Mother And Son Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AA BCDCEFGFHIJIKLILIMNO DILIPQIQGDODRSGS TOIODIGIGUVUGWPWIIPI IXYXYOGOPZA2ZPDDDXYP YPIKIYOIOPIKI PIYIUYGYGOOODQB2QYDO D PC2IKGYDYIIIIID2ID2O E2F2E2PYDYYIYIDVIVPI YIGIII DIOIIYQYYPIPOOPOOOIO YQDQPIIIIIIIDXOXEOYO GIDIOOG2OTIII OYQYTDIDIH2GH2A | |
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Now sleeps the land of houses | B |
and dead night holds the street | C |
And there thou liest my baby | D |
and sleepest soft and sweet | C |
My man is away for awhile | E |
but safe and alone we lie | F |
And none heareth thy breath but thy mother | G |
and the moon looking down from the sky | F |
On the weary waste of the town | H |
as it looked on the grass edged road | I |
Still warm with yesterday s sun | J |
when I left my old abode | I |
Hand in hand with my love | K |
that night of all nights in the year | L |
When the river of love o erflowed | I |
and drowned all doubt and fear | L |
And we two were alone in the world | I |
and once if never again | M |
We knew of the secret of earth | N |
and the tale of its labour and pain | O |
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Lo amidst London I lift thee | D |
and how little and light thou art | I |
And thou without hope or fear | L |
thou fear and hope of my heart | I |
Lo here thy body beginning | P |
O son and thy soul and thy life | Q |
But how will it be if thou livest | I |
and enterest into the strife | Q |
And in love we dwell together | G |
when the man is grown in thee | D |
When thy sweet speech I shall hearken | O |
and yet twixt thee and me | D |
Shall rise that wall of distance | R |
that round each one doth grow | S |
And maketh it hard and bitter | G |
each other s thought to know | S |
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Now therefore while yet thou art little | T |
and hast no thought of thine own | O |
I will tell thee a word of the world | I |
of the hope whence thou hast grown | O |
Of the love that once begat thee | D |
of the sorrow that hath made | I |
Thy little heart of hunger | G |
and thy hands on my bosom laid | I |
Then mayst thou remember hereafter | G |
as whiles when people say | U |
All this hath happened before | V |
in the life of another day | U |
So mayst thou dimly remember | G |
this tale of thy mother s voice | W |
As oft in the calm of dawning | P |
I have heard the birds rejoice | W |
As oft I have heard the storm wind | I |
go moaning through the wood | I |
And I knew that earth was speaking | P |
and the mother s voice was good | I |
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Now to thee alone will I tell it | I |
that thy mother s body is fair | X |
In the guise of the country maidens | Y |
Who play with the sun and the air | X |
Who have stood in the row of the reapers | Y |
in the August afternoon | O |
Who have sat by the frozen water | G |
in the high day of the moon | O |
When the lights of the Christmas feasting | P |
were dead in the house on the hill | Z |
And the wild geese gone to the salt marsh | A2 |
had left the winter still | Z |
Yea I am fair my firstling | P |
if thou couldst but remember me | D |
The hair that thy small hand clutcheth | D |
is a goodly sight to see | D |
I am true but my face is a snare | X |
soft and deep are my eyes | Y |
And they seem for men s beguiling | P |
fulfilled with the dreams of the wise | Y |
Kind are my lips and they look | P |
as though my soul had learned | I |
Deep things I have never heard of | K |
my face and my hands are burned | I |
By the lovely sun of the acres | Y |
three months of London town | O |
And thy birth bed have bleached them indeed | I |
But lo where the edge of the gown | O |
So said thy father is parting | P |
the wrist that is white as the curd | I |
From the brown of the hand that I love | K |
bright as the wing of a bird | I |
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Such is thy mother O firstling | P |
yet strong as the maidens of old | I |
Whose spears and whose swords were the warders | Y |
of homestead of field and of fold | I |
Oft were my feet on the highway | U |
often they wearied the grass | Y |
From dusk unto dusk of the summer | G |
three times in a week would I pass | Y |
To the downs from the house on the river | G |
through the waves of the blossoming corn | O |
Fair then I lay down in the even | O |
