English Eclogues I - The Old Mansion-house Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD EFGEHIJKL AMNJ EOPQJ ARSTUV EWXCBYZA2B2C2D2E2F2G 2 AH2TI2J2RK2E2L2M2N2A O2AP2Q2 ER2S2T2 A U2 EV2H2W2X2Y2WE2Z2A3 AB3K2 EUC3AL2H2 AV2X2BD3E3 EF3ZB2Q2G3H3QI3J3K3C 2L3 AH EJM3N3AO3JP3Q3AN2AP2 O3O3O3CAH AK2O3 ER3EO3O3S3IT3U3V3B3 AW3O3 EO3AO3O3O3X3Y3O3H2Z3 A4O3B4 AC4O3O3O3O3O3X2O3Q2STRANGER | A |
Old friend why you seem bent on parish duty | B |
Breaking the highway stones and 'tis a task | C |
Somewhat too hard methinks for age like yours | D |
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OLD MAN | E |
Why yes for one with such a weight of years | F |
Upon his back I've lived here man and boy | G |
In this same parish near the age of man | E |
For I am hard upon threescore and ten | H |
I can remember sixty years ago | I |
The beautifying of this mansion here | J |
When my late Lady's father the old Squire | K |
Came to the estate | L |
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STRANGER | A |
Why then you have outlasted | M |
All his improvements for you see they're making | N |
Great alterations here | J |
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OLD MAN | E |
Aye great indeed | O |
And if my poor old Lady could rise up | P |
God rest her soul 'twould grieve her to behold | Q |
The wicked work is here | J |
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STRANGER | A |
They've set about it | R |
In right good earnest All the front is gone | S |
Here's to be turf they tell me and a road | T |
Round to the door There were some yew trees too | U |
Stood in the court | V |
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OLD MAN | E |
Aye Master fine old trees | W |
My grandfather could just remember back | X |
When they were planted there It was my task | C |
To keep them trimm'd and 'twas a pleasure to me | B |
All strait and smooth and like a great green wall | Y |
My poor old Lady many a time would come | Z |
And tell me where to shear for she had played | A2 |
In childhood under them and 'twas her pride | B2 |
To keep them in their beauty Plague I say | C2 |
On their new fangled whimsies we shall have | D2 |
A modern shrubbery here stuck full of firs | E2 |
And your pert poplar trees I could as soon | F2 |
Have plough'd my father's grave as cut them down | G2 |
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STRANGER | A |
But 'twill be lighter and more chearful now | H2 |
A fine smooth turf and with a gravel road | T |
Round for the carriage now it suits my taste | I2 |
I like a shrubbery too it looks so fresh | J2 |
And then there's some variety about it | R |
In spring the lilac and the gueldres rose | K2 |
And the laburnum with its golden flowers | E2 |
Waving in the wind And when the autumn comes | L2 |
The bright red berries of the mountain ash | M2 |
With firs enough in winter to look green | N2 |
And show that something lives Sure this is better | A |
Than a great hedge of yew that makes it look | O2 |
All the year round like winter and for ever | A |
Dropping its poisonous leaves from the under boughs | P2 |
So dry and bare | Q2 |
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OLD MAN | E |
Ah so the new Squire thinks | R2 |
And pretty work he makes of it what 'tis | S2 |
To have a stranger come to an old house | T2 |
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STRANGER | A |
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It seems you know him not | U2 |
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OLD MAN | E |
No Sir not I | V2 |
They tell me he's expected daily now | H2 |
But in my Lady's time he never came | W2 |
But once for they were very distant kin | X2 |
If he had played about here when a child | Y2 |
In that fore court and eat the yew berries | W |
And sat in the porch threading the jessamine flowers | E2 |
That fell so thick he had not had the heart | Z2 |
To mar all thus | A3 |
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STRANGER | A |
Come come all a not wrong | B3 |
Those old dark windows | K2 |
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OLD MAN | E |
They're demolish'd too | U |
As if he could not see thro' casement glass | C3 |
The very red breasts that so regular | A |
Came to my Lady for her morning crumbs | L2 |
Won't know the window now | H2 |
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STRANGER | A |
Nay they were high | V2 |
And then so darken'd up with jessamine | X2 |
Harbouring the vermine that was a fine tree | B |
However Did it not grow in and line | D3 |
The porch | E3 |
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OLD MAN | E |
All over it it did one good | F3 |
To pass within ten yards when 'twas in blossom | Z |
There was a sweet briar too that grew beside | B2 |
My Lady loved at evening to sit there | Q2 |
And knit and her old dog lay at her feet | G3 |
And slept in the sun 'twas an old favourite dog | H3 |
She did not love him less that he was old | Q |
And feeble and he always had a place | I3 |
By the fire side and when he died at last | J3 |
She made me dig a grave in the garden for him | K3 |
Ah I she was good to all a woful day | C2 |
'Twas for the poor when to her grave she went | L3 |
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STRANGER | A |
They lost a friend then | H |
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OLD MAN | E |
You're a stranger here | J |
Or would not ask that question Were they sick | M3 |
She had rare cordial waters and for herbs | N3 |
She could have taught the Doctors Then at winter | A |
When weekly she distributed the bread | O3 |
In the poor old porch to see her and to hear | J |
The blessings on her and I warrant them | P3 |
They were a blessing to her when her wealth | Q3 |
Had been no comfort else At Christmas Sir | A |
It would have warm'd your heart if you had seen | N2 |
Her Christmas kitchen how the blazing fire | A |
Made her fine pewter shine and holly boughs | P2 |
So chearful red and as for misseltoe | O3 |
The finest bough that grew in the country round | O3 |
Was mark'd for Madam Then her old ale went | O3 |
So bountiful about a Christmas cask | C |
And 'twas a noble one God help me Sir | A |
But I shall never see such days again | H |
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STRANGER | A |
Things may be better yet than you suppose | K2 |
And you should hope the best | O3 |
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OLD MAN | E |
It don't look well | R3 |
These alterations Sir I'm an old man | E |
And love the good old fashions we don't find | O3 |
Old bounty in new houses They've destroyed | O3 |
All that my Lady loved her favourite walk | S3 |
Grubb'd up and they do say that the great row | I |
Of elms behind the house that meet a top | T3 |
They must fall too Well well I did not think | U3 |
To live to see all this and 'tis perhaps | V3 |
A comfort I shan't live to see it long | B3 |
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STRANGER | A |
But sure all changes are not needs for the worse | W3 |
My friend | O3 |
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OLD MAN | E |
May hap they mayn't Sir for all that | O3 |
I like what I've been us'd to I remember | A |
All this from a child up and now to lose it | O3 |
'Tis losing an old friend There's nothing left | O3 |
As 'twas I go abroad and only meet | O3 |
With men whose fathers I remember boys | X3 |
The brook that used to run before my door | Y3 |
That's gone to the great pond the trees I learnt | O3 |
To climb are down and I see nothing now | H2 |
That tells me of old times except the stones | Z3 |
In the church yard You are young Sir and I hope | A4 |
Have many years in store but pray to God | O3 |
You mayn't be left the last of all your friends | B4 |
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STRANGER | A |
Well well you've one friend more than you're aware of | C4 |
If the Squire's taste don't suit with your's I warrant | O3 |
That's all you'll quarrel with walk in and taste | O3 |
His beer old friend and see if your old Lady | O3 |
E'er broached a better cask You did not know me | O3 |
But we're acquainted now 'Twould not be easy | O3 |
To make you like the outside but within | X2 |
That is not changed my friend you'll always find | O3 |
The same old bounty and old welcome there | Q2 |
Robert Southey
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