The Trucker Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFE GHGH IJIJ KLKL MMMM NONO PQPQ RSRS MMMM TQTQ UFUF

If you want a game to tame you and to take your measure inA
Try a week or two of trucking in a mineB
Where the rails are never level for a half a minute's spinA
And the curves are short and sharp along the lineB
-
Try the feverish bottom level down five hundred feet of shaftC
Where the atmosphere is like a second suitD
When the wash is full of water and you've got to run the graftC
For there's forty ton of gravel in the shootD
-
'Want a job o' truckin' dost tha ' says the boss old Geordie RistE
Shift's a trucker short ma lad but aw don' knowF
Can'st tha do th' work though think'st tha Art a pretty decent fistE
Eh well damme thoo can try it go below '-
-
So the cage is manned the knocker clangs and clatters on the braceG
The engine draws a deep defiant breathH
To inflate her lungs of iron and in silence face to faceG
We drop into the darkness deep as deathH
-
Then a fairy sense of lightness and of floating on the nightI
A sudden glare and Number Three is passedJ
Soon a sound of warring waters and another rush of lightI
'All clear ' The up trip never seems so fastJ
-
It is rough upon the tyro that first tussle with the trucksK
The wretched four with worn three cornered wheelsL
That are sure to fall to his lot and to floor him if his pluck'sK
Not true when mates are grinding at his heelsL
-
Then the struggle at the incline and the deuced ticklish squeezeM
At the curves where strength alone not all availsM
And the floundering in the mullock and the badly broken kneesM
Before he learns to run upon the railsM
-
But it's like all other grafting and the man that has the gritN
Won't tucker out with one back racking shiftO
When he's sweated to condition with his muscles firm and fitN
He'll disdain to stick at seven trucks of driftO
-
He can swarm around the pinches with a scramble and a dashP
And negotiate the inclines just as patQ
And the sheets of iron rattle and the waters surge and splashP
As he shoots the full 'uns in along the platQ
-
When the empties wind and clatter down the drive and through the darkR
As 'blowing' spells those backward journeys serveS
On before deep set in darkness glints and glows a feeble sparkR
The candle burning dimly at the curveS
-
After cribs are polished off and when the smoke begins to riseM
And cling about the caps and in the cracksM
There's a passing satisfaction in the patriarchal liesM
Of the Geordie pioneers and Cousin JacksM
-
Lanky Steve's unwritten stories of the fun of Fifty twoT
Or the dashing days at Donkey Woman's FlatQ
Of traps and beaks and heavy yields and pugilists put throughT
And lifting up the flag at BallaratQ
-
Yes the truckers' toil is rather heavy grafting as a ruleU
Much heavier than the wages well I knowF
But the life's not full of trouble and the fellow is a foolU
Who cannot find some pleasure down belowF

Edward Dyson



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