The Death Of The Hired Man Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJ KGL KMNOPQ P RSKTUS G V WXYMKZT A2 B2C2D2E2 F2 A G2T S H2 PI2J2H2MFPK2L2YM2N2O 2EP2Q2R2S2T2SU2N V2 W2M2KF2X2Y2VSF2A2Z2A 3B3KC3D3P Z2E3F3G3H3I3PR TJ3K3C2L3M3Z2 N3O3P3Q3R2R3S3T3LU3 T V3V3FS3W3 X3A2 G3Y3 MELZ3A4FPB4C4 D4 H2 E4T3MF4Z3A2M2U3 G4 MKL3H4I4J4K4 S PEL4MT3SG3 D4 RK4H2KPM4N4 N4H2T M2O4 P4 Q4Mary sat musing on the lamp flame at the table | A |
Waiting for Warren When she heard his step | B |
She ran on tip toe down the darkened passage | C |
To meet him in the doorway with the news | D |
And put him on his guard Silas is back | E |
She pushed him outward with her through the door | F |
And shut it after her Be kind she said | G |
She took the market things from Warren's arms | H |
And set them on the porch then drew him down | I |
To sit beside her on the wooden steps | J |
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When was I ever anything but kind to him | K |
But I'll not have the fellow back he said | G |
I told him so last haying didn't I | L |
'If he left then ' I said 'that ended it ' | - |
What good is he Who else will harbour him | K |
At his age for the little he can do | M |
What help he is there's no depending on | N |
Off he goes always when I need him most | O |
'He thinks he ought to earn a little pay | P |
Enough at least to buy tobacco with | Q |
So he won't have to beg and be beholden ' | - |
'All right ' I say 'I can't afford to pay | P |
Any fixed wages though I wish I could ' | - |
'Someone else can ' 'Then someone else will have to ' | - |
I shouldn't mind his bettering himself | R |
If that was what it was You can be certain | S |
When he begins like that there's someone at him | K |
Trying to coax him off with pocket money | T |
In haying time when any help is scarce | U |
In winter he comes back to us I'm done | S |
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Sh not so loud he'll hear you Mary said | G |
- | |
I want him to he'll have to soon or late | V |
- | |
He's worn out He's asleep beside the stove | W |
When I came up from Rowe's I found him here | X |
Huddled against the barn door fast asleep | Y |
A miserable sight and frightening too | M |
You needn't smile I didn't recognise him | K |
I wasn't looking for him and he's changed | Z |
Wait till you see | T |
- | |
Where did you say he'd been | A2 |
- | |
He didn't say I dragged him to the house | B2 |
And gave him tea and tried to make him smoke | C2 |
I tried to make him talk about his travels | D2 |
Nothing would do he just kept nodding off | E2 |
- | |
What did he say Did he say anything | F2 |
- | |
But little | A |
- | |
Anything Mary confess | G2 |
He said he'd come to ditch the meadow for me | T |
- | |
Warren | S |
- | |
But did he I just want to know | H2 |
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Of course he did What would you have him say | P |
Surely you wouldn't grudge the poor old man | I2 |
Some humble way to save his self respect | J2 |
He added if you really care to know | H2 |
He meant to clear the upper pasture too | M |
That sounds like something you have heard before | F |
Warren I wish you could have heard the way | P |
He jumbled everything I stopped to look | K2 |
Two or three times he made me feel so queer | L2 |
To see if he was talking in his sleep | Y |
He ran on Harold Wilson you remember | M2 |
The boy you had in haying four years since | N2 |
He's finished school and teaching in his college | O2 |
Silas declares you'll have to get him back | E |
He says they two will make a team for work | P2 |
Between them they will lay this farm as smooth | Q2 |
The way he mixed that in with other things | R2 |
He thinks young Wilson a likely lad though daft | S2 |
On education you know how they fought | T2 |
All through July under the blazing sun | S |
Silas up on the cart to build the load | U2 |
Harold along beside to pitch it on | N |
- | |
Yes I took care to keep well out of earshot | V2 |
- | |
Well those days trouble Silas like a dream | W2 |
You wouldn't think they would How some things linger | M2 |
Harold's young college boy's assurance piqued him | K |
After so many years he still keeps finding | F2 |
Good arguments he sees he might have used | X2 |
I sympathise I know just how it feels | Y2 |
To think of the right thing to say too late | V |
Harold's associated in his mind with Latin | S |
He asked me what I thought of Harold's saying | F2 |
