Booth's Drum [1] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCCDEFGGHF IIFFDDDFFF JJKKLLMMM NNOOEEEEE GGPPQQQ MMLLRRSS EETTDD UPVPWFWFD| They were ratty they were hooted by the meanest and the least | A |
| When they woke the Drum of Glory long ago in London East | A |
| They were often mobbed by hoodlums they were few but unafraid | B |
| And their Lassies were insulted but they banged the drum and prayed | B |
| Prayed in public for the sinners prayed in private for release | C |
| Till they saved some brawny lumpers then they banged the drum in peace | C |
| Saved some prize fighter and burglars and they banged the drum in peace | C |
| Booth s Drum | D |
| He was hook nosed he was scrawny | E |
| He was nothing of a Don | F |
| And his business ways seemed Yiddish | G |
| And his speeches kid or kiddish | G |
| And we doubted his convictions | H |
| But his drum is going on | F |
| - | |
| Oh they drummed it ever onward with old Blood and Fire unfurled | I |
| And they drummed it ever outward to the corners of the world | I |
| Till they banged the drum in Greenland and they banged in Ispahan | F |
| And they banged it round to India and China and Japan | F |
| And they banged it through the Islands where each seasoned Son of Rum | D |
| Took them for new fangled Jim Jams when he heard the Army Drum | D |
| For a bran new brand of Horrors when he saw the Army come | D |
| So they banged it in the desert and they banged in the snow | F |
| They d have banged the Drum to Mecca with the shadow of a show | F |
| But Mohammed cut their heads off so they had to let it go | F |
| - | |
| Somewhere in the early eighties they had banged the drum to Bourke | J |
| Where the job of fighting Satan was white hot and dusty work | J |
| Oh the Local Lass was withered in the heat that bakes and glares | K |
| And we sent her food and firewood but took small heed of her prayers | K |
| We were blasphemous and beery we were free from Creed or Care | L |
| Till they sent their prettiest Lassies and they broke our centre there | L |
| So that moderately sober we could stand to hear them sing | M |
| And we d chaff their Testifiers and throw quids into the ring | M |
| Never less than bobs or dollars sometimes quids into the ring | M |
| - | |
| They have stormed our sinful cities banged for all that they were worth | N |
| From Port Darwin to Port Melbourne and from Sydney round to Perth | N |
| We d no need for them or woman when we were all right and well | O |
| But they took us out of prison and they took us out of Hell | O |
| And they helped our fallen sisters who went down for such as we | E |
| And our widows and our orphans in distress and poverty | E |
| And neglected wives and children of the worst of us that be | E |
| And they made us fit for Glory or another Glorious Spree | E |
| So I rather think there s something that is up to you or me | E |
| - | |
| Oh the Blindness of the Future Ah we never reckoned much | G |
| That they d beat the quids we gave them into bayonets and such | G |
| That the coin would be devoted when our world was looking blue | P |
| To another kind of orphan wife or child or widow too | P |
| But the times have changed a sudden and the past is very dim | Q |
| They Have Found a Real Devil and They re Going After Him | Q |
| With a Bible and a Rifle they are going after him | Q |
| - | |
| For the old Salvation Army and their Country and their King | M |
| They are marching to the trenches shouting Comrades Let us Sing | M |
| They ll find foreign Army soldiers here and there and everywhere | L |
| Who will speak their tongue and help them And they ll surely breathe a prayer | L |
| For the Spy before they shoot him and another when he s still | R |
| And they re going to fire a volley in the Land of Kaiser Bill | R |
| But when all is done and quiet as before they march away | S |
| They will kneel about their banner saying Brethren Let us pray | S |
| - | |
| They have long used army rank terms and oh say what it shall be | E |
| When a few come back the real thing and when one comes back V C | E |
| They will bang the drum at Crow s Nest they will bang it on the Shore | T |
| They will bang the drum in Kent street as they never banged before | T |
| And At Last they ll frighten Satan from the Mansion and the Slum | D |
| He ll have never heard till that time such a Banging of the Drum | D |
| - | |
| He was lonely with his thousands | U |
| Lonely in his household too | P |
| For his children had deserted | V |
| And his captains not a few | P |
| He was old and white and feeble | W |
| And his sight was nearly gone | F |
| And he could not see his people | W |
| But his drum is rolling on | F |
| Booth s Drum | D |
Henry Lawson
(1)
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