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 HAO2HHA

Tomorrow will be your last day here Someone is speakingA
A familiar voice speaking again at all of usB
And beyond the windows it is inside now and autumnC
On a wind growing daily harsher small things to the earthD
Are turning and whirling small Tomorrow will beE
Your last day hereF
-
But not we hope for always You cannot see through the windowsG
If they are leaves or flowers We hope that many of youH
Will be coming back for good Silence and stupefactionC
The coarsening wind and the things whirling upon itI
Scour that rough stamping ground where we so longJ
Have spent our substanceK
-
As the trees are spending theirs How much of mine have I spentL
Father oh father How sorry we are to lose youH
I do not have to say since the sergeant majorM
Has said it the RSM has said it and the colonelN
Has sent over a message to say that he also says itI
Everyone sorry to lose usB
-
And you oh father father once sorry too I thinkO
I can honestly say you are one and all of you nowC
Soldiers Silence and disbelief A fact that will stand youH
In pretty good stead in the various jobs you go back toH
I wish you the best of luck Silence And all of you knowC
You can think of us here as homeP
-
As home a home we shall any of you welcome you back toH
Most of you have I know some sort of work waiting for youH
And the rest of you now being thanks to us fit and ableN
Will be bound to find something I begin to be in wantQ
Would any citizen of this country send meE
Into his fields AndR
-
Before I finalise one thing about tomorrowC
I must make perfectly clear Tomorrow is clear alreadyE
I saw myself once but now am by time forbiddenC
To see myself so as the man who went evil waysS
Till lie determined in time of famine to seekT
His father's homeP
-
Autumn is later down there it should now be the timeU
Of vivacious triumph in the fruitful fieldsV
As he approached he ran over his speeches of sorrowC
Not less of truth for being much rehearsedW
The last distilment from a long and inwardX
Discourse of heartbreak AndR
-
The first thing you do after first thing tomorrow morningA
Is those that leave not been previously detailed to do soC
Which I think is the case in most cases is a systematicY
Returning of issue It is all importantZ
You should restore to store one of every store issuedA2
And in the case of two twoH
-
And I as always late shall never know that lifted fearB2
When the small hard working master of those fieldsV
Looked up I trembled But his heart came out to meE
With a shout of compassion And all my speech was onlyE
'Father I have sinned against heaven and am no more worthyE
To be called thy son '-
-
But if I cried it father you could not hear me nowC
Where now you lie crumpled in that small graveC2
Like any withering dog Your fields are sold and built onC
Your lanes are filled with husks the swine rejectD2
I scoop them in my hands I have earned no more and moreE2
I shall not inherit AndR
-
A careful check will be made of every such objectD2
That was issued to each personnel originallyE
And checked at issue And let me be quite implicitF2
That no accoutrements impedimentas fittings or military garmentsG2
May be taken as souvenirs The one exception is shirtsH2
And whatever you wear underneathI2
-
These may be kept those that wish But the rest of the issueH
Must be returned except who intend to rejoinC
In regular service Silence Which involves a simple procedureM
I will explain in a simple group to those that rejoinC
Now how many will that be Silence No one No one at allJ2
I see Very well I have up to nowC
-
Spoken with the utmost of mildness I speak so stillK2
But it does seem to me a bit of a bloody pityE
A bit un bloody feeling after the allJ2
We have bloody done for you you should sit on your dumb bloody arsesH
Just waiting like bloody milksops till I bloody dismiss youH
Silence embarrassed but silentZ
-
And am I to break it father to break this silenceH
Is there no bloody man among you Not one bloody single oneC
I will break the silence father Yes sergeant I will stayL2
In a group of one Father be proud of meE
Oh splendid man And for Christ's sake tell them allJ2
Why you are doing thisH
-
Why am I doing this And is it too late to say noC
Come speak out man tell us and shame these bastardsH
I hope to shame no one sergeant in simply wishingA
To remain a personnel I have been such a thing beforeE2
It was good and simple and it was the best I could doH
Here is a man men SilenceH
-
Silence indeed How could I tell them nowC
I have nowhere else to go How could I sayL2
I have no longer gift or want or how describeM2
The inexplicable tears that filled my eyesH
When the poor sergeant said 'After the allJ2
We have bloody done for you'H
-
Goodbye forever father after the all you have done for meE
Soon I must start to forget you but how to forgetN2
That reconcilement never enacted between usH
Which should have been ours under the autumn sunC
I can see it and feel it now clearer than daylight clearerM
For one brief moment nowC
-
Than even the astonished faces of my fellowsH
The sergeant's uneasy smile the trees the relief at choosingA
To learn once more the things I shall one day teachO2
A rhetoric instead of words instead of a love the useH
Of accoutrements impedimenta and fittings and military garmentsH
And harlots and riotous livingA

Henry Reed



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