He studied Latin like the violin | A2 |
Because he liked it that an argument | Z2 |
He said he couldn't make the boy believe | A3 |
He could find water with a hazel prong | B3 |
Which showed how much good school had ever done him | K |
He wanted to go over that But most of all | C3 |
He thinks if he could have another chance | D3 |
To teach him how to build a load of hay | P |
- | |
I know that's Silas' one accomplishment | Z2 |
He bundles every forkful in its place | E3 |
And tags and numbers it for future reference | F3 |
So he can find and easily dislodge it | G3 |
In the unloading Silas does that well | H3 |
He takes it out in bunches like big birds' nests | I3 |
You never see him standing on the hay | P |
He's trying to lift straining to lift himself | R |
- | |
He thinks if he could teach him that he'd be | T |
Some good perhaps to someone in the world | J3 |
He hates to see a boy the fool of books | K3 |
Poor Silas so concerned for other folk | C2 |
And nothing to look backward to with pride | L3 |
And nothing to look forward to with hope | M3 |
So now and never any different | Z2 |
- | |
Part of a moon was falling down the west | N3 |
Dragging the whole sky with it to the hills | O3 |
Its light poured softly in her lap She saw | P3 |
And spread her apron to it She put out her hand | Q3 |
Among the harp like morning glory strings | R2 |
Taut with the dew from garden bed to eaves | R3 |
As if she played unheard the tenderness | S3 |
That wrought on him beside her in the night | T3 |
Warren she said he has come home to die | L |
You needn't be afraid he'll leave you this time | U3 |
- | |
Home he mocked gently | T |
- | |
Yes what else but home | V3 |
It all depends on what you mean by home | V3 |
Of course he's nothing to us any more | F |
Than was the hound that came a stranger to us | S3 |
Out of the woods worn out upon the trail | W3 |
- | |
Home is the place where when you have to go there | X3 |
They have to take you in | A2 |
- | |
I should have called it | G3 |
Something you somehow haven't to deserve | Y3 |
- | |
Warren leaned out and took a step or two | M |
Picked up a little stick and brought it back | E |
And broke it in his hand and tossed it by | L |
Silas has better claim on us you think | Z3 |
Than on his brother Thirteen little miles | A4 |
As the road winds would bring him to his door | F |
Silas has walked that far no doubt to day | P |
Why didn't he go there His brother's rich | B4 |
A somebody director in the bank | C4 |
- | |
He never told us that | D4 |
- | |
We know it though | H2 |
- | |
I think his brother ought to help of course | E4 |
I'll see to that if there is need He ought of right | T3 |
To take him in and might be willing to | M |
He may be better than appearances | F4 |
But have some pity on Silas Do you think | Z3 |
If he'd had any pride in claiming kin | A2 |
Or anything he looked for from his brother | M2 |
He'd keep so still about him all this time | U3 |
- | |
I wonder what's between them | G4 |
- | |
I can tell you | M |
Silas is what he is we wouldn't mind him | K |
But just the kind that kinsfolk can't abide | L3 |
He never did a thing so very bad | H4 |
He don't know why he isn't quite as good | I4 |
As anyone He won't be made ashamed | J4 |
To please his brother worthless though he is | K4 |
- | |
I can't think Si ever hurt anyone | S |
- | |
No but he hurt my heart the way he lay | P |
And rolled his old head on that sharp edged chair back | E |
He wouldn't let me put him on the lounge | L4 |
You must go in and see what you can do | M |
I made the bed up for him there to night | T3 |
You'll be surprised at him how much he's broken | S |
His working days are done I'm sure of it | G3 |
- | |
I'd not be in a hurry to say that | D4 |
- | |
I haven't been Go look see for yourself | R |
But Warren please remember how it is | K4 |
He's come to help you ditch the meadow | H2 |
He has a plan You mustn't laugh at him | K |
He may not speak of it and then he may | P |
I'll sit and see if that small sailing cloud | M4 |
Will hit or miss the moon | N4 |
- | |
It hit the moon | N4 |
Then there were three there making a dim row | H2 |
The moon the little silver cloud and she | T |
- | |
Warren returned too soon it seemed to her | M2 |
Slipped to her side caught up her hand and waited | O4 |
- | |
Warren she questioned | P4 |
- | |
Dead was all he answered | Q4 |
Robert Lee Frost
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