The Old Men Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCC DDD EEE FFF GGG GGG HHGG| This is our lot if we live so long and labour unto the end | A |
| Then we outlive the impatient years and the much too patient friend | A |
| And because we know we have breath in our mouth and think we have thoughts enough in our head | B |
| We shall assume that we are alive whereas we are really dead | B |
| - | |
| We shall not acknowledge that old stars fade or stronger planets arise | C |
| That the sere bush buds or the desert blooms or the ancient well head dries | C |
| Or any new compass wherewith new men adventure 'neath new skies | C |
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| We shall lift up the ropes that constrained our youth to bind on our children's hands | D |
| We shall call to the waters below the bridges to return and to replenish our lands | D |
| We shall harness Death's own pale horses and scholarly plough the sands | D |
| - | |
| We shall lie down in the eye of the sun for lack of a light on our way | E |
| We shall rise up when the day is done and chirrup Behold it is day | E |
| We shall abide till the battle is won ere we amble into the fray | E |
| - | |
| We shall peck out and discuss and dissect and evert and extrude to our mind | F |
| The flaccid tissues of long dead issues offensive to God and mankind | F |
| Precisely like vultures over an ox that the army left behind | F |
| - | |
| We shall make walk preposterous ghosts of the glories we once created | G |
| Immodestly smearing from muddled palettes amazing pigments mismated | G |
| And our friend will weep when we ask them with boasts if our natural force be abated | G |
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| The Lamp of our Youth will be utterly out but we shall subsist on the smell of it | G |
| And whatever we do we shall fold our hands and suck our gums and think well of it | G |
| Yes we shall be perfectly pleased with our work and that is the Perfectest Hell of it | G |
| - | |
| This is our lot if we live so long and listen to those who love us | H |
| That we are shunned by the people about and shamed by the Powers above us | H |
| Wherefore be free of your harness betimes but being free be assured | G |
| That he who hath not endured to the death from his birth he hath never endured | G |
Rudyard Kipling
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