The Happy Gardeners Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEDE FGHGIJFJ KHLHMNON PQRQSTUT TVQVFWQW TQTQTTXT LTQTFQTQ TQTQYTZT LQZQA2B2C2B2 TTTTTTQT WD2E2D2F2G2TG2 H2TTTTI2C2I2 LTJ2TTQTQWe were storemen clerks and packers on | A |
an ammunition dump | B |
Twice the size of Cootamundra and the goods | C |
we had to hump | B |
They were bombs as big as water butts and | D |
cartridges in tons | E |
Shells that looked like blessed gasmains and | D |
a line in traction guns | E |
- | |
We had struck a warehouse dignity in dealing | F |
with the stocks | G |
It was Sign here Mr Eddie Clarkson | H |
forward to the socks | G |
Our floor walker was a major with a nozzle | I |
like a peach | J |
And a stutter in his Trilbies and a limping | F |
kind of speech | J |
- | |
We were off at eight to business we were free | K |
for lunch at one | H |
And we talked of new Spring fashions and the | L |
brisk trade being done | H |
After five we sought our dugouts lying snug | M |
beneath the hill | N |
Each with hollyhocks before it and geraniums | O |
on the sill | N |
- | |
Singing Home Sweet home we swept | P |
and scrubbed and dusted up the place | Q |
Then smoked out on the doorstep in the twi | R |
light's tender grace | Q |
After which with spade and rake we sought | S |
our special garden plot | T |
And we 'tended to the cabbage and the shrink | U |
ing young shallot | T |
- | |
So long lived we unmolested that this seemed | T |
indeed the life | V |
Set apart from mirk and worry and the inci | Q |
dence of strife | V |
And we trimmed our Kitchen Eden swapping | F |
vegetable lore | W |
Whi e the whole demented world beside was | Q |
muddled up with war | W |
- | |
There was little talk of Boches and of bloody | T |
battle scenes | Q |
But a deal about Bill's spuds and Billy | T |
Carkeek's butter beans | Q |
Porky specialised on onion and he had a sort | T |
of gift | T |
For a cabbage plump and tender that it took | X |
two men to lift | T |
- | |
In the pleasant Sabbath morning when the | L |
sun lit on our street | T |
And illumed the happy dugout with effulgence | Q |
kind and sweet | T |
It was fine to see us forking raking picking | F |
off the bugs | Q |
Treading flat the snails and woodlice and | T |
demolishing the slugs | Q |
- | |
Then one day old Fritz got going He had | T |
a hint of us | Q |
And the shell the blighter posted was as roomy | T |
as a 'bus | Q |
He was groping round the dump and kind of | Y |
pecking after it | T |
When he plugged the hill the world heeled up | Z |
the dome of heaven split | T |
- | |
Then Gott and consternation Swooped a | L |
shell a and stuck her nose | Q |
In Carkeek's beans Those beans came up | Z |
A cry of grief arose | Q |
As we watched them plunk another shell | A2 |
cut loose and everywhere | B2 |
Flew the spuds of Billy Murphy There were | C2 |
turnips in the air | B2 |
- | |
Bill she tore a quarter acre from the land | T |
scape With it burst | T |
Tommy's carrots and we watched them and | T |
in whispers prayed and cursed | T |
Then a wail of anguish 'scaped us Boomed | T |
in Porky's cabbage plot | T |
A detestable concussion Porky's cabbages | Q |
were not | T |
- | |
There the Breaking strain was reached for | W |
Porky fetched an awful cry | D2 |
And he rushed away and armed himself | E2 |
With loathing in his eye | D2 |
Up and over went the hero He was savage | F2 |
Through and through | G2 |
And he tore across the distance like a mad | T |
dened kangaroo | G2 |
- | |
They had left a woeful sight indeed frail cab | H2 |
bages all rent | T |
Turnips mangled little carrots all in one red | T |
burial blent | T |
Parsnips ruined lettuce shattered torn and | T |
wilted beet and bean | I2 |
And a black and grinning gap where once our | C2 |
garden flourished green | I2 |
- | |
Five and fifty hours had passed when came a | L |
German in his shirt | T |
On his back he carried Porky black with | J2 |
blood and smoke and dirt | T |
I sniped six of 'em said Porky an' me | T |
pris'ner here he sez | Q |
I done in the crooel swine what strafed me | T |
helpless cabba ges | Q |
Edward George Dyson
(1)
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