Billy Khaki Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABB CDCDCECE FFGG HHII JJII HHII KKLL IIMM IIGG CDCDCECE

Marching somewhat out of order when the band is cock a hoopA
There's a lilting kind of magic in the swagger of the troopA
Swinging all aboard the steamer with her nose toward the seaB
What is calling Billy Khaki that you're footing it so freeB
-
Though his lines are none too levelC
And he lacks a bit of styleD
And he's swanking like the devilC
Where the women wave and smileD
He will answer with a rifleC
Trim and true from stock to boreE
Where the comrades crouch and stifleC
In the reeking pit of warE
-
What is calling Billy Khaki There is thunder down the skyF
And the merry magpie bugle splits the morning with its cryF
While your feet are beating rhythms up the dusty hills and downG
And the drums are all a talking in the hollow of the townG
-
Billy Khaki is't the splendor of the song the kiddies singH
Or the whipping of the flags aloft that sets your heart a swingH
Is't the cheering like a paean of the tossing teeming crowdsI
Or the boom of distant cannon flatly bumping on the cloudsI
-
What's calling calling Billy 'Tis the rattle far awayJ
Of the cavalry at gallop and artillery in playJ
'Tis the great gun's fierce concussion and the smell of seven hellsI
When the long ranks go to pieces in the sneezing of the shellsI
-
But your eyes are laughing Billy and a ribald song you singH
While the old men sit and tell us war it is a ghastly thingH
When the swift machines are busy and the grim squat fortress nocksI
At your bolts as vain as eggs of gulls that spatter on the rocksI
-
When the horses sweep upon you to complete a sudden routK
Or in fire and smoke and fury some brave regiment goes outK
War is cruel Bill and ugly But full well you know the restL
Yet your heart is for the battle and your face is to the westL
-
For if war is beastly Billy you can picture something worseI
There's the wrecking of an empire and its broken people's curseI
There are nations reft of freedom and of hope and kindly mirthM
And the shadow of an evil black upon the bitter earthM
-
So we know what's calling Billy 'Tis the spirit of our raceI
And its stir is in your pulses and its light is on your faceI
As you march with clipping boot heels through the piping howling townG
To uphold the land we live in and to pull a tyrant downG
-
Thou his lines are none too levelC
And he's not a whale for styleD
And he's swanking like the devilC
When the women wave and smileD
He will answer with a rifleC
Trim and true from stuck to boreE
When the comrades sit and stifleC
In the smoking pit of warE

Edward Dyson



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