The Colonel's Soliloquy (southampton Docks: October, 1899) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDED FGFG HIHI JIJI KL L MNMN JHJH OEOE| The quay recedes Hurrah Ahead we go | A |
| It's true I've been accustomed now to home | B |
| And joints get rusty and one's limbs may grow | A |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp More fit to rest than roam | B |
| - | |
| But I can stand as yet fair stress and strain | C |
| There's not a little steel beneath the rust | D |
| My years mount somewhat but here's to't again | E |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp And if I fall I must | D |
| - | |
| God knows that for myself I've scanty care | F |
| Past scrimmages have proved as much to all | G |
| In Eastern lands and South I've had my share | F |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Both of the blade and ball | G |
| - | |
| And where those villains ripped me in the flitch | H |
| With their old iron in my early time | I |
| I'm apt at change of wind to feel a twitch | H |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Or at a change of clime | I |
| - | |
| And what my mirror shows me in the morning | J |
| Has more of blotch and wrinkle than of bloom | I |
| My eyes too heretofore all glasses scorning | J |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Have just a touch of rheum | I |
| - | |
| Now sounds 'The Girl I've left behind me ' Ah | K |
| The years the ardours wakened by that tune | L |
| Time was when with the crowd's farewell 'Hurrah ' | - |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp 'Twould lift me to the moon | L |
| - | |
| But now it's late to leave behind me one | M |
| Who if poor soul her man goes underground | N |
| Will not recover as she might have done | M |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp In days when hopes abound | N |
| - | |
| She's waving from the wharfside palely grieving | J |
| As down we draw Her tears make little show | H |
| Yet now she suffers more than at my leaving | J |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Some twenty years ago | H |
| - | |
| I pray those left at home will care for her | O |
| I shall come back I have before though when | E |
| The Girl you leave behind you is a grandmother | O |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Things may not be as then | E |
Thomas Hardy
(1)
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