Quatrains Of Life Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

Quatrains Of Life Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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What has my youth been that I love it thus	A
Sad youth to all but one grown tedious	A
Stale as the news which last week wearied us	A
Or a tired actor's tale told to an empty house	B
	-
What did it bring me that I loved it even	C
With joy before it and that dream of Heaven	D
Boyhood's first rapture of requited bliss	E
What did it give What ever has it given	D
	-
'Let me recount the value of my days	F
Call up each witness mete out blame and praise	F
Set life itself before me as it was	G
And for I love it list to what it says	H
	-
Oh I will judge it fairly Each old pleasure	I
Shared with dead lips shall stand a separate treasure	I
Each untold grief which now seems lesser pain	J
Shall here be weighed and argued of at leisure	I
	-
I will not mark mere follies These would make	K
The count too large and in the telling take	K
More tears than I can spare from seemlier themes	L
To cure its laughter when my heart should ache	K
	-
Only the griefs which are essential things	M
The bitter fruit which all experience brings	M
Nor only of crossed pleasures but the creed	N
Men learn who deal with nations and with kings	M
	-
All shall be counted fairly griefs and joys	O
Solely distinguishing 'twixt mirth and noise	O
The thing which was and that which falsely seemed	P
Pleasure and vanity man's bliss and boy's	O
	-
So I shall learn the reason of my trust	Q
In this poor life these particles of dust	Q
Made sentient for a little while with tears	R
Till the great may be'' ends for me in must ''	-
	-
My childhood Ah my childhood What of it	S
Stripped of all fancy bare of all conceit	T
Where is the infancy the poets sang	U
Which was the true and which the counterfeit	S
	-
I see it now alas with eyes unsealed	V
That age of innocence too well revealed	V
The flowers I gathered for I gathered flowers	W
Were not more vain than I in that far field	V
	-
Self was my god the self I most despise	X
Blind in its joys and swine like gluttonies	X
The rule of the brute beast that in us is	X
Its heaven a kitchen and a gorge its prize	X
	-
No other pleasures knew I but of sense	X
No other loves but lusts without pretence	X
Oh childhood is but Nature unredeemed	P
Blind in desire unshamed in ignorance	X
	-
I was all vanity and greed my hand	Y
Uncaring as a panther's whom it pained	Z
My nurse my sisters the young birds my prey	A2
I saw them grieve nor stopped to understand	Y
	-
My mother loved me Did I love her Yes	X
When I had need of her to soothe distress	X
Or serve my wants But when the need was by	B2
Others were there more dear in idleness	X
	-
These coaxed and flattered me Their wit afforded	C2
Edge to my wit and I would strut and lord it	S
Among them a young god for god I seemed	P
Or goose for goose I was they still encored it	S
	-
Alas poor mother What a love was yours	X
How little profit of it all endures	X
What wasted vigils what ill omened prayers	X
What thankless thanks for what disastrous cures	X
	-
Why did you bind yourself in such harsh fetter	I
To serve a heart so hard It had been better	I
Surely to take your rest through those long nights	X
Than watching on to leave me thus your debtor	I
	-
I heard but heeded not her warning voice	X
I grudged her face its sadness in my joys	X
And when she looked at me I did not guess	X
The secret of her sorrow and my loss	X
	-
They told me she was dying but my eyes	X
Brimmed not with tears I hardly felt surprise	X
Nay rather anger at their trouble when	D2
I asked them what it was one does who dies ''	-
	-
She threw her weak arms round me and my face	X
Pressed to her own in one supreme embrace	X
I felt her tears upon my cheeks all wet	E2
And I was carried frightened from the place	X
	-
I lost her thus who was indeed my all	F2
Lost her with scarce a pang whom now I call	F2
Aloud to in the night a grieving man	G2
Hoar in his sins and only clasp the wall	F2
	-
This the beginning Next my boyhood came	H2
Childhood embittered its brute joys the same	H2
