The Shame Of Going Back Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDD EEBB FFBB GGBB HHBBCDD| When you've come to make a fortune and you haven't made your salt | A |
| And the reason of your failure isn't anybody's fault | A |
| When you haven't got a billet and the times are very slack | B |
| There is nothing that can spur you like the shame of going back | B |
| Crawling home with empty pockets | C |
| Going back hard up | D |
| Oh it's then you learn the meaning of humiliation's cup | D |
| - | |
| When the place and you are strangers and you struggle all alone | E |
| And you have a mighty longing for the town where you are known | E |
| When your clothes are very shabby and the future's very black | B |
| There is nothing that can hurt you like the shame of going back | B |
| - | |
| When we've fought the battle bravely and are beaten to the wall | F |
| 'Tis the sneers of men not conscience that make cowards of us all | F |
| And the while you are returning oh your brain is on the rack | B |
| And your heart is in the shadow of the shame of going back | B |
| - | |
| When a beaten man's discovered with a bullet in his brain | G |
| They POST MORTEM him and try him and they say he was insane | G |
| But it very often happens that he'd lately got the sack | B |
| And his onward move was owing to the shame of going back | B |
| - | |
| Ah my friend you call it nonsense and your upper lip is curled | H |
| I can see that you have never worked your passage through the world | H |
| But when fortune rounds upon you and the rain is on the track | B |
| You will learn the bitter meaning of the shame of going back | B |
| Going home with empty pockets | C |
| Going home hard up | D |
| Oh you'll taste the bitter poison in humiliation's cup | D |
Henry Lawson
(1)
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