Since Then Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCAB DEDDE FGFFG HIHHI JKJJK LMLLM NONNO PQPPQ RSRES TUT U AVAVV WBWWB XYXXY ZEZZE VWVVW A2VB2A2VI met Jack Ellis in town to day | A |
Jack Ellis my old mate Jack | B |
Ten years ago from the Castlereagh | C |
We carried our swags together away | A |
To the Never Again Out Back | B |
- | |
But times have altered since those old days | D |
And the times have changed the men | E |
Ah well there's little to blame or praise | D |
Jack Ellis and I have tramped long ways | D |
On different tracks since then | E |
- | |
His hat was battered his coat was green | F |
The toes of his boots were through | G |
But the pride was his It was I felt mean | F |
I wished that my collar was not so clean | F |
Nor the clothes I wore so new | G |
- | |
He saw me first and he knew 'twas I | H |
The holiday swell he met | I |
Why have we no faith in each other Ah why | H |
He made as though he would pass me by | H |
For he thought that I might forget | I |
- | |
He ought to have known me better than that | J |
By the tracks we tramped far out | K |
The sweltering scrub and the blazing flat | J |
When the heat came down through each old felt hat | J |
In the hell born western drought | K |
- | |
The cheques we made and the shanty sprees | L |
The camps in the great blind scrub | M |
The long wet tramps when the plains were seas | L |
And the oracles worked in days like these | L |
For rum and tobacco and grub | M |
- | |
Could I forget how we struck the same | N |
Old tale' in the nearer West | O |
When the first great test of our friendship came | N |
But well there's little to praise or blame | N |
If our mateship stood the test | O |
- | |
Heads ' he laughed but his face was stern | P |
Tails ' and a friendly oath | Q |
We loved her fair we had much to learn | P |
And each was stabbed to the heart in turn | P |
By the girl who loved us both | Q |
- | |
Or the last day lost on the lignum plain | R |
When I staggered half blind half dead | S |
With a burning throat and a tortured brain | R |
And the tank when we came to the track again | E |
Was seventeen miles ahead | S |
- | |
Then life seemed finished then death began | T |
As down in the dust I sank | U |
But he stuck to his mate as a bushman can | T |
Till I heard him saying Bear up old man ' | - |
In the shade by the mulga tank | U |
- | |
- | |
- | |
He took my hand in a distant way | A |
I thought how we parted last | V |
And we seemed like men who have nought to say | A |
And who meet Good day' and who part Good day' | V |
Who never have shared the past | V |
- | |
I asked him in for a drink with me | W |
Jack Ellis my old mate Jack | B |
But his manner no longer was careless and free | W |
He followed but not with the grin that he | W |
Wore always in days Out Back | B |
- | |
I tried to live in the past once more | X |
Or the present and past combine | Y |
But the days between I could not ignore | X |
I couldn't help notice the clothes he wore | X |
And he couldn't but notice mine | Y |
- | |
He placed his glass on the polished bar | Z |
And he wouldn't fill up again | E |
For he is prouder than most men are | Z |
Jack Ellis and I have tramped too far | Z |
On different tracks since then | E |
- | |
He said that he had a mate to meet | V |
And I'll see you again ' said he | W |
Then he hurried away through the crowded street | V |
And the rattle of buses and scrape of feet | V |
Seemed suddenly loud to me | W |
- | |
And I almost wished that the time were come | A2 |
When less will be left to Fate | V |
When boys will start on the track from home | B2 |
With equal chances and no old chum | A2 |
Have more or less than his mate | V |
Henry Lawson
(1)
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