The Pencil Seller Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEBEB FGFGHIHIJKJKLMLMGNGN OPOPQAQARBRBSTSTJUJV WXMYMYIZIZ RA2RB2PC2PC2 JD2JD2JE2JE2EPEP TF2TF2NJNJG2H2G2H2ET ETBABAUYXYTI2TI2PAPA GJGJEJ2EJ2K2RK2RVTVT AOAOL2M2SM2RLRLGPGP JM2JM2 TBTBA pencil sir a penny won't you buy | A |
I'm cold and wet and tired a sorry plight | B |
Don't turn your back sir take one just to try | A |
I haven't made a single sale to night | B |
Oh thank you sir but take the pencil too | C |
I'm not a beggar I'm a business man | D |
Pencils I deal in red and black and blue | C |
It's hard but still I do the best I can | D |
Most days I make enough to pay for bread | E |
A cup o' coffee stretching room at night | B |
One needs so little to be warm and fed | E |
A hole to kennel in oh one's all right | B |
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Excuse me you're a painter are you not | F |
I saw you looking at that dealer's show | G |
The cro tes he has for sale a shabby lot | F |
What do I know of Art What do I know | G |
Well look That David Strong so well displayed | H |
White Sorcery it's called all gossamer | I |
And pale moon magic and a dancing maid | H |
You like the little elfin face of her | I |
That's good but still the picture as a whole | J |
The values Pah He never painted worse | K |
Perhaps because his fire was lacking coal | J |
His cupboard bare no money in his purse | K |
Perhaps they say he labored hard and long | L |
And see now in the harvest of his fame | M |
When round his pictures people gape and throng | L |
A scurvy dealer sells this on his name | M |
A wretched rag wrung out of want and woe | G |
A soulless daub not David Strong a bit | N |
Unworthy of his art How should I know | G |
How should I know I'm Strong I painted it | N |
- | |
There now I didn't mean to let that out | O |
It came in spite of me aye stare and stare | P |
You think I'm lying crazy drunk no doubt | O |
Think what you like it's neither here nor there | P |
It's hard to tell so terrible a truth | Q |
To gain to glory yet be such as I | A |
It's true that picture's mine done in my youth | Q |
Up in a garret near the Paris sky | A |
The child's my daughter aye she posed for me | R |
That's why I come and sit here every night | B |
The painting's bad but still oh still I see | R |
Her little face all laughing in the light | B |
So now you understand I live in fear | S |
Lest one like you should carry it away | T |
A poor pot boiling thing but oh how dear | S |
Don't let them buy it pitying God I pray | T |
And hark ye sir sometimes my brain's awhirl | J |
Some night I'll crash into that window pane | U |
And snatch my picture back my little girl | J |
And run and run | V |
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I'm talking wild again | X |
A crab can't run I'm crippled withered lame | M |
Palsied as good as dead all down one side | Y |
No warning had I when the evil came | M |
It struck me down in all my strength and pride | Y |
Triumph was mine I thrilled with perfect power | I |
Honor was mine Fame's laurel touched my brow | Z |
Glory was mine within a little hour | I |
I was a god and what you find me now | Z |
- | |
My child that little laughing girl you see | R |
She was my nurse for all ten weary years | A2 |
Her joy her hope her youth she gave for me | R |
Her very smiles were masks to hide her tears | B2 |
And I my precious art so rich so rare | P |
Lost lost to me what could my heart but break | C2 |
Oh as I lay and wrestled with despair | P |
I would have killed myself but for her sake | C2 |
- | |
By luck I had some pictures I could sell | J |
And so we fought the wolf back from the door | D2 |
She painted too aye wonderfully well | J |
We often dreamed of brighter days in store | D2 |
And then quite suddenly she seemed to fail | J |
I saw the shadows darken round her eyes | E2 |
So tired she was so sorrowful so pale | J |
And oh there came a day she could not rise | E2 |
The doctor looked at her he shook his head | E |
And spoke of wine and grapes and Southern air | P |
If you can get her out of this he said | E |
She'll have a fighting chance with proper care | P |
- | |
With proper care When he had gone away | T |
I sat there trembling twitching dazed with grief | F2 |
Under my old and ragged coat she lay | T |
Our room was bare and cold beyond belief | F2 |
Maybe I thought I still can paint a bit | N |
Some lilies landscape anything at all | J |
Alas My brush I could not steady it | N |
Down from my fumbling hand I let it fall | J |
With proper care how could I give her that | G2 |
Half of me dead I crawled down to the street | H2 |
Cowering beside the wall I held my hat | G2 |
And begged of every one I chanced to meet | H2 |
I got some pennies bought her milk and bread | E |
And so I fought to keep the Doom away | T |
And yet I saw with agony of dread | E |
My dear one sinking sinking day by day | T |
And then I was awakened in the night | B |
Please take my hands I'm cold I heard her sigh | A |
And soft she whispered as she held me tight | B |
Oh daddy we've been happy you and I | A |
I do not think she suffered any pain | U |
She breathed so quietly but though I tried | Y |
I could not warm her little hands again | X |
And so there in the icy dark she died | Y |
The dawn came groping in with fingers gray | T |
And touched me sitting silent as a stone | I2 |
I kissed those piteous lips as cold as clay | T |
I did not cry I did not even moan | I2 |
At last I rose groped down the narrow stair | P |
An evil fog was oozing from the sky | A |
Half crazed I stumbled on I knew not where | P |
Like phantoms were the folks that passed me by | A |
How long I wandered thus I do not know | G |
But suddenly I halted stood stock still | J |
Beside a door that spilled a golden glow | G |
I saw a name my name upon a bill | J |
A Sale of Famous Pictures so it read | E |
A Notable Collection each a gem | J2 |
Distinguished Works of Art by painters dead | E |
The folks were going in I followed them | J2 |
I stood upon the outskirts of the crowd | K2 |
I only hoped that none might notice me | R |
Soon soon I heard them call my name aloud | K2 |
A David Strong' his Fete in Brittany | R |
A brave big picture that the best I've done | V |
It glowed and kindled half the hall away | T |
With all its memories of sea and sun | V |
Of pipe and bowl of joyous work and play | T |
I saw the sardine nets blue as the sky | A |
I saw the nut brown fisher boats put out | O |
Five hundred pounds rapped out a voice near by | A |
Six hundred Seven Eight And then a shout | O |
A thousand pounds Oh how I thrilled to hear | L2 |
Oh how the bids went up by leaps by bounds | M2 |
And then a silence then the auctioneer | S |
It's going Going Gone Three thousand pounds | M2 |
Three thousand pounds A frenzy leapt in me | R |
That picture's mine I cried I'm David Strong | L |
I painted it this famished wretch you see | R |
I did it I and sold it for a song | L |
And in a garret three small hours ago | G |
My daughter died for want of Christian care | P |
Look look at me Is it to mock my woe | G |
You pay three thousand for my picture there | P |
- | |
O God I stumbled blindly from the hall | J |
The city crashed on me the fiendish sounds | M2 |
Of cruelty and strife but over all | J |
Three thousand pounds I heard Three thousand pounds | M2 |
- | |
There that's my story sir it isn't gay | T |
Tales of the Poor are never very bright | B |
You'll look for me next time you pass this way | T |
I hope you'll find me sir good night good night | B |
Robert William Service
(1)
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