and fresh I arose on the morn | O |
And scarce in the noon was I weary | D |
Ah son in the days of thy strife | Q |
If thy soul could but harbour a dream | B2 |
of the blossom of my life | Q |
It would be as the sunlit meadows | Y |
beheld from a tossing sea | D |
And thy soul should look on a vision | O |
of the peace that is to be | D |
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Yet yet the tears on my cheek | P |
and what is this doth move | C2 |
My heart to thy heart beloved | I |
save the flood of yearning love | K |
For fair and fierce is thy father | G |
and soft and strange are his eyes | Y |
That look on the days that shall be | D |
with the hope of the brave and the wise | Y |
It was many a day that we laughed | I |
as over the meadows we walked | I |
And many a day I hearkened | I |
and the pictures came as he talked | I |
It was many a day that we longed | I |
and we lingered late at eve | D2 |
Ere speech from speech was sundered | I |
and my hand his hand could leave | D2 |
Then I wept when I was alone | O |
and I longed till the daylight came | E2 |
And down the stairs I stole | F2 |
and there was our housekeeping dame | E2 |
No mother of me the foundling | P |
kindling the fire betimes | Y |
Ere the haymaking folk went forth | D |
to the meadows down by the limes | Y |
All things I saw at a glance | Y |
the quickening fire tongues leapt | I |
Through the crackling heap of sticks | Y |
and the sweet smoke up from it crept | I |
And close to the very hearth | D |
the low sun flooded the floor | V |
And the cat and her kittens played | I |
in the sun by the open door | V |
The garden was fair in the morning | P |
and there in the road he stood | I |
Beyond the crimson daisies | Y |
and the bush of southernwood | I |
Then side by side together | G |
through the grey walled place we went | I |
And O the fear departed | I |
and the rest and sweet content | I |
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Son sorrow and wisdom he taught me | D |
and sore I grieved and learned | I |
As we twain grew into one | O |
and the heart within me burned | I |
With the very hopes of his heart | I |
Ah son it is piteous | Y |
But never again in my life | Q |
shall I dare to speak to thee thus | Y |
So may these lonely words | Y |
about thee creep and cling | P |
These words of the lonely night | I |
in the days of our wayfaring | P |
Many a child of woman | O |
to night is born in the town | O |
The desert of folly and wrong | P |
and of what and whence are they grown | O |
Many and many an one | O |
of wont and use is born | O |
For a husband is taken to bed | I |
as a hat or a ribbon is worn | O |
Prudence begets her thousands | Y |
good is a housekeeper s life | Q |
So shall I sell my body | D |
that I may be matron and wife | Q |
And I shall endure foul wedlock | P |
and bear the children of need | I |
Some are there born of hate | I |
many the children of greed | I |
I I too can be wedded | I |
though thou my love hast got | I |
I am fair and hard of heart | I |
and riches shall be my lot | I |
And all these are the good and the happy | D |
on whom the world dawns fair | X |
O son when wilt thou learn | O |
of those that are born of despair | X |
As the fabled mud of the Nile | E |
that quickens under the sun | O |
With a growth of creeping things | Y |
half dead when just begun | O |
E en such is the care of Nature | G |
that man should never die | I |
Though she breed of the fools of the earth | D |
and the dregs of the city sty | I |
But thou O son O son | O |
of very love wert born | O |
When our hope fulfilled bred hope | G2 |
and fear was a folly outworn | O |
On the eve of the toil and the battle | T |
all sorrow and grief we weighed | I |
We hoped and we were not ashamed | I |
we knew and we were not afraid | I |
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Now waneth the night and the moon | O |
ah son it is piteous | Y |
That never again in my life | Q |
shall I dare to speak to thee thus | Y |
But sure from the wise and the simple | T |
shall the mighty come to birth | D |
And fair were my fate beloved | I |
if I be yet on the earth | D |
When the world is awaken at last | I |
and from mouth to mouth they tell | H2 |
Of thy love and thy deeds and thy valour | G |
and thy hope that nought can quell | H2 |
William Morris
(2)
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