Dublin Roads Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBB DEFEE GHIHH JKBKL MNJNN LOCOP QBRBB SITII UCHCC VCWCC XYQYY ZA2B2A2A2 C2D2ID2D2 BHD2HH D2WHEN you were a lad that lacked a trade | A |
Oh many's the thing you'd see on the way | B |
From Kill o' the Grange to Ballybrack | C |
And from Cabinteely down into Bray | B |
When you walked these roads the whole of a day | B |
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High walls there would be to the left and right | D |
With ivies growing across the top | E |
And a briary ditch on the other side | F |
And a place where a quiet goat might crop | E |
And a wayside bench where a man could stop | E |
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A hen that had found a thing in her sleep | G |
One would think the way she went craw craw cree | H |
You would hear as you sat on the bench was there | I |
And a cock that thought he crew mightily | H |
And all the stir of the world would be | H |
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A cart that went creaking along the road | J |
And another cart that kept coming a near | K |
A man breaking stones for bits of the day | B |
One stroke and another would come to you clear | K |
And then no more from that stone breaker | L |
- | |
And his day went by as the clouds went by | M |
As hammer in hand he sat alone | N |
Breaking the mendings of the road | J |
The dazzles up from the stones were thrown | N |
When after the rain the sun down shone | N |
- | |
And you'd leave him there that stone breaker | L |
And you'd wonder who came to see what was done | O |
By him in a day or a month or a week | C |
He broke a stone and another one | O |
And you left him there and you travelled on | P |
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A quiet road You would get to know | Q |
The briars and stones along by the way | B |
A dozen times you'd see last year's nest | R |
A peacock's cry a pigeon astray | B |
Would be marks enough to set on a day | B |
- | |
Or the basket carriers you would meet | S |
A man and a woman they were a pair | I |
The woman going beside his heel | T |
A straight walking man with a streak of him bare | I |
And eyes that would give you a crafty stare | I |
- | |
Coming down from the hills they'd have ferns to sell | U |
Going up from the strand they'd have cockles in stock | C |
Sand in their baskets from the sea | H |
Or clay that was stripped from a hillside rock | C |
A pair that had often stood in the dock | C |
- | |
Or a man that played on a tin whistle | V |
He looked as he'd taken a scarecrow's rig | C |
Playing and playing as though his mind | W |
Could do nothing else but go to a jig | C |
And no one around him little or big | C |
- | |
And you'd meet no man else until you came | X |
Where you could look down upon the sedge | Y |
And watch the Dargle water flow | Q |
And men smoke pipes on the bridge's ledge | Y |
While a robin sang by the haws in a hedge | Y |
- | |
Or no bird sang and the bird catchers | Z |
Would have talk enough for a battle gained | A2 |
When they came from the field and stood by the bridge | B2 |
Taking shelter beside it while it rained | A2 |
While the bird new caught huddled and strained | A2 |
- | |
In this cage or that a linnet or finch | C2 |
And the points it had were declared and surmised | D2 |
And this one's tail was spread out and there | I |
Two little half moons the marks that were prized | D2 |
And you looked well on the bird assized | D2 |
- | |
Then men would go by with a rick of hay | B |
Piled on a cart with them you would be | H |
Walking beside the piled up load | D2 |
It would seem as it left the horses free | H |
They went with such stride and so heartily | H |
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And so you'll go back along the road | D2 |
Padraic Colum
(1)
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