Only in place of kindness cruelty	I2
For courage fear and for vain glory shame	H2
	-
Here now was none to flatter or to sue	X
My lords were of the many I the few	X
These gave command nor heeded my vain prayers	X
It was their will not mine my hands must do	X
	-
I was their slave My body was the prey	A2
Of their rude sports more savage still than they	A2
My every sense the pastime of their whim	J2
My soul a hunted thing by night and day	A2
	-
Pain was my portion hunger wakefulness	X
And cold more bitter still and that distress	X
Which is unnamed of tears that dare not fall	F2
When the weak body grieves and none may guess	X
	-
There was no place where I might lay my head	K2
No refuge from the world which was my dread	K2
No shrine inviolate for me from my foes	X
No corner quite my own not even my bed	K2
	-
I would have changed then with the meanest thing	L2
Which has its home in the free fields in Spring	L2
And makes its lair in the Earth's secret dells	X
Or hides in her dark womb by burrowing	L2
	-
I used to gaze into the depths of Earth	M2
And watch the worms and beetles that have birth	M2
Under the stones secure from outer ills	X
And envy them their loneliness in mirth	M2
	-
One treasure had I one thing that I loved	N2
A snail with shell most delicately grooved	N2
And a mute patient face which seemed to see	X
And horns which moved towards me as I moved	N2
	-
It was like me a creature full of fear	O2
But happier far for its strong household gear	O2
The living fortress on its back wherein	C
Its griefs could shrink away and disappear	O2
	-
I kept it in a nest the hollow bole	P2
Of a dead elm and for its daily dole	P2
And my own comfort in its luckier state	N2
Brought it a lettuce I in secret stole	P2
	-
It waited for my coming each new noon	Q2
When from my fellows I could steal so soon	Q2
And there I fed it and arranged its cell	R2
All through a single happy month of June	Q2
	-
And then ah then who even now shall tell	R2
The terror of that moment when with yell	R2
Of triumph on their prize they broke and me	X
And crushed it 'neath their heels those hounds of Hell	R2
	-
Even yet the thought of it makes my blood rush	S2
Back to my temples with an angry flush	S2
And for an instant if Man's race could be	X
Crushed with it God forgive me I would crush	S2
	-
Ay God forgive me 'Tis an evil thought	N2
And thus it is that wrong on wrong is wrought	N2
Vengeance on vengeance by a single deed	N2
Of violent ill or idleness untaught	N2
	-
Nay rather let me love I will not be	X
Partner with Man even thus in cruelty	X
For one least instant though the prize should stand	N2
Hate slain for ever and the Nations free	X
	-
Thus for four years I lived of slaves the slave	T2
Too weak to fight too beaten to be brave	T2
Who mocks at impotence and coward fear	O2
Knows little of the pangs mute creatures have	U2
	-
Yet wherefore grieve Perhaps of all my days	X
This is the thing I mostly need to praise	X
My chiefest treasure to have suffered wrong	V2
For God is cunning in His works and ways	X
	-
The sense of justice which He gives to Man	G2
Is his own suffering and His pity's plan	G2
Man's own great need of pity which brims o'er	I
In alms to Africa and Hindostan	G2
	-
And he who has not suffered nothing knows	X
Therefore I chide not at these ancient woes	X
But keep them as a lesson to my pride	N2
Lest I should smite the meanest of my foes	X
	-
And it is ended Kindly Death drew near	O2
And warned them from me with his face of fear	O2
I did not fear him but the rest stood awed	N2
As at the frown of some dread minister	I
	-
I passed out of their sight one living still	W2
But dead to sense who knows not good or ill	W2
Their blessings were the last thing that I heard	N2
In that dark house I wish them only well	R2
	-
What next befell me was as some have found	N2
Peace to their wounds upon a battle ground	N2
Who sleep through days of pain and nights of fear	O2
Conscious of nothing but their dream profound	N2
	-
My dream was of a convent with smooth floors	X
And whitewashed walls a place of corridors	X
Where the wind blew in summer all day long	V2
And a shut garden filled with altar flowers	X
	-
Here lived	N2