The Song Of A Prison Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEF GGHH IJCB KKLL MMII NNOO PPQQ OORS TTUV WWXX TTYY ZZA2B2 UUTTNow this is the song of a prison a song of a gaol or jug | A |
A ballad of quod or of chokey the ultimate home of the mug | A |
The yard where the Foolish are drafted Hell s school where the harmless are taught | B |
For the big beast never is captured and the great thief never is caught | C |
A song of the trollop s victim and the dealer in doubtful eggs | D |
And a song of the man who was ruined by the lie with a thousand legs | D |
A song of suspected persons and rouge and vagabond pals | E |
And of persons beyond suspicion the habitual criminals | F |
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Tis a song of the weary warders whom prisoners call the screws | G |
A class of men who I fancy would cleave to the Evening News | G |
They look after their treasures sadly By the screw of their keys they are known | H |
And they screw them many times daily before they draw their own | H |
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It is written on paper pilfered from the prison printery | I |
With a stolen stump of a pencil that a felon smuggled for me | J |
And he d have got twenty four hours in the cells if he had been caught | C |
With bread to eat and water to drink and plenty of food for thought | B |
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And I paid in chews of tobacco from one who is in for life | K |
But he is a decent fellow he only murdered his wife | K |
He is cherub like jolly good natured and frank as the skies above | L |
And his Christian name is Joseph and his other ye gods is Love | L |
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The Governor knows and the Deputy and all of the warders know | M |
Once a week and on Sunday we sit in a sinful row | M |
And bargain for chews of tobacco under the cover of prayer | I |
And the harmless Anglican chaplain is the only innocent there | I |
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Staircase and doors of iron no sign of a plank or brick | N |
Ceilings and floors of sandstone and the cell walls two feet thick | N |
Cell like a large sized coffin or a small sized tomb and white | O |
And it strikes a chill to the backbone on the warmest summer night | O |
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For fifteen hours they leave you to brood in the gloom and cold | P |
On the cheats that you should have cheated and the lies that you should have told | P |
On the money that would release you you lent to many a friend | Q |
And the many a generous action you suffered for in the end | Q |
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Grey daylight follows softly the heartless electric light | O |
That printed the bars of the window on the wall of the cell all night | O |
The darkness has vanished hushing when there is nothing to hush | R |
And I think of the old grey daylight on the teamster s camp in the bush | S |
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I think of the low bark homestead the yard and the sinister bail | T |
And the shed in a hole in the gully a pigsty compared with gaol | T |
The drought and the rows and the nagging the hill where a flat grave is | U |
The gaol of my boyhood as dreadful and barren and grey as this | V |
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We rise at six when the bell rings and roll up our blankets neat | W |
Then we pace the cell till seven brain dulled and with leaden feet | W |
Bolts clank and the iron doors open light floods from an iron barred arch | X |
And we start with a start galvanic at the passionless Left Quick march | X |
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Down the crooked and winding staircase in the great wrong angular well | T |
Like the crooked stairs that of late years we have stumbled down to Hell | T |
We empty the tubs and muster with the prison slouch and tread | Y |
And we take to the cells our breakfast of hominy and of bread | Y |
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The church in its squat round tower with Christ in His thorny wreath | Z |
The reception house is below it so the gates of Hell are beneath | Z |
Where sinners are clad and numbered when hope for a while has | A2 |
And above us the gilded rooster that crowed when Peter lied | B2 |
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What avail is the prayer of the abbess Or the raving of Cock eyed Liz | U |
The holy hermit in his cell or the Holy Terror in his | U |
Brothers and sisters of Heaven seen through the bars in a wall | T |
As we see the uncaught sinners and God have mercy on all | T |
Henry Lawson
(1)
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