Eland-s River Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBACCA DDEFDGGD HHIICAAH JJKKJGGJ LLMMLNNL AAOOAGGA| IT WAS on the fourth of August as five hundred of us lay | A |
| In the camp at Eland s River came a shell from De La Rey | A |
| We were dreaming of home faces | B |
| Of the old familiar places | B |
| And the gum trees and the sunny plains five thousand miles away | A |
| But the challenge woke and found us | C |
| With four thousand rifles round us | C |
| And Death stood laughing at us at the breaking of the day | A |
| - | |
| Hell belched upon our borders and the battle had begun | D |
| Our Maxims jammed We faced them with one muzzle loading gun | D |
| East south and west and nor ward | E |
| Their shells came screaming forward | F |
| As we threw the sconces round us in the first light of the sun | D |
| The thin air shook with thunder | G |
| As they raked us fore and under | G |
| And the cordon closed around us as they held us eight to one | D |
| - | |
| We got the Maxims going and the field gun into place | H |
| She stilled the growling of a Krupp upon our southern face | H |
| Round the crimson ring of battle | I |
| Swiftly ran the deadly rattle | I |
| As our rifles searched their fore lines with a desperate menace | C |
| Who would wish himself away | A |
| Fighting in our ranks that day | A |
| For the glory of Australia and the honour of the race | H |
| - | |
| But our horse lines soon were shambles and our cattle lying dead | J |
| When twelve guns rake two acres there is little room to tread | J |
| All day long we heard the drumming | K |
| Of the Mauser bullets humming | K |
| And at night their guns day sighted rained fierce havoc overhead | J |
| Twelve long days and nights together | G |
| Through the cold and bitter weather | G |
| We lay grim behind the sconces and returned them lead for lead | J |
| - | |
| They called us to surrender and they let their cannon lag | L |
| They offered us our freedom for the striking of the flag | L |
| Army stores were there in mounds | M |
| Worth a hundred thousand pounds | M |
| And we lay battered round them behind trench and sconce and crag | L |
| But we sent the answer in | N |
| They could take what they could win | N |
| We hadn t come five thousand miles to fly the coward s rag | L |
| - | |
| We saw the guns of Carrington come on and fall away | A |
| We saw the ranks of Kitchener across the kopje grey | A |
| For the sun was shining then | O |
| Upon twenty thousand men | O |
| And we laughed because we knew in spite of hell fire and delay | A |
| On Australia s page for ever | G |
| We had written Eland s River | G |
| We had written it for ever and a day | A |
George Essex Evans
(1)
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