The Rescue Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCC DDEEFF GGHHDD IIJJFF KKLLMM NNOOFF PPQQRR STDDJJ UUVVWW XX| THERE S a sudden fierce clang of the knocker then the sound of a voice in the shaft | A |
| Shrieking words that drum hard on the centres and the braceman goes suddenly daft | A |
| Set the whistle a blowing like blazes Billy run give old Mackie a call | B |
| Run you fool Number Two s gone to pieces and Fred Baker is caught in the fall | B |
| Say hello there below any hope boys any chances of saving his life | C |
| Heave away says the knocker They ve started God be praised he s no youngsters or wife | C |
| - | |
| Screams the whistle in fearful entreaty and the wild echo raves on the spur | D |
| And the night that was still as a sleeper in soft charmed sleep is astir | D |
| With the fluttering of wings in the wattles and the vague frightened murmur of birds | E |
| With far cooeys that carry the warning running feet inarticulate words | E |
| From the black belt of bush come the miners and they gather by Mack on the brace | F |
| Out of breath barely clad and half wakened with a question in every face | F |
| - | |
| Who s below Where s the fall Didn t I tell you Didn t I say that them sets wasn t sound | G |
| Is it Fred He was reckless was Baker now he s seen his last shift underground | G |
| And his mate Where is Sandy M Fadyn Sandy s snoring at home on his bunk | H |
| Not at work Name o God a foreboding A foreboding be hanged He is drunk | H |
| Take it steady there lads the boss orders He is white to the roots of his hair | D |
| We may get him alive before daybreak if he s close to the face and has air | D |
| - | |
| In the dim drive with ardour heroic two facemen are pegging away | I |
| Long and Coots in the rise heard her thunder and they fled without word or delay | I |
| Down the drive and they rushed for the ladders and they went up the shaft with a run | J |
| For they knew the weak spot in the workings and they guessed there was graft to be done | J |
| Number Two was pitch dark and they scrambled to the plat and they made for the face | F |
| But the roof bad come down fifty yards in and the reef was all over the place | F |
| - | |
| Fresher men from the surface replace them and they re hauled up on top for a blow | K |
| When a life and death job is in doing there s room only for workers below | K |
| Bare armed and bare chested and brawny with a grim meaning set of the jaw | L |
| The relay hurries in to the rescue caring not for the danger a straw | L |
| Tis not toil but a battle they re called to and like Trojans the miners respond | M |
| For a dead man lies crushed neath the timbers or a live man is choking beyond | M |
| - | |
| By the faint yellow glow of the candles where the dank drive is hot with their breath | N |
| On the verge of the Land of the Shadow waging war breast to bosom with Death | N |
| How they struggle these giants and slowly as the trucks rattle into the gloom | O |
| Inch by inch they advance to the conquest of a prison or is it a tomb | O |
| And the working s re echo a volley as the timbers are driven in place | F |
| Then a whisper is borne to the toilers Boys his mother is there on the brace | F |
| - | |
| Like veterans late into action fierce with longing to hew and to hack | P |
| Riordan s shift rushes in to relieve them and the toil stricken men stagger back | P |
| Stow the stuff mates wherever there s stowage Run the man on the brace till he drops | Q |
| There s no time to think on this billet Bark the heels of the trucker who stops | Q |
| Keep the props well in front and be careful He s in there and alive never fret | R |
| But the grey dawn is softening the ridges and the word has not come to us yet | R |
| - | |
| Still the knocker rings out and the engine shrieks and strains like a creature in pain | S |
| As the cage rushes up to the surface and drops back into darkness again | T |
| By the capstan a woman is crouching In her eyes neither hope nor despair | D |
| But a yearning that glowers like frenzy bids those who d speak pity forbear | D |
| Like a figure in stone she is seated till the labour of rescue be done | J |
| For the father was killed in the Phoenix and the son Lord of pity the son | J |
| - | |
| Hello there on top they are calling They are through He is seen in the drive | U |
| They have got him thank Heaven they ve got him and oh blessed be God he s alive | U |
| Man on heave away Step aside lads let his mother be first when he lands | V |
| She was silent and strong in her anguish now she babbles and weeps where she stands | V |
| And the stern men grown gentle support her at the mouth of the shaft till at last | W |
| With a rush the cage springs to the landing and her son s arms encircle her fast | W |
| - | |
| She has cursed the old mine for its murders for the victims its drives have ensnared | X |
| Now she cries a great blessing upon it for the one precious life it has spared | X |
Edward George Dyson
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