Captain Von Esson Of The -sebastopolâ? Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCAA DDEE FFGG HHII HHAA AAAA HHHH AAJJ AAKK AAFF LLMM HHIIOf his beauty or stature or colour of hair I hadn t the slightest hint | A |
But he comes to me as a little man with a scrubby beard and a squint | A |
With a heart somewhere if it wasn t there and an Irish terrier nose | B |
With a bark or a yelp for his friends and his crew and a bull dog grip for his foes | B |
The Japs had taken a permanent fort at the price of ten thousand sons | C |
And they shelled the ships in the harbour there with their landed naval guns | C |
Through sand bags laid on the upper deck the shells went through with a whelt | A |
And some because of ballistic curve out under the armoured belt | A |
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Till each was sunk that the Russians left while the buildings reeled with the shock | D |
Save the last of the Russian ships of war the Sebastopol in dock | D |
And this is the reason told in a line why there is a tale to tell | E |
The Sebastopol had a man for boss and a crew that knew it well | E |
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He rousted them out from the dens ashore and they didn t engage in prayer | F |
For dear men pray when the fight is done and there wasn t a cheap man there | F |
He rooted the dock hands out when crouched in deadly fear of the Jap | G |
But they stood in greater immediate fear of Von Esson s squint and his yap | G |
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She groped her way in the gathering dusk out under the time dulled din | H |
And nothing was heard save a whispered word and the laugh of a Russian Finn | H |
He took her out from the harbour trap where the shells came down like hail | I |
For a chance to fight for the Wrong or Right round under the Lizard s Tail | I |
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My fathers came from the North my friends when there was a world to win | H |
And something hints of the Northern Wolf in the laugh of a Russian Finn | H |
A sailor he was with gorilla arms and a mighty hairy chest | A |
T was a laugh of love for his captain man and a laugh of hate for the rest | A |
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There is neither the time nor the space to tell of the deeds that those Russians did | A |
Three days on the toppling lid of hell like an ill made cauldron s lid | A |
The breathless pause ere the flashlight fell where the creeping foe was hid | A |
The blood streaked decks and the grunt or yell when the stricken slipped and slid | A |
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The faces white in a sudden light and the ghostly dying grin | H |
The great relief when the silence broke and they revelled in Hell s own din | H |
The blinding flash and the stunning crash strained ears strained eyes dry skin | H |
The short sharp yelp of that captain man and the laugh of the Russian Finn | H |
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T was not for Cause nor for Liberty Religion or Glory or Land | A |
He fought for love of a captain man he could crush with his big right hand | A |
Till five torpedo boats round her lay in the mud the slush and the ooze | J |
She sent them down for the Old Greek Church with the whole of their monkey crews | J |
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But the last one gave her a last thrust home and left by a friendly tide | A |
She lay like a man on his elbow raised with a hand on her wounded side | A |
She was left to be called for later on with a solid bank beneath | K |
The Japs were short of torpedo boats and they d had enough of her teeth | K |
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But safe from the landed naval guns and the last torpedo boat | A |
Von Esson worked with his squint and bark till he got his vessel afloat | A |
He d marked her a grave with his level eye where the open sea was fair | F |
And he steered her out to the deep water and he grimly sank her there | F |
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It s oh for a chance when a man of men must live the living lie | L |
For a chance to live as a man might live and die as a man might die | L |
When one is a slave to paltry things in a life that never can change | M |
It s oh for a cause and a decent gun and a hundred rounds and the range | M |
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The boats slipped in in the gathering dusk and under the time dulled din | H |
And vanished from us to a yap of command and the grunt of a Russian Finn | H |
But somewhere down in a seamen s den maybe perhaps within hail | I |
There s a drunken rabble of sailor men and a Finn that tells a tale | I |
Henry Lawson
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