Old People's Home Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKKLMNOPKQR SKTUVUVUKWS| All are limitory but each has her own | A |
| nuance of damage The elite can dress and decent themselves | B |
| are ambulant with a single stick adroit | C |
| to read a book all through or play the slow movements of | D |
| easy sonatas Yet perhaps their very | E |
| carnal freedom is their spirit's bane intelligent | F |
| of what has happened and why they are obnoxious | G |
| to a glum beyond tears Then come those on wheels the average | H |
| majority who endure T V and led by | I |
| lenient therapists do community singing then | J |
| the loners muttering in Limbo and last | K |
| the terminally incompetent as improvident | K |
| unspeakable impeccable as the plants | L |
| they parody Plants may sweat profusely but never | M |
| sully themselves One tie though unites them all | N |
| appeared when the world though much was awry there was more | O |
| spacious more comely to look at it's Old Ones | P |
| with an audience and secular station Then a child | K |
| in dismay with Mamma could refuge with Gran | Q |
| to be revalued and told a story As of now | R |
| we all know what to expect but their generation | S |
| is the first to fade like this not at home but assigned | K |
| to a numbered frequent ward stowed out of conscience | T |
| as unpopular luggage | U |
| As I ride the subway | V |
| to spend half an hour with one I revisage | U |
| who she was in the pomp and sumpture of her hey day | V |
| when week end visits were a presumptive joy | U |
| not a good work Am I cold to wish for a speedy | K |
| painless dormition pray as I know she prays | W |
| that God or Nature will abrupt her earthly function | S |
W. H. Auden
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