Returning Of Issue Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEF GHCIJK LHMNIB OCHHCP HHNQER CECSTP UVCWXR ACYZA2H B2VEEE CC2CD2E2R D2EF2G2H2I2 HCMCJ2C K2EJ2HHZ HCL2EJ2H CHAE2HH CL2M2HJ2H EN2HCMC HAO2HHATomorrow will be your last day here Someone is speaking | A |
A familiar voice speaking again at all of us | B |
And beyond the windows it is inside now and autumn | C |
On a wind growing daily harsher small things to the earth | D |
Are turning and whirling small Tomorrow will be | E |
Your last day here | F |
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But not we hope for always You cannot see through the windows | G |
If they are leaves or flowers We hope that many of you | H |
Will be coming back for good Silence and stupefaction | C |
The coarsening wind and the things whirling upon it | I |
Scour that rough stamping ground where we so long | J |
Have spent our substance | K |
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As the trees are spending theirs How much of mine have I spent | L |
Father oh father How sorry we are to lose you | H |
I do not have to say since the sergeant major | M |
Has said it the RSM has said it and the colonel | N |
Has sent over a message to say that he also says it | I |
Everyone sorry to lose us | B |
- | |
And you oh father father once sorry too I think | O |
I can honestly say you are one and all of you now | C |
Soldiers Silence and disbelief A fact that will stand you | H |
In pretty good stead in the various jobs you go back to | H |
I wish you the best of luck Silence And all of you know | C |
You can think of us here as home | P |
- | |
As home a home we shall any of you welcome you back to | H |
Most of you have I know some sort of work waiting for you | H |
And the rest of you now being thanks to us fit and able | N |
Will be bound to find something I begin to be in want | Q |
Would any citizen of this country send me | E |
Into his fields And | R |
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Before I finalise one thing about tomorrow | C |
I must make perfectly clear Tomorrow is clear already | E |
I saw myself once but now am by time forbidden | C |
To see myself so as the man who went evil ways | S |
Till lie determined in time of famine to seek | T |
His father's home | P |
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Autumn is later down there it should now be the time | U |
Of vivacious triumph in the fruitful fields | V |
As he approached he ran over his speeches of sorrow | C |
Not less of truth for being much rehearsed | W |
The last distilment from a long and inward | X |
Discourse of heartbreak And | R |
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The first thing you do after first thing tomorrow morning | A |
Is those that leave not been previously detailed to do so | C |
Which I think is the case in most cases is a systematic | Y |
Returning of issue It is all important | Z |
You should restore to store one of every store issued | A2 |
And in the case of two two | H |
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And I as always late shall never know that lifted fear | B2 |
When the small hard working master of those fields | V |
Looked up I trembled But his heart came out to me | E |
With a shout of compassion And all my speech was only | E |
'Father I have sinned against heaven and am no more worthy | E |
To be called thy son ' | - |
- | |
But if I cried it father you could not hear me now | C |
Where now you lie crumpled in that small grave | C2 |
Like any withering dog Your fields are sold and built on | C |
Your lanes are filled with husks the swine reject | D2 |
I scoop them in my hands I have earned no more and more | E2 |
I shall not inherit And | R |
- | |
A careful check will be made of every such object | D2 |
That was issued to each personnel originally | E |
And checked at issue And let me be quite implicit | F2 |
That no accoutrements impedimentas fittings or military garments | G2 |
May be taken as souvenirs The one exception is shirts | H2 |
And whatever you wear underneath | I2 |
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These may be kept those that wish But the rest of the issue | H |
Must be returned except who intend to rejoin | C |
In regular service Silence Which involves a simple procedure | M |
I will explain in a simple group to those that rejoin | C |
Now how many will that be Silence No one No one at all | J2 |
I see Very well I have up to now | C |
- | |
Spoken with the utmost of mildness I speak so still | K2 |
But it does seem to me a bit of a bloody pity | E |
A bit un bloody feeling after the all | J2 |
We have bloody done for you you should sit on your dumb bloody arses | H |
Just waiting like bloody milksops till I bloody dismiss you | H |
Silence embarrassed but silent | Z |
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And am I to break it father to break this silence | H |
Is there no bloody man among you Not one bloody single one | C |
I will break the silence father Yes sergeant I will stay | L2 |
In a group of one Father be proud of me | E |
Oh splendid man And for Christ's sake tell them all | J2 |
Why you are doing this | H |
- | |
Why am I doing this And is it too late to say no | C |
Come speak out man tell us and shame these bastards | H |
I hope to shame no one sergeant in simply wishing | A |
To remain a personnel I have been such a thing before | E2 |
It was good and simple and it was the best I could do | H |
Here is a man men Silence | H |
- | |
Silence indeed How could I tell them now | C |
I have nowhere else to go How could I say | L2 |
I have no longer gift or want or how describe | M2 |
The inexplicable tears that filled my eyes | H |
When the poor sergeant said 'After the all | J2 |
We have bloody done for you' | H |
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Goodbye forever father after the all you have done for me | E |
Soon I must start to forget you but how to forget | N2 |
That reconcilement never enacted between us | H |
Which should have been ours under the autumn sun | C |
I can see it and feel it now clearer than daylight clearer | M |
For one brief moment now | C |
- | |
Than even the astonished faces of my fellows | H |
The sergeant's uneasy smile the trees the relief at choosing | A |
To learn once more the things I shall one day teach | O2 |
A rhetoric instead of words instead of a love the use | H |
Of accoutrements impedimenta and fittings and military garments | H |
And harlots and riotous living | A |
Henry Reed
(1)
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