The Captured Flag Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDEFFBBCCBB GDGHHIJIBBIIKKLLHHMM NNMMBBOOPPQQBBGGJJ| Loudly roared the English cannon loudly thundered back our own | A |
| Pouring down a hail of iron from their battlements of stone | A |
| Giving Frontenac's proud message to the clustered British ships | B |
| I will answer your commander only by my cannons' lips | B |
| Through the sulphurous smoke below us on the Admiral's ship of war | C |
| Faintly gleamed the British ensign as through cloudwrack gleams a | D |
| star | E |
| And above our noble fortress on Cape Diamond's rugged crest | F |
| Like a crown upon a monarch like an eagle in its nest | F |
| Streamed our silken flag emblazoned with the royal fleur de lys | B |
| Flinging down a proud defiance to the rulers of the sea | B |
| As we saw it waving proudly and beheld the crest it bore | C |
| Fiercely throbbed our hearts within us and with bitter words we swore | C |
| While the azure sky was reeling at the thunder of our guns | B |
| We would strike that standard never while Old France had gallant sons | B |
| - | |
| Long and fiercely raged the struggle oft our foes had sought to land | G |
| But with shot and steel we met them met and drove them from the | D |
| strand | G |
| Though they owned them not defeated and the stately Union Jack | H |
| Streaming from the slender topmast seemed to wave them proudly back | H |
| Louder rose the din of combat thicker rolled the battle smoke | I |
| Through whose murky folds the crimson tongues of thundering cannon | J |
| broke | I |
| And the ensign sank and floated in the smoke clouds on the breeze | B |
| As a wounded fluttering sea bird floats upon the stormy seas | B |
| While we looked upon it sinking rising through the sea of smoke | I |
| Lo it shook and bending downwards as a tree beneath a stroke | I |
| Hung one moment o'er the river then precipitously fell | K |
| Like proud Lucifer descending from high heaven into hell | K |
| As we saw it flutter downwards till it reached the eager wave | L |
| Not Cape Diamond's loudest echo could have matched the cheer we gave | L |
| Yet the English still undaunted sent an answering echo back | H |
| Though their flag had fallen conquered still their fury did not slack | H |
| And with louder voice their cannon to our cannonade replied | M |
| As their tattered ensign drifted slowly shoreward with the tide | M |
| - | |
| There was one who saw it floating and within his heart of fire | N |
| Beating in a Frenchman's bosom rose at once a fierce desire | N |
| That the riven flag thus resting on the broad St Lawrence tide | M |
| Should for years to come betoken how France humbled England's pride | M |
| As the stag leaps down the mountain with the baying hounds in chase | B |
| So the hero swift descending sought Cape Diamond's rugged base | B |
| And within the water whitened by the bullets' deadly hail | O |
| Springing swam towards the ensign with a stroke that could not fail | O |
| From the shore and from the fortress we looked on with bated breath | P |
| For around him closer closer fell the messengers of death | P |
| And as nearer ever nearer to the floating flag he drew | Q |
| Thicker round his head undaunted still the English bullets flew | Q |
| He has reached and seized the trophy Ah what cheering rent the skies | B |
| Mingled with deep English curses as he shoreward brought his prize | B |
| Slowly slowly almost sinking still he struggled to the land | G |
| And we hurried down to meet him as he reached the welcome strand | G |
| Proudly up the rock we bore him with the flag that he had won | J |
| And that night the English vessels left us with the setting sun | J |
Arthur Weir
(1)
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