The Crane Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCABDCD EEEBEBE FGGFHHDD IIDGHJJJJJH DDGDEEE HHHKHEKELELMMMEEEDD EHMMDDMMDMMMDNMN HNMMMMHOHOHMPM HQQPMMMMDDMMDDDD EEEEMRRHMMPHPMDGGMDThe biggest crane on earth it lifts | A |
Two hundred ton more easily | B |
Than I can lift my heavy head | C |
And when it swings the whole world shifts | A |
Or so at least it seems to me | B |
As day and night adream I lie | D |
Upon my crippled back in bed | C |
And watch it against the sky | D |
- | |
My mother hunching in her chair | E |
Day long and stitching trousers there | E |
At three and three the dozen pair | E |
She'd sit all night and stitch for me | B |
Her son if I could only wear | E |
She never lifts her eyes to see | B |
The big crane swinging through the air | E |
- | |
But though she has no time to talk | F |
She always cleans the window pane | G |
That I may see it clear and plain | G |
And as I watch it move I walk | F |
Who never walked in all my days | H |
And often as I dream agaze | H |
I'm up and out and it is I | D |
Who swing the crane across the sky | D |
- | |
Right up above the wharf I stand | I |
And touch a lever with my hand | I |
To lift a bunch of girders high | D |
A truck of coal a field of grain | G |
In sacks a bundle of big trees | H |
Or beasts too frightened in my grip | J |
To wonder at their skiey trip | J |
And then I let the long arm dip | J |
Without a hitch without a slip | J |
To set them safely in the ship | J |
That waits to take them overseas | H |
- | |
My mother little dreams it's I | D |
Up there tiny as a fly | D |
Who stand above the biggest crane | G |
And swing the ship loads through the sky | D |
While she sits hunching in her chair | E |
Day long and stitching trousers there | E |
At three and three the dozen pair | E |
- | |
And sometimes when it turns me dizzy | H |
I lie and watch her ever busy | H |
And wonder at a lot of things | H |
I never speak to her about | K |
I wonder why she never sings | H |
Like other people on the stair | E |
And why whenever she goes out | K |
Upon a windy day the air | E |
Makes her sad eyes so strangely bright | L |
And if the colour of her hair | E |
Was brown like mine or always white | L |
And why when through the noise of feet | M |
Of people passing in the street | M |
She hears a dog yelp or sheep bleat | M |
She always starts up in her chair | E |
And looks before her with strange stare | E |
Yet seeing nothing anywhere | E |
Though right before her through the sky | D |
The biggest crane goes swinging by | D |
- | |
But it's a lucky day and rare | E |
When she's the time to talk with me | H |
Though only yesterday when night | M |
Shut out at last the crane from sight | M |
She in her bed and thinking I | D |
Was sleeping though I watch the sky | D |
At times till it is morning light | M |
And ships are waiting to unload | M |
I heard her murmur drowsily | D |
quot The pit pattering of feet | M |
All night along the moonlit road | M |
A yelp a whistle and a bleat | M |
The bracken's deep and soft and dry | D |
And safe and snug and no one near | N |
The little burn sings low and sweet | M |
The little burn sings shrill and clear | N |
- | |
And loud all night the cock grouse talks | H |
There's naught in heaven or earth to fear | N |
The pit pat pattering of feet | M |
A yelp a whistle and a bleat quot | M |
And then she started up in bead | M |
I felt her staring as she said | M |
quot I wonder if he ever hears | H |
The pit pat pattering of sheep | O |
Or smells the broken bracke stalks | H |
While she is lying sound asleep | O |
Beside him after all these years | H |
Just ninteen years this very night | M |
Remembering and now his son | P |
A man and never stood upright quot | M |
- | |
And then I heard a sound of tears | H |
But dared not speak or let her know | Q |
I'd caught a single whisper though | Q |
I wondered long what she had done | P |
That she should hear the pattering feet | M |
And when those queer words in the night | M |
Had fretted me half dead with fright | M |
And set my throbbing head abeat | M |
Out of the darkness suddenly | D |
The crane's long arm swung over me | D |
Among the stars high overhead | M |
And then it dipped and clutched my bed | M |
And I had not a breath to cry | D |
Before it swung me through the sky | D |
Above the sleeping city high | D |
Where blinding stars went blazing by | D |
- | |
My mother hunching in her chair | E |
Day long and stitching trousers there | E |
At three and three the dozen pair | E |
With quiet eyes and smooth white hair | E |
You'd little think a yelp or bleat | M |
Could start her or that she was weeping | R |
So sorely when she thought me sleeping | R |
She never tells me why she fears | H |
The pit pat pattering of feet | M |
All night along the moonlight road | M |
Or what's the wrong that she has done | P |
I wonder if 't would bring her tears | H |
If she could know that I her son | P |
A man who never stood upright | M |
But all the livelong day must lie | D |
And watch beyond the window pane | G |
The swaying of the biggest crane | G |
That I within its clutch last night | M |
Went whirling through the starry sky | D |
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
(1)
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