The Old Workman Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ KKLL MMNN| Why are you so bent down before your time | A |
| Old mason Many have not left their prime | A |
| So far behind at your age and can still | B |
| Stand full upright at will | B |
| - | |
| He pointed to the mansion front hard by | C |
| And to the stones of the quoin against the sky | C |
| Those upper blocks he said that there you see | D |
| It was that ruined me | D |
| - | |
| There stood in the air up to the parapet | E |
| Crowning the corner height the stones as set | E |
| By him ashlar whereon the gales might drum | F |
| For centuries to come | F |
| - | |
| I carried them up he said by a ladder there | G |
| The last was as big a load as I could bear | G |
| But on I heaved and something in my back | H |
| Moved as 'twere with a crack | H |
| - | |
| So I got crookt I never lost that sprain | I |
| And those who live there walled from wind and rain | I |
| By freestone that I lifted do not know | J |
| That my life's ache came so | J |
| - | |
| They don't know me or even know my name | K |
| But good I think it somehow all the same | K |
| To have kept 'em safe from harm and right and tight | L |
| Though it has broke me quite | L |
| - | |
| Yes that I fixed it firm up there I am proud | M |
| Facing the hail and snow and sun and cloud | M |
| And to stand storms for ages beating round | N |
| When I lie underground | N |
Thomas Hardy
(2)
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