The Shadow Boatswain Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEFE GHIH CJBJ JKBK CEFE LMCN COLO LLGL PLCL QRFR CSGS ATLT LULU VAUA RWCX CYCY GLCS VZLZ A2EFE| Don't you know the sailing orders | A |
| It is time to put to sea | B |
| And the stranger in the harbor | C |
| Sends a boat ashore for me | B |
| - | |
| With the thunder of her canvas | D |
| Coming on the wind again | E |
| I can hear the Shadow Boatswain | F |
| Piping to his shadow men | E |
| - | |
| Is it firelight or morning | G |
| That red flicker on the floor | H |
| Your good by was braver sweetheart | I |
| When I sailed away before | H |
| - | |
| Think of this last lovely summer | C |
| Love what ails the wind to night | J |
| What's he saying in the chimney | B |
| Turns your berry cheek so white | J |
| - | |
| What a morning How the sunlight | J |
| Sparkles on the outer bay | K |
| Where the brig lies waiting for me | B |
| To trip anchor and away | K |
| - | |
| That's the Doomkeel You may know her | C |
| By her clean run aft and then | E |
| Don't you hear the Shadow Boatswain | F |
| Piping to his shadow men | E |
| - | |
| Off the freshening sea to windward | L |
| Is it a white tern I hear | M |
| Shrilling in the gusty weather | C |
| Where the far sea line is clear | N |
| - | |
| What a morning for departure | C |
| How your blue eyes melt and shine | O |
| Will you watch us from the headland | L |
| Till we sink below the line | O |
| - | |
| I can see the wind already | L |
| Steer the scurf marks of the tide | L |
| As we slip the wake of being | G |
| Down the sloping world and wide | L |
| - | |
| I can feel the vasty mountains | P |
| Heave and settle under me | L |
| And the Doomkeel veer and shudder | C |
| Crumbling on the hollow sea | L |
| - | |
| There's a call as when a white gull | Q |
| Cries and beats across the blue | R |
| That must be the Shadow Boatswain | F |
| Piping to his shadow crew | R |
| - | |
| There's a boding sound like winter | C |
| When the pines begin to quail | S |
| That must be the gray wind moaning | G |
| In the belly of the sail | S |
| - | |
| I can feel the icy fingers | A |
| Creeping in upon my bones | T |
| There must be a berg to windward | L |
| Somewhere in these border zones | T |
| - | |
| Stir the fire I love the sunlight | L |
| Always loved my shipmate sun | U |
| How the sunflowers beckon to me | L |
| From the dooryard one by one | U |
| - | |
| How the royal lady roses | V |
| Strew this summer world of ours | A |
| There'll be none in Lonely Haven | U |
| It is too far north for flowers | A |
| - | |
| There sweetheart And I must leave you | R |
| What should touch my wife with tears | W |
| There's no danger with the Master | C |
| He has sailed the sea for years | X |
| - | |
| With the sea wolves on her quarter | C |
| And a white bone in her teeth | Y |
| He will steer the shadow cruiser | C |
| Dark before and doom beneath | Y |
| - | |
| Down the last expanse till morning | G |
| Flares above the broken sea | L |
| And the midnight storm is over | C |
| And the Isles are close alee | S |
| - | |
| So some twilight when your roses | V |
| Are all blown and it is June | Z |
| You will turn your blue eyes seaward | L |
| Through the white dusk of the moon | Z |
| - | |
| Wondering as that far sea cry | A2 |
| Comes upon the wind again | E |
| And you hear the Shadow Boatswain | F |
| Piping to his shadow men | E |
Bliss Carman
(1)
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