Old Men Complaining Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCCDDDDEEFGHHEEIID DDDIEEIDDJEEJ AKJDDLLDDMDDMA NNLCOPQQDD ADDDDRRSTSUUDDIIEDFDFirst Old Man | A |
He threw his crutched stick down there came | B |
Into his face the anger flame | B |
And he spoke viciously of one | C |
Who thwarted him his son s son | C |
He turned his head away I hate | D |
Absurdity of language prate | D |
From growing fellows We d not stay | D |
About the house the whole of a day | D |
When we were young | E |
Keeping no job and giving tongue | E |
Not us in troth We would not come | F |
For bit or sup but stay from home | G |
If we gave answers or we d creep | H |
Back to the house and in we d peep | H |
Just like a corncrake | E |
My grandson and his comrades take | E |
A piece of coal from you from me | I |
A log or sod of turf maybe | I |
And in some empty place they ll light | D |
A fire and stay there all night | D |
A wisp of lads Now understand | D |
The blades of grass under my hand | D |
Would be destroyed by company | I |
There s no good company we go | E |
With what is lowest to the low | E |
He stays up late and how can he | I |
Rise early Sure he lags in bed | D |
And she is worn to a thread | D |
With calling him his grandmother | J |
She s an old woman and she must make | E |
Stir when the birds are half awake | E |
In dread he d lose this job like the other | J |
- | |
Second Old Man | A |
They brought yon fellow over here | K |
And set him up for an overseer | J |
Though men from work are turned away | D |
That thick necked fellow draws full pay | D |
Three pounds a week They let burn down | L |
The timber yard behind the town | L |
Where work was good though firemen stand | D |
In boots and brasses big and grand | D |
The crow of a cock away from the place | M |
And with the yard they let burn too | D |
The clock in the tower the clock I knew | D |
As well as I know the look in my face | M |
Third Old Man | A |
- | |
The fellow you spoke of has broken his bounds | N |
He came to skulk inside of these grounds | N |
Behind the bushes he lay down | L |
And stretched full hours in the sun | C |
He rises now and like a crane | O |
He looks abroad He s off again | P |
Three pounds a week and still he owes | Q |
Money in every street he goes | Q |
Hundreds of pounds where we d not get | D |
The second shilling of a debt | D |
- | |
First Old Man | A |
Old age has every impediment | D |
Vexation and discontent | D |
The rich have more than we for bit | D |
The cut of bread and over it | D |
The scrape of hog s lard and for sup | R |
Warm water in a cup | R |
But different sorts of feeding breaks | S |
The body more than fasting does | T |
With pains and aches | S |
I m not too badly off for I | U |
Have pipe and tobacco a place to lie | U |
A nook to myself but from my hand | D |
Is taken the strength to back command | D |
I m broken and there s gone from me | I |
The privilege of authority | I |
I heard them speak | E |
The old men heavy on the sod | D |
Letting their angers come | F |
Between them and the thought of God | D |
Padraic Colum
(1)
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