in arrears | A |
| By lending them minutes and charging them years | A |
| - | |
| The twelvemonth rolls round and we never forget | B |
| On the counter before us to pay him our debt | B |
| We reckon the marks he has chalked on the door | C |
| Pay up and shake hands and begin a new score | C |
| - | |
| How long he will lend us how much we may owe | D |
| No angel will tell us no mortal may know | D |
| At fivescore at fourscore at threescore and ten | E |
| He may close the account with a stroke of his pen | E |
| - | |
| This only we know amid sorrows and joys | A |
| Old Time has been easy and kind with 'The Boys ' | - |
| Though he must have and will have and does have his pay | F |
| We have found him good natured enough in his way | F |
| - | |
| He never forgets us as others will do | G |
| I am sure he knows me and I think he knows you | G |
| For I see on your foreheads a mark that he lends | A |
| As a sign he remembers to visit his friends | A |
| - | |
| In the shape of a classmate a wig on his crown | H |
| His day book and ledger laid carefully down | H |
| He has welcomed us yearly a glass in his hand | I |
| And pledged the good health of our brotherly band | I |
| - | |
| He 's a thief we must own but how many there be | J |
| That rob us less gently and fairly than he | J |
| He has stripped the green leaves that were over us all | K |
| But they let in the sunshine as fast as they fall | K |
| - | |
| Young beauties may ravish the world with a glance | A |
| As they languish in song as they float in the dance | A |
| They are grandmothers now we remember as girls | A |
| And the comely white cap takes the place of the curls | A |
| - | |
| But the sighing and moaning and groaning are o'er | L |
| We are pining and moping and sleepless no more | C |
| And the hearts that were thumping like ships on the rocks | A |
| Beat as quiet and steady as meeting house clocks | A |
| - | |
| The trump of ambition loud sounding and shrill | M |
| May blow its long blast but the echoes are still | M |
| The spring tides are past but no billow may reach | N |
| The spoils they have landed far up on the beach | N |
| - | |
| We see that Time robs us we know that he cheats | A |
| But we still find a charm in his pleasant deceits | A |
| While he leaves the remembrance of all that was best | O |
| Love friendship and hope and the promise of rest | O |
| - | |
| Sweet shadows of twilight how calm their repose | A |
| While the dewdrops fall soft in the breast of the rose | A |
| How blest to the toiler his hour of release | A |
| When the vesper is heard with its whisper of peace | A |
| - | |
| Then here's to the wrinkled old miser our friend | P |
| May he send us his bills to the century's end | P |
| And lend us the moments no sorrow alloys | A |
| Till he squares his account with the last of 'The Boys ' | - |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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