Lex Talionis Poem Rhyme Scheme

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

Adam Lindsay Gordon

Lex Talionis Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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