The Boys Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH BBII JJKK LLMN OOPP QQRR SSTT TTAA| HAS there any old fellow got mixed with the boys | A |
| If there has take him out without making a noise | A |
| Hang the Almanac's cheat and the Catalogue's spite | B |
| Old Time is a liar We're twenty to night | B |
| - | |
| We're twenty We're twenty Who says we are more | C |
| He's tipsy young jackanapes show him the door | C |
| Gray temples at twenty Yes white if we please | D |
| Where the snow flakes fall thickest there's nothing can freeze | D |
| - | |
| Was it snowing I spoke of Excuse the mistake | E |
| Look close you will see not a sign of a flake | E |
| We want some new garlands for those we have shed | F |
| And these are white roses in place of the red | F |
| - | |
| We've a trick we young fellows you may have been told | G |
| Of talking in public as if we were old | G |
| That boy we call Doctor and this we call Judge | H |
| It's a neat little fiction of course it's all fudge | H |
| - | |
| That fellow's the Speaker the one on the right | B |
| Mr Mayor my young one how are you to night | B |
| That's our Member of Congress we say when we chaff | I |
| There's the Reverend What's his name don't make me laugh | I |
| - | |
| That boy with the grave mathematical look | J |
| Made believe he had written a wonderful book | J |
| And the ROYAL SOCIETY thought it was true | K |
| So they chose him right in a good joke it was too | K |
| - | |
| There's a boy we pretend with a three decker brain | L |
| That could harness a team with a logical chain | L |
| When he spoke for our manhood in syllabled fire | M |
| We called him The Justice but now he's The Squire | N |
| - | |
| And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith | O |
| Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith | O |
| But he shouted a song for the brave and the free | P |
| Just read on his medal My country of thee | P |
| - | |
| You hear that boy laughing You think he's all fun | Q |
| But the angels laugh too at the good he has done | Q |
| The children laugh loud as they troop to his call | R |
| And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all | R |
| - | |
| Yes we're boys always playing with tongue or with pen | S |
| And I sometimes have asked Shall we ever be men | S |
| Shall we always be youthful and laughing and gay | T |
| Till the last dear companion drops smiling away | T |
| - | |
| Then here's to our boyhood its gold and its gray | T |
| The stars of its winter the dews of its May | T |
| And when we have done with our life lasting toys | A |
| Dear Father take care of thy children THE BOYS | A |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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