The Non-combatant Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMJNOPAmong a race high handed strong of heart | A |
Sea rovers conquerors builders in the waste | B |
He had his birth a nature too complete | C |
Eager and doubtful no man's soldier sworn | D |
And no man's chosen captain born to fail | E |
A name without an echo yet he too | F |
Within the cloister of his narrow days | G |
Fulfilled the ancestral rites and kept alive | H |
The eternal fire it may be not in vain | I |
For out of those who dropped a downward glance | J |
Upon the weakling huddled at his prayers | K |
Perchance some looked beyond him and then first | L |
Beheld the glory and what shrine it filled | M |
And to what Spirit sacred or perchance | J |
Some heard him chanting though but to himself | N |
The old heroic names and went their way | O |
And hummed his music on the march to death | P |
Henry Newbolt
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Dr David Weekes: Newbolt has some haunting phrases like "a name without an echo'" and "within the cloister of his narrow days". Of course there is a double meaning in what others saw in "the weaklng huddled at his prayers" and "first beheld the glory." It has both a Christian and a patriotic implication. Seeing someone at their prayers in Newbolt's day might inspire reflection on the relevance of Christianity, just as seeing the weakling might provoke going out to fight, "Praising the Lord" yet "passing the amunition." For a young man who did just that, see my book, "John Buchan's Kid Brother" on Amazon. Incidentally, Buchan was a friend of Newbolt.
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