Ballad Of The Press-gang At Shihao Village Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDECFGCHICJKCALCMN COFC| One evening I found lodging in a village where | A |
| A press gang stole by night to seize my aging host | B |
| Who hearing them scaled the wall and hid nearby | C |
| Furious the bailiff bellowed at the gate | D |
| Until the woman of the house unbarred the door | E |
| Stepped out and offered up this pitiful reply | C |
| Three boys I nursed and raised and on the selfsame day | F |
| Saw them sent off to the garrison at Yeh | G |
| My oldest boy he sent a letter by and by | C |
| To say the other two were lying in their graves | H |
| And he himself was living but a stolen life | I |
| O Mother dear how short we live how long we die | C |
| And now there s not another male under my roof | J |
| Besides this man child nursing at his mother s breast | K |
| That you could find some use for her I ll not deny | C |
| But as you see she hardly has a stitch to wear | A |
| And there s the child to think of so why not think on this | L |
| Granted I am old and gray yet I am spry | C |
| Enough to keep up with the other conscripts and | M |
| I know I ve strength to serve the men their morning meals | N |
| With that the voices died though now and then a cry | C |
| Or plaintive sob choked off the silence of the night | O |
| At break of day when I continued on my way | F |
| No one was left but that old man to say goodbye | C |
Du Fu
(1)
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