The Stranded Ship: (the -vincennesâ?) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EFGG HHEE IIJJ KKLL MMAA CCNNTwas the glowing log of a picnic fire where a red light should not be | A |
Or the curtained glow of a sick room light in a window that faced the sea | A |
But the Manly lights seemed the Sydney lights and the bluffs as the Heads were seen | B |
And the Manly beach was the channel then and the captain steered between | B |
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The croakers said with a shoulder shrug and a careless know all glance | C |
You might pull out her stem or pull out her stern but she ll sail no more for France | C |
Her stem was dry when the tide was out and behind her banked the sand | D |
Where strong gales come from the Hurricane east and the sun sets on the land | D |
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When the tide was high and the rollers struck she shuddered as if in pain | E |
She had no hope for the open sea and the fair full breeze again | F |
She turned her side to the pounding seas and the foam glared over the rails | G |
It seemed her fate to be sold and stripped and broken by winter gales | G |
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But they sent strong gear and they sent the gangs and they sent her a man who knew | H |
And the tugs came nosing round from the Heads to see what a tug could do | H |
The four ton anchors they laid to sea in the waves and the wind and rain | E |
And the great steel hawser they hove aboard made fast to her cable chain | E |
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And then while the gaping townsfolk stared from the shining beach in doubt | I |
The crew and the shore gangs lowered her yards and they hove the ballast out | I |
To lie like a strange sea grave upheaved on the smooth sand by her side | J |
And they made all ready and clear for the tugs to come on the rising tide | J |
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And so in the night when the tide was in and a black sky hid the stars | K |
The shoremen worked at the jumping winch and the crew at the capstan bars | K |
To seaward the two tugs rose and fell in their own wild stormy glare | L |
And her head came round for a fathom s length for a mighty heave was there | L |
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So tide by tide and yard by yard they hove her off the shore | M |
To fit and load for her ports of call and to sail for France once more | M |
Till at last she came with the wild blind rush of a frightened thing set free | A |
And they towed her round to the Sydney Heads and in from the stormy sea | A |
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And the croakers say when a man is down with a shrug and a know all glance | C |
Oh he ll never get out of the gutter again he has done with every chance | C |
But we ll haul and heave on the block and sheeve wave beaten and black rock hemmed | N |
And we ll sail with cargoes that they shall buy when their ships are all condemned | N |
Henry Lawson
(1)
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