Childhood Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFEDFB A GHIJKLM NOHKPQA A RSTUVWXYZ A2UVB2C2D2KE2F2G2E2H 2 NI2J2K2 L2M2N2O2P2Q2R2 VSS2T2H2U2V2H2 IR2K2W2TS2X2 Y2Z2VHA3VH2 E A3SSX2B3C3H2H2D3H2E3 N2S2VF3G3TG3 H3F3I3J3K3B3L3 VB3M3N3HB3O3B3P3Q3R3 S3T3Q3SS S B3FB3D B3HHSI | A |
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The bitterness the misery the wretchedness of childhood | B |
Put me out of love with God | C |
I can't believe in God's goodness | D |
I can believe | E |
In many avenging gods | F |
Most of all I believe | E |
In gods of bitter dullness | D |
Cruel local gods | F |
Who scared my childhood | B |
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II | A |
- | |
I've seen people put | G |
A chrysalis in a match box | H |
To see they told me what sort of moth would come | I |
But when it broke its shell | J |
It slipped and stumbled and fell about its prison | K |
And tried to climb to the light | L |
For space to dry its wings | M |
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That's how I was | N |
Somebody found my chrysalis | O |
And shut it in a match box | H |
My shrivelled wings were beaten | K |
Shed their colours in dusty scales | P |
Before the box was opened | Q |
For the moth to fly | A |
- | |
III | A |
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I hate that town | R |
I hate the town I lived in when I was little | S |
I hate to think of it | T |
There wre always clouds smoke rain | U |
In that dingly little valley | V |
It rained it always rained | W |
I think I never saw the sun until I was nine | X |
And then it was too late | Y |
Everything's too late after the first seven years | Z |
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The long street we lived in | A2 |
Was duller than a drain | U |
And nearly as dingy | V |
There were the big College | B2 |
And the pseudo Gothic town hall | C2 |
There were the sordid provincial shops | D2 |
The grocer's and the shops for women | K |
The shop where I bought transfers | E2 |
And the piano and gramaphone shop | F2 |
Where I used to stand | G2 |
Staring at the huge shiny pianos and at the pictures | E2 |
Of a white dog looking into a gramaphone | H2 |
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How dull and greasy and grey and sordid it was | N |
On wet days it was always wet | I2 |
I used to kneel on a chair | J2 |
And look at it from the window | K2 |
- | |
The dirty yellow trams | L2 |
Dragged noisily along | M2 |
With a clatter of wheels and bells | N2 |
And a humming of wires overhead | O2 |
They threw up the filthy rain water from the hollow lines | P2 |
And then the water ran back | Q2 |
Full of brownish foam bubbles | R2 |
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There was nothing else to see | V |
It was all so dull | S |
Except a few grey legs under shiny black umbrellas | S2 |
Running along the grey shiny pavements | T2 |
Sometimes there was a waggon | H2 |
Whose horses made a strange loud hollow sound | U2 |
With their hoofs | V2 |
Through the silent rain | H2 |
- | |
And there was a grey museum | I |
Full of dead birds and dead insects and dead animals | R2 |
And a few relics of the Romans dead also | K2 |
There was a sea front | W2 |
A long asphalt walk with a bleak road beside it | T |
Three piers a row of houses | S2 |
And a salt dirty smell from the little harbour | X2 |
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I was like a moth | Y2 |
Like one of those grey Emperor moths | Z2 |
Which flutter through the vines at Capri | V |
And that damned little town was my match box | H |
Against whose sides I beat and beat | A3 |
Until my wings were torn and faded and dingy | V |
As that damned little town | H2 |
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IV | E |
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At school it was just as dull as that dull High Street | A3 |
The front was dull | S |
The High Street and the other street were dull | S |
And there was a public park I remember | X2 |
And that was damned dull too | B3 |
With its beds of geraniums no one was allowed to pick | C3 |
And its clipped lawns you weren't allowed to walk on | H2 |
And the gold fish pond you mustn't paddle in | H2 |
And the gate made out of a whale's jaw bones | D3 |
And the swings which were for Board School children | H2 |
And its gravel paths | E3 |
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And on Sundays they rang the bells | N2 |
From Baptist and Evangelical and Catholic churches | S2 |
They had a Salvation Army | V |
I was taken to a High Church | F3 |
The parson's name was Mowbray | G3 |
Which is a good name but he thinks too much of it | T |
That's what I heard people say | G3 |
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I took a little black book | H3 |
To that cold grey damp smelling church | F3 |
And I had to sit on a hard bench | I3 |
Wriggle off it to kneel down when they sang psalms | J3 |
And wriggle off it to kneel down when they prayed | K3 |
And then there was nothing to do | B3 |
Except to play trains with the hymn books | L3 |
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There was nothing to see | V |
Nothing to do | B3 |
Nothing to play with | M3 |
Except that in an empty room upstairs | N3 |
There was a large tin box | H |
Containing reproductions of the Magna Charta | B3 |
Of the Declaration of Independence | O3 |
And of a letter from Raleigh after the Armada | B3 |
There were also several packets of stamps | P3 |
Yellow and blue Guatemala parrots | Q3 |
Blue stags and red baboons and birds from Sarawak | R3 |
Indians and Men of war | S3 |
From the United States | T3 |
And the green and red portraits | Q3 |
Of King Francobello | S |
Of Italy | S |
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V | S |
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I don't believe in God | B3 |
I do believe in avenging gods | F |
Who plague us for sins we never sinned | B3 |
But who avenge us | D |
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That's why I'll never have a child | B3 |
Never shut up a chrysalis in a match box | H |
For the moth to spoil and crush its brght colours | H |
Beating its wings against the dingy prison wall | S |
Richard Aldington
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