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 B3HHS

IA
-
The bitterness the misery the wretchedness of childhoodB
Put me out of love with GodC
I can't believe in God's goodnessD
I can believeE
In many avenging godsF
Most of all I believeE
In gods of bitter dullnessD
Cruel local godsF
Who scared my childhoodB
-
IIA
-
I've seen people putG
A chrysalis in a match boxH
To see they told me what sort of moth would comeI
But when it broke its shellJ
It slipped and stumbled and fell about its prisonK
And tried to climb to the lightL
For space to dry its wingsM
-
That's how I wasN
Somebody found my chrysalisO
And shut it in a match boxH
My shrivelled wings were beatenK
Shed their colours in dusty scalesP
Before the box was openedQ
For the moth to flyA
-
IIIA
-
I hate that townR
I hate the town I lived in when I was littleS
I hate to think of itT
There wre always clouds smoke rainU
In that dingly little valleyV
It rained it always rainedW
I think I never saw the sun until I was nineX
And then it was too lateY
Everything's too late after the first seven yearsZ
-
The long street we lived inA2
Was duller than a drainU
And nearly as dingyV
There were the big CollegeB2
And the pseudo Gothic town hallC2
There were the sordid provincial shopsD2
The grocer's and the shops for womenK
The shop where I bought transfersE2
And the piano and gramaphone shopF2
Where I used to standG2
Staring at the huge shiny pianos and at the picturesE2
Of a white dog looking into a gramaphoneH2
-
How dull and greasy and grey and sordid it wasN
On wet days it was always wetI2
I used to kneel on a chairJ2
And look at it from the windowK2
-
The dirty yellow tramsL2
Dragged noisily alongM2
With a clatter of wheels and bellsN2
And a humming of wires overheadO2
They threw up the filthy rain water from the hollow linesP2
And then the water ran backQ2
Full of brownish foam bubblesR2
-
There was nothing else to seeV
It was all so dullS
Except a few grey legs under shiny black umbrellasS2
Running along the grey shiny pavementsT2
Sometimes there was a waggonH2
Whose horses made a strange loud hollow soundU2
With their hoofsV2
Through the silent rainH2
-
And there was a grey museumI
Full of dead birds and dead insects and dead animalsR2
And a few relics of the Romans dead alsoK2
There was a sea frontW2
A long asphalt walk with a bleak road beside itT
Three piers a row of housesS2
And a salt dirty smell from the little harbourX2
-
I was like a mothY2
Like one of those grey Emperor mothsZ2
Which flutter through the vines at CapriV
And that damned little town was my match boxH
Against whose sides I beat and beatA3
Until my wings were torn and faded and dingyV
As that damned little townH2
-
IVE
-
At school it was just as dull as that dull High StreetA3
The front was dullS
The High Street and the other street were dullS
And there was a public park I rememberX2
And that was damned dull tooB3
With its beds of geraniums no one was allowed to pickC3
And its clipped lawns you weren't allowed to walk onH2
And the gold fish pond you mustn't paddle inH2
And the gate made out of a whale's jaw bonesD3
And the swings which were for Board School childrenH2
And its gravel pathsE3
-
And on Sundays they rang the bellsN2
From Baptist and Evangelical and Catholic churchesS2
They had a Salvation ArmyV
I was taken to a High ChurchF3
The parson's name was MowbrayG3
Which is a good name but he thinks too much of itT
That's what I heard people sayG3
-
I took a little black bookH3
To that cold grey damp smelling churchF3
And I had to sit on a hard benchI3
Wriggle off it to kneel down when they sang psalmsJ3
And wriggle off it to kneel down when they prayedK3
And then there was nothing to doB3
Except to play trains with the hymn booksL3
-
There was nothing to seeV
Nothing to doB3
Nothing to play withM3
Except that in an empty room upstairsN3
There was a large tin boxH
Containing reproductions of the Magna ChartaB3
Of the Declaration of IndependenceO3
And of a letter from Raleigh after the ArmadaB3
There were also several packets of stampsP3
Yellow and blue Guatemala parrotsQ3
Blue stags and red baboons and birds from SarawakR3
Indians and Men of warS3
From the United StatesT3
And the green and red portraitsQ3
Of King FrancobelloS
Of ItalyS
-
VS
-
I don't believe in GodB3
I do believe in avenging godsF
Who plague us for sins we never sinnedB3
But who avenge usD
-
That's why I'll never have a childB3
Never shut up a chrysalis in a match boxH
For the moth to spoil and crush its brght coloursH
Beating its wings against the dingy prison wallS

Richard Aldington



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