Corporal Dick's Promotion - A Ballad Of '82 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCDDDC EEEFGGGF FFFCHHHC IIIIJJJ KKKALLLA FFF MMM FFNAFFFA OOIPFFQP IIRSTTT EEECOOOC DDDURRRU VVVCRRWC IIIIFHHHHFThe Eastern day was well nigh o'er | A |
When parched with thirst and travel sore | B |
Two of McPherson's flanking corps | B |
Across the Desert were tramping | C |
They had wandered off from the beaten track | D |
And now were wearily harking back | D |
Ever staring round for the signal jack | D |
That marked their comrades camping | C |
- | |
The one was Corporal Robert Dick | E |
Bearded and burly short and thick | E |
Rough of speech and in temper quick | E |
A hard faced old rapscallion | F |
The other fresh from the barrack square | G |
Was a raw recruit smooth cheeked and fair | G |
Half grown half drilled with the weedy air | G |
Of a draft from the home battalion | F |
- | |
Weary and parched and hunger torn | F |
They had wandered on from early morn | F |
And the young boy soldier limped forlorn | F |
Now stumbling and now falling | C |
Around the orange sand curves lay | H |
Flecked with boulders black or grey | H |
Death silent save that far away | H |
A kite was shrilly calling | C |
- | |
A kite Was THAT a kite The yell | I |
That shrilly rose and faintly fell | I |
No kite's and yet the kite knows well | I |
The long drawn wild halloo | I |
And right athwart the evening sky | J |
The yellow sand spray spurtled high | J |
And shrill and shriller swelled the cry | J |
Of 'Allah Allahu ' | - |
- | |
The Corporal peered at the crimson West | K |
Hid his pipe in his khaki vest | K |
Growled out an oath and onward pressed | K |
Still glancing over his shoulder | A |
'Bedouins mate ' he curtly said | L |
'We'll find some work for steel and lead | L |
And maybe sleep in a sandy bed | L |
Before we're one hour older | A |
- | |
'But just one flutter before we're done | F |
Stiffen your lip and stand my son | F |
We'll take this bloomin' circus on | F |
Ball cartridge load Now steady ' | - |
With a curse and a prayer the two faced round | M |
Dogged and grim they stood their ground | M |
And their breech blocks snapped with a crisp clean sound | M |
As the rifles sprang to the 'ready ' | - |
- | |
Alas for the Emir Ali Khan | F |
A hundred paces before his clan | F |
That ebony steed of the prophet's breed | N |
Is the foal of death and of danger | A |
A spurt of fire a gasp of pain | F |
A blueish blurr on the yellow plain | F |
The chief was down and his bridle rein | F |
Was in the grip of the stranger | A |
- | |
With the light of hope on his rugged face | O |
The Corporal sprang to the dead man's place | O |
One prick with the steel one thrust with the heel | I |
And where was the man to outride him | P |
A grip of his knees a toss of his rein | F |
He was settling her down to her gallop again | F |
When he stopped for he heard just one faltering word | Q |
From the young recruit beside him | P |
- | |
One faltering word from pal to pal | I |
But it found the heart of the Corporal | I |
He had sprung to the sand he had lent him a hand | R |
'Up mate They'll be 'ere in a minute | S |
Off with you No palaver Go | T |
I'll bide be'ind and run this show | T |
Promotion has been cursed slow | T |
And this is my chance to win it ' | - |
- | |
Into the saddle he thrust him quick | E |
Spurred the black mare with a bayonet prick | E |
Watched her gallop with plunge and with kick | E |
Away o'er the desert careering | C |
Then he turned with a softened face | O |
And loosened the strap of his cartridge case | O |
While his thoughts flew back to the dear old place | O |
In the sunny Hampshire clearing | C |
- | |
The young boy private glancing back | D |
Saw the Bedouins' wild attack | D |
And heard the sharp Martini crack | D |
But as he gazed already | U |
The fierce fanatic Arab band | R |
Was closing in on every hand | R |
Until one tawny swirl of sand | R |
Concealed them in its eddy | U |
- | |
- | |
- | |
A squadron of British horse that night | V |
Galloping hard in the shadowy light | V |
Came on the scene of that last stern fight | V |
And found the Corporal lying | C |
Silent and grim on the trampled sand | R |
His rifle grasped in his stiffened hand | R |
With the warrior pride of one who died | W |
'Mid a ring of the dead and the dying | C |
- | |
And still when twilight shadows fall | I |
After the evening bugle call | I |
In bivouac or in barrack hall | I |
His comrades speak of the Corporal | I |
His death and his devotion | F |
And there are some who like to say | H |
That perhaps a hidden meaning lay | H |
In the words he spoke and that the day | H |
When his rough bold spirit passed away | H |
WAS the day that he won promotion | F |
Arthur Conan Doyle
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