Mother And Son Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AA BCDCEFGFHIJIKLILIMNO DILIPQIQGDODRSGS TOIODIGIGUVUGWPWIIPI IXYXYOGOPZA2ZPDDDXYP YPIKIYOIOPIKI PIYIUYGYGOOODQB2QYDO D PC2IKGYDYIIIIID2ID2O E2F2E2PYDYYIYIDVIVPI YIGIII DIOIIYQYYPIPOOPOOOIO YQDQPIIIIIIIDXOXEOYO GIDIOOG2OTIII OYQYTDIDIH2GH2

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A
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Now sleeps the land of housesB
and dead night holds the streetC
And there thou liest my babyD
and sleepest soft and sweetC
My man is away for awhileE
but safe and alone we lieF
And none heareth thy breath but thy motherG
and the moon looking down from the skyF
On the weary waste of the townH
as it looked on the grass edged roadI
Still warm with yesterday s sunJ
when I left my old abodeI
Hand in hand with my loveK
that night of all nights in the yearL
When the river of love o erflowedI
and drowned all doubt and fearL
And we two were alone in the worldI
and once if never againM
We knew of the secret of earthN
and the tale of its labour and painO
-
Lo amidst London I lift theeD
and how little and light thou artI
And thou without hope or fearL
thou fear and hope of my heartI
Lo here thy body beginningP
O son and thy soul and thy lifeQ
But how will it be if thou livestI
and enterest into the strifeQ
And in love we dwell togetherG
when the man is grown in theeD
When thy sweet speech I shall hearkenO
and yet twixt thee and meD
Shall rise that wall of distanceR
that round each one doth growS
And maketh it hard and bitterG
each other s thought to knowS
-
Now therefore while yet thou art littleT
and hast no thought of thine ownO
I will tell thee a word of the worldI
of the hope whence thou hast grownO
Of the love that once begat theeD
of the sorrow that hath madeI
Thy little heart of hungerG
and thy hands on my bosom laidI
Then mayst thou remember hereafterG
as whiles when people sayU
All this hath happened beforeV
in the life of another dayU
So mayst thou dimly rememberG
this tale of thy mother s voiceW
As oft in the calm of dawningP
I have heard the birds rejoiceW
As oft I have heard the storm windI
go moaning through the woodI
And I knew that earth was speakingP
and the mother s voice was goodI
-
Now to thee alone will I tell itI
that thy mother s body is fairX
In the guise of the country maidensY
Who play with the sun and the airX
Who have stood in the row of the reapersY
in the August afternoonO
Who have sat by the frozen waterG
in the high day of the moonO
When the lights of the Christmas feastingP
were dead in the house on the hillZ
And the wild geese gone to the salt marshA2
had left the winter stillZ
Yea I am fair my firstlingP
if thou couldst but remember meD
The hair that thy small hand clutchethD
is a goodly sight to seeD
I am true but my face is a snareX
soft and deep are my eyesY
And they seem for men s beguilingP
fulfilled with the dreams of the wiseY
Kind are my lips and they lookP
as though my soul had learnedI
Deep things I have never heard ofK
my face and my hands are burnedI
By the lovely sun of the acresY
three months of London townO
And thy birth bed have bleached them indeedI
But lo where the edge of the gownO
So said thy father is partingP
the wrist that is white as the curdI
From the brown of the hand that I loveK
bright as the wing of a birdI
-
Such is thy mother O firstlingP
yet strong as the maidens of oldI
Whose spears and whose swords were the wardersY
of homestead of field and of foldI
Oft were my feet on the highwayU
often they wearied the grassY
From dusk unto dusk of the summerG
three times in a week would I passY
To the downs from the house on the riverG
through the waves of the blossoming cornO
Fair then I lay down in the evenO
and fresh I arose on the mornO
And scarce in the noon was I wearyD
Ah son in the days of thy strifeQ
If thy soul could but harbour a dreamB2
of the blossom of my lifeQ
It would be as the sunlit meadowsY
beheld from a tossing seaD
And thy soul should look on a visionO
of the peace that is to beD
-
Yet yet the tears on my cheekP
and what is this doth moveC2
My heart to thy heart belovedI
save the flood of yearning loveK
For fair and fierce is thy fatherG
and soft and strange are his eyesY
That look on the days that shall beD
with the hope of the brave and the wiseY
It was many a day that we laughedI
as over the meadows we walkedI
And many a day I hearkenedI
and the pictures came as he talkedI
It was many a day that we longedI
and we lingered late at eveD2
Ere speech from speech was sunderedI
and my hand his hand could leaveD2
Then I wept when I was aloneO
and I longed till the daylight cameE2
And down the stairs I stoleF2
and there was our housekeeping dameE2
No mother of me the foundlingP
kindling the fire betimesY
Ere the haymaking folk went forthD
to the meadows down by the limesY
All things I saw at a glanceY
the quickening fire tongues leaptI
Through the crackling heap of sticksY
and the sweet smoke up from it creptI
And close to the very hearthD
the low sun flooded the floorV
And the cat and her kittens playedI
in the sun by the open doorV
The garden was fair in the morningP
and there in the road he stoodI
Beyond the crimson daisiesY
and the bush of southernwoodI
Then side by side togetherG
through the grey walled place we wentI
And O the fear departedI
and the rest and sweet contentI
-
Son sorrow and wisdom he taught meD
and sore I grieved and learnedI
As we twain grew into oneO
and the heart within me burnedI
With the very hopes of his heartI
Ah son it is piteousY
But never again in my lifeQ
shall I dare to speak to thee thusY
So may these lonely wordsY
about thee creep and clingP
These words of the lonely nightI
in the days of our wayfaringP
Many a child of womanO
to night is born in the townO
The desert of folly and wrongP
and of what and whence are they grownO
Many and many an oneO
of wont and use is bornO
For a husband is taken to bedI
as a hat or a ribbon is wornO
Prudence begets her thousandsY
good is a housekeeper s lifeQ
So shall I sell my bodyD
that I may be matron and wifeQ
And I shall endure foul wedlockP
and bear the children of needI
Some are there born of hateI
many the children of greedI
I I too can be weddedI
though thou my love hast gotI
I am fair and hard of heartI
and riches shall be my lotI
And all these are the good and the happyD
on whom the world dawns fairX
O son when wilt thou learnO
of those that are born of despairX
As the fabled mud of the NileE
that quickens under the sunO
With a growth of creeping thingsY
half dead when just begunO
E en such is the care of NatureG
that man should never dieI
Though she breed of the fools of the earthD
and the dregs of the city styI
But thou O son O sonO
of very love wert bornO
When our hope fulfilled bred hopeG2
and fear was a folly outwornO
On the eve of the toil and the battleT
all sorrow and grief we weighedI
We hoped and we were not ashamedI
we knew and we were not afraidI
-
Now waneth the night and the moonO
ah son it is piteousY
That never again in my lifeQ
shall I dare to speak to thee thusY
But sure from the wise and the simpleT
shall the mighty come to birthD
And fair were my fate belovedI
if I be yet on the earthD
When the world is awaken at lastI
and from mouth to mouth they tellH2
Of thy love and thy deeds and thy valourG
and thy hope that nought can quellH2

William Morris



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