The Guides At Cabul Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCCDD EFEFFGG HIHIIJJ KLMLLNN OPOPPQQ RSRSSTTA | |
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Sons of the Island race wherever ye dwell | B |
Who speak of your fathers' battles with lips that burn | C |
The deed of an alien legion hear me tell | B |
And think not shame from the hearts ye tamed to learn | C |
When succour shall fail and the tide for a season turn | C |
To fight with joyful courage a passionate pride | D |
To die at last as the Guides of Cabul died | D |
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For a handful of seventy men in a barrack of mud | E |
Foodless waterless dwindling one by one | F |
Answered a thousand yelling for English blood | E |
With stormy volleys that swept them gunner from gun | F |
And charge on charge in the glare of the Afghan sun | F |
Till the walls were shattered wherein they couched at bay | G |
And dead or dying half of the seventy lay | G |
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Twice they had taken the cannon that wrecked their hold | H |
Twice toiled in vain to drag it back | I |
Thrice they toiled and alone wary and bold | H |
Whirling a hurricane sword to scatter the rack | I |
Hamilton last of the English covered their track | I |
Never give in he cried and he heard them shout | J |
And grappled with death as a man that knows not doubt | J |
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And the Guides looked down from their smouldering barrack again | K |
And behold a banner of truce and a voice that spoke | L |
Come for we know that the English all are slain | M |
We keep no feud with men of a kindred folk | L |
Rejoice with us to be free of the conqueror's yolk | L |
Silence fell for a moment then was heard | N |
A sound of laughter and scorn and an answering word | N |
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Is it we or the lords we serve who have earned this wrong | O |
That ye call us to flinch from the battle they bade us fight | P |
We that live do ye doubt that our hands are strong | O |
They that are fallen ye know that their blood was bright | P |
Think ye the Guides will barter for lust of the light | P |
The pride of an ancient people in warfare bred | Q |
Honour of comrades living and faith to the dead | Q |
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Then the joy that spurs the warrior's heart | R |
To the last thundering gallop and sheer leap | S |
Came on the men of the Guides they flung apart | R |
The doors not all their valour could longer keep | S |
They dressed their slender line they breathed deep | S |
And with never a foot lagging or head bent | T |
To the clash and clamour and dust of death they went | T |
Henry Newbolt
(1)
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