The Lay Of The Laborer Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDED FGHGIJIJ KLMLNONOPO QRSRTUAU ABABAVTV WXYXZAA2A B2C2WC2D2E2F2E2 G2H2MH2I2XCJ2 K2GL2GM2N2O2N2 P2Q2R2Q2S2O2T2O2 ABABU2D2V2D2 W2X2W2X2Y2Z2BBA spade a rake a hoe | A |
A pickaxe or a bill | B |
A hook to reap or a scythe to mow | A |
A flail or what ye will | B |
And here's a ready hand | C |
To ply the needful tool | D |
And skill'd enough by lessons rough | E |
In Labor's rugged school | D |
- | |
To hedge or dig the ditch | F |
To lop or fell the tree | G |
To lay the swarth on the sultry field | H |
Or plough the stubborn lea | G |
The harvest stack to bind | I |
The wheaten rick to thatch | J |
And never fear in my pouch to find | I |
The tinder or the match | J |
- | |
To a flaming barn or farm | K |
My fancies never roam | L |
The fire I yearn to kindle and burn | M |
Is on the hearth of Home | L |
Where children huddle and crouch | N |
Through dark long winter days | O |
Where starving children huddle and crouch | N |
To see the cheerful rays | O |
A glowing on the haggard cheek | P |
And not in the haggard's blaze | O |
- | |
To Him who sends a drought | Q |
To parch the fields forlorn | R |
The rain to flood the meadows with mud | S |
The blight to blast the corn | R |
To Him I leave to guide | T |
The bolt in its crooked path | U |
To strike the miser's rick and show | A |
The skies blood red with wrath | U |
- | |
A spade a rake a hoe | A |
A pickaxe or a bill | B |
A hook to reap or a scythe to mow | A |
A flail or what ye will | B |
The corn to thrash or the hedge to plash | A |
The market team to drive | V |
Or mend the fence by the cover side | T |
And leave the game alive | V |
- | |
Ay only give me work | W |
And then you need not fear | X |
That I shall snare his Worship's hare | Y |
Or kill his Grace's deer | X |
Break into his lordship's house | Z |
To steal the plate so rich | A |
Or leave the yeoman that had a purse | A2 |
To welter in a ditch | A |
- | |
Wherever Nature needs | B2 |
Wherever Labor calls | C2 |
No job I'll shirk of the hardest work | W |
To shun the workhouse walls | C2 |
Where savage laws begrudge | D2 |
The pauper babe its breath | E2 |
And doom a wife to a widow's life | F2 |
Before her partner's death | E2 |
- | |
My only claim is this | G2 |
With labor stiff and stark | H2 |
By lawful turn my living to earn | M |
Between the light and dark | H2 |
My daily bread and nightly bed | I2 |
My bacon and drop of beer | X |
But all from the hand that holds the land | C |
And none from the overseer | J2 |
- | |
No parish money or loaf | K2 |
No pauper badges for me | G |
A son of the soil by right of toil | L2 |
Entitled to my fee | G |
No alms I ask give me my task | M2 |
Here are the arm the leg | N2 |
The strength the sinews of a Man | O2 |
To work and not to beg | N2 |
- | |
Still one of Adam's heirs | P2 |
Though doom'd by chance of birth | Q2 |
To dress so mean and to eat the lean | R2 |
Instead of the fat of the earth | Q2 |
To make such humble meals | S2 |
As honest labor can | O2 |
A bone and a crust with a grace to God | T2 |
And little thanks to man | O2 |
- | |
A spade a rake a hoe | A |
A pickaxe or a bill | B |
A hook to reap or a scythe to mow | A |
A flail or what ye will | B |
Whatever the tool to ply | U2 |
Here is a willing drudge | D2 |
With muscle and limb and woe to him | V2 |
Who does their pay begrudge | D2 |
- | |
Who every weekly score | W2 |
Docks labor's little mite | X2 |
Bestows on the poor at the temple door | W2 |
But robb'd them over night | X2 |
The very shilling he hoped to save | Y2 |
As health and morals fail | Z2 |
Shall visit me in the new Bastille | B |
The Spital or the Gaol | B |
Thomas Hood
(1)
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