Lex Talionis - A Moral Discourse Poem Rhyme Scheme

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And if there's blood upon his hand	A
'Tis but the blood of deer	B
W Scott	C
	-
	-
To beasts of the field and fowls of the air	D
And fish of the sea alike	E
Man's hand is ever slow to spare	D
And ever ready to strike	E
With a license to kill and to work our will	F
In season by land or by water	G
To our heart's content we may take our fill	F
Of the joys we derive from slaughter	G
	-
And few I reckon our rights gainsay	H
In this world of rapine and wrong	I
Where the weak and the timid seem lawful prey	H
For the resolute and the strong	I
Fins furs and feathers they are and were	G
For our use and pleasure created	J
We can shoot and hunt and angle and snare	D
Unquestioned if not unsated	J
	-
I have neither the will nor the right to blame	K
Yet to many though not to all	L
The sweets of destruction are somewhat tame	K
When no personal risks befall	L
Our victims suffer but little we trust	J
Mere guess work and blank enigma	M
If they suffer at all our field sports must	J
Of cruelty bear the stigma	M
	-
Shall we hard hearted to their fates thus	N
Soft hearted shrink from our own	O
When the measure we mete is meted to us	N
When we reap as we've always sown	O
Shall we who for pastime have squander'd life	P
Who are styled the Lords of Creation	Q
Recoil from our chance of more equal strife	P
And our risk of retaliation	Q
	-
Though short is the dying pheasant's pain	R
Scant pity you well may spare	D
And the partridge slain is a triumph vain	R
And a risk that a child may dare	D
You feel when you lower the smoking gun	Q
Some ruth for yon slaughtered hare	D
And hit or miss in your selfish fun	Q
The widgeon has little share	D
	-
But you've no remorseful qualms or pangs	S
When you kneel by the grizzly's lair	D
On that conical bullet your sole chance hangs	S
'Tis the weak one's advantage fair	D
And the shaggy giant's terrific fangs	S
Are ready to crush and tear	D
Should you miss one vision of home and friends	T
Five words of unfinished prayer	D
Three savage knife stabs so your sport ends	T
In the worrying grapple that chokes and rends	T
Rare sport at least for the bear	D
	-
Short shrift sharp fate dark doom to dree	D
Hard struggle though quickly ending	U
At home or abroad by land or sea	T
In peace or war sore trials must be	T
And worse may happen to you or to me	T
For none are secure and none can flee	T
From a destiny impending	U
	-
Ah friend did you think when the London sank	V
Timber by timber plank by plank	V
In a cauldron of boiling surf	W
How alone at least with never a flinch	X
In a rally contested inch by inch	X
You could fall on the trampled turf	W
When a livid wall of the sea leaps high	Y
In the lurid light of a leaden sky	Y
And bursts on the quarter railing	U
While the howling storm gust seems to vie	Y
With the crash of splintered beams that fly	Y
Yet fails too oft to smother the cry	Y
Of women and children wailing	U
	-
Then those who listen in sinking ships	T
To despairing sobs from their lov'd one's lips	T
Where the green wave thus slowly shatters	T
May long for the crescent claw that rips	T
The bison into ribbons and strips	T
And tears the strong elk to tatters	T
	-
Oh sunderings short of body and breath	Z
Oh battle and murder and sudden death	Z
Against which the Liturgy preaches	T
By the will of a just yet a merciful Power	D
Less bitter perchance in the mystic hour	D
When the wings of the shadowy angel lower	D
Than man in his blindness teaches	T

Adam Lindsay Gordon

Lex Talionis - A Moral Discourse Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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