A Letter From The Trenches To A School Friend Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFBGGHHIIDD HHJJKKLMMLNOOPQRRDDS STUUUVVWWJJBBXXJYAD OOGGBBZZGGA2A2B2B2XZ C2C2C2C2GGC2C2GFD2D2 FFGGFFC2C2E2E2I have not brought my Odyssey | A |
With me here across the sea | A |
But you'll remember when I say | B |
How when they went down Sparta way | B |
To sandy Sparta long ere dawn | C |
Horses were harnessed rations drawn | C |
Equipment polished sparkling bright | D |
And breakfasts swallowed as the white | D |
Of eastern heavens turned to gold | E |
The dogs barked swift farewells were told | E |
The sun springs up the horses neigh | F |
Crackles the whip thrice then away | B |
From sun go up to sun go down | G |
All day across the sandy down | G |
The gallant horses galloped till | H |
The wind across the downs more chill | H |
Blew the sun sank and all the road | I |
Was darkened that it only showed | I |
Right at the end the town's red light | D |
And twilight glimmering into night | D |
- | |
The horses never slackened till | H |
They reached the doorway and stood still | H |
Then came the knock the unlading then | J |
The honey sweet converse of men | J |
The splendid bath the change of dress | K |
Then oh the grandeur of their Mess | K |
The henchmen the prim stewardess | L |
And oh the breaking of old ground | M |
The tales after the port went round | M |
The wondrous wiles of old Odysseus | L |
Old Agamemnon and his misuse | N |
Of his command and that young chit | O |
Paris who didn't care a bit | O |
For Helen only to annoy her | P |
He did it really K T A | Q |
But soon they led amidst the din | R |
The honey sweet in | R |
Whose eyes were blind whose soul had sight | D |
Who knew the fame of men in fight | D |
Bard of white hair and trembling foot | S |
Who sang whatever God might put | S |
Into his heart | T |
And there he sung | U |
Those war worn veterans among | U |
Tales of great war and strong hearts wrung | U |
Of clash of arms of council's brawl | V |
Of beauty that must early fall | V |
Of battle hate and battle joy | W |
By the old windy walls of Troy | W |
They felt that they were unreal then | J |
Visions and shadow forms not men | J |
But those the Bard did sing and say | B |
Some were their comrades some were they | B |
Took shape and loomed and strengthened more | X |
Greatly than they had guessed of yore | X |
And now the fight begins again | J |
The old war joy the old war pain | Y |
Sons of one school across the sea | A |
We have no fear to fight | D |
- | |
And soon oh soon I do not doubt it | O |
With the body or without it | O |
We shall all come tumbling down | G |
To our old wrinkled red capped town | G |
Perhaps the road up llsley way | B |
The old ridge track will be my way | B |
High up among the sheep and sky | Z |
Look down on Wantage passing by | Z |
And see the smoke from Swindon town | G |
And then full left at Liddington | G |
Where the four winds of heaven meet | A2 |
The earth blest traveller to greet | A2 |
And then my face is toward the south | B2 |
There is a singing on my mouth | B2 |
Away to rightward I descry | X |
My Barbury ensconced in sky | Z |
Far underneath the Ogbourne twins | C2 |
And at my feet the thyme and whins | C2 |
The grasses with their little crowns | C2 |
Of gold the lovely Aldbourne downs | C2 |
And that old signpost well I knew | G |
That crazy signpost arms askew | G |
Old mother of the four grass ways | C2 |
And then my mouth is dumb with praise | C2 |
For past the wood and chalkpit tiny | G |
A glimpse of Marlborough | F |
So I descend beneath the rail | D2 |
To warmth and welcome and wassail | D2 |
- | |
This from the battered trenches rough | F |
Jingling and tedious enough | F |
And so I sign myself to you | G |
One who some crooked pathways knew | G |
Round Bedwyn who could scarcely leave | F |
The Downs on a December eve | F |
Was at his happiest in shorts | C2 |
And got not many good reports | C2 |
Small skill of rhyming in his hand | E2 |
But you'll forgive you'll understand | E2 |
Charles Hamilton Sorley
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