The Old Timer's Steeplechase Poem Rhyme Scheme

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The sheep were shorn and the wool went down	A
At the time of our local racing	B
And I'd earned a spell I was burnt and brown	A
So I rolled my swag for a trip to town	A
And a look at the steeplechasing	B
Twas rough and ready an uncleared course	C
As rough as the blacks had found it	D
With barbed wire fences topped with gorse	C
And a water jump that would drown a horse	C
And the steeple three times round it	D
	-
There was never a fence the tracks to guard	E
Some straggling posts defined 'em	F
And the day was hot and the drinking hard	E
Till none of the stewards could see a yard	E
Before nor yet behind 'em	F
	-
But the bell was rung and the nags were out	G
Excepting an old outsider	H
Whose trainer started an awful rout	G
For his boy had gone on a drinking bout	G
And left him without a rider	H
	-
Is there not a man in the crowd he cried	I
In the whole of the crowd so clever	H
Is there not one man that will take a ride	I
On the old white horse from the Northern side	I
That was bred on the Mooki River	H
	-
Twas an old white horse that they called The Cow	B
And a cow would look well beside him	J
But I was pluckier then than now	B
And I wanted excitement anyhow	B
So at last I agreed to ride him	J
	-
And the trainer said Well he's dreadful slow	K
And he hasn't a chance whatever	H
But I'm stony broke so it's time to show	K
A trick or two that the trainers know	K
Who train by the Mooki River	H
	-
The first time round at the further side	I
With the trees and the scrub about you	L
Just pull behind them and run out wide	I
And then dodge into the scrub and hide	I
And let them go round without you	L
	-
At the third time round for the final spin	M
With the pace and the dust to blind 'em	F
They'll never notice if you chip in	M
For the last half mile you'll be sure to win	M
And they'll think you raced behind 'em	F
	-
At the water jump you may have to swim	J
He hasn't a hope to clear it	D
Unless he skims like the swallows skim	J
At full speed over but not for him	J
He'll never go next or near it	D
	-
But don't you worry just plunge across	C
For he swims like a well trained setter	H
Then hide away in the scrub and gorse	C
The rest will be far ahead of course	C
The further ahead the better	H
	-
You must rush the jumps in the last half round	N
For fear that he might refuse 'em	F
He'll try to baulk with you I' be bound	N
Take whip and spurs to the mean old hound	N
And don't be afraid to use 'em	F
	-
At the final round when the field are slow	K
And you are quite fresh to meet 'em	F
Sit down and hustle him all you know	K
With the whip and spurs and he'll have to go	K
Remember you've got to beat 'em	F
	-
	-
	-
The flag went down and we seemed to fly	O
And we made the timbers shiver	H
Of the first big fence as the stand dashed by	O
And I caught the ring of the trainer's cry	O
Go on for the Mooki River	H
	-
I jammed him in with a well packed crush	P
And recklessly out for slaughter	H
Like a living wave over fence and brush	P
We swept and swung with a flying rush	P
Till we came to the dreaded water	H
	-
Ha ha I laugh at it now to think	B
Of the way I contrived to work it	D
Shut in amongst them before you'd wink	B
He found himself on the water's brink	B
With never a chance to shirk it	D
	-
The thought of the horror he felt beguiles	C
The heart of this grizzled rover	H
He gave a snort you could hear for miles	C
And a spring would have cleared the Channel Isles	C
And carried me safely over	H
	-
Then we neared the scrub and I pulled him back	B
In the shade where the gum leaves quiver	H
And I waited there in the shadows black	B
While the rest of the horses round the track	B
Went on like a rushing river	H
	-
At the second round as the field swept by	O
I saw that the pace was telling	B
But on they thundered and by and by	O
As they passed the stand I could hear the cry	O
Of the folk in the distance yelling	B
	-
Then the last time round And the hoofbeats rang	B
And I said Well it's now or never	H
And out on the heels of the throng I sprang	B
And the spurs bit deep and the whipcord sang	B
As I rode For the Mooki River	H
	-
We raced for home in a cloud of dust	Q
And the curses rose in chorus	C
'Twas flog and hustle and jump you must	Q
And The Cow ran well but to my disgust	Q
There was one got home before us	C
	-
Twas a big black horse that I had not seen	R
In the part of the race I'd ridden	S
And his coat was cool and his rider clean	R
And I thought that perhaps I had not been	M
The only one that had hidden	S
	-
And the trainer came with a visage blue	L
With rage when the race concluded	T
Said he I thought you'd have pulled us through	L
But the man on the black horse planted too	L
And nearer to home than you did	U
	-
Alas to think that those times so gay	B
Have vanished and passed for ever	H
You don't believe in the yarn you say	B
Why man 'twas a matter of every day	B
When we raced on the Mooki River	H

Banjo Paterson

The Old Timer's Steeplechase Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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