The Charge At Balaklava Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDB EFGGGF HIGGGI JGHHHG KALLLA MNOOON HPCCDP MQHHHQ GREEER GSGGGS ATJJJU OPOOOP PVDDCV HWXXXW XYJJJY OWZZZW AXWWWX AXZZZX OA2DDDB2 JXPPPXNolan halted where the squadrons | A |
Stood impatient of delay | B |
Out he drew his brief dispatches | C |
Which their leader quickly snatches | C |
At a glance their meaning catches | D |
They are ordered to the fray | B |
- | |
All that morning they had waited | E |
As their frowning faces showed | F |
Horses stamping riders fretting | G |
And their teeth together setting | G |
Not a single sword blade wetting | G |
As the battle ebbed and flowed | F |
- | |
Now the fevered spell is broken | H |
Every man feels twice as large | I |
Every heart is fiercely leaping | G |
As a lion roused from sleeping | G |
For they know they will be sweeping | G |
In a moment to the charge | I |
- | |
Brightly gleam six hundred sabres | J |
And the brazen trumpets ring | G |
Steeds are gathered spurs are driven | H |
And the heavens widely riven | H |
With a mad shout upward given | H |
Scaring vultures on the wing | G |
- | |
Stern its meaning was not Gallia | K |
Looking down on Albion's sons | A |
In each mind this thought implanted | L |
Undismayed and all undaunted | L |
By the battle fiends enchanted | L |
They ride down upon the guns | A |
- | |
Onward On the chargers trample | M |
Quicker falls each iron heel | N |
And the headlong pace grows faster | O |
Noble steed and noble master | O |
Rushing on to red disaster | O |
Where the heavy cannons peal | N |
- | |
In the van rides Captain Nolan | H |
Soldier stout he was and brave | P |
And his shining sabre flashes | C |
As upon the foe he dashes | C |
God his face turns white as ashes | D |
He has ridden to his grave | P |
- | |
Down he fell prone from his saddle | M |
Without motion without breath | Q |
Never more a trump to waken | H |
He the very first one taken | H |
From the bough so sorely shaken | H |
In the vintage time of Death | Q |
- | |
In a moment in a twinkling | G |
He was gathered to his rest | R |
In the time for which he'd waited | E |
With his gallant heart elated | E |
Down went Nolan decorated | E |
With a death wound on his breast | R |
- | |
Comrades still are onward charging | G |
He is lying on the sod | S |
Onward still their steeds are rushing | G |
Where the shot and shell are crushing | G |
From his corpse the blood is gushing | G |
And his soul is with his God | S |
- | |
As they spur on what strange visions | A |
Flit across each rider's brain | T |
Thoughts of maidens fair of mothers | J |
Friends and sisters wives and brothers | J |
Blent with images of others | J |
Whom they ne'er shall see again | U |
- | |
Onward still the squadrons thunder | O |
Knightly hearts were their's and brave | P |
Men and horses without number | O |
All the furrowed ground encumber | O |
Falling fast to their last slumber | O |
Bloody slumber bloody grave | P |
- | |
Of that charge at Balaklava | P |
In its chivalry sublime | V |
Vivid grand historic pages | D |
Shall descend to future ages | D |
Poets painters hoary sages | C |
Shall record it for all time | V |
- | |
Telling how those English horsemen | H |
Rode the Russian gunners down | W |
How with ranks all torn and shattered | X |
How with helmets hacked and battered | X |
How with sword arms blood bespattered | X |
They won honor and renown | W |
- | |
'Twas not war but it was splendid | X |
As a dream of old romance | Y |
Thinking which their Gallic neighbors | J |
Thrilled to watch them at their labors | J |
Hewing red graves with their sabres | J |
In that wonderful advance | Y |
- | |
Down went many a gallant soldier | O |
Down went many a stout dragoon | W |
Lying grim and stark and gory | Z |
On the crimson field of glory | Z |
Leaving us a noble story | Z |
And their white cliffed home a boon | W |
- | |
Full of hopes and aspirations | A |
Were their hearts at dawn of day | X |
Now with forms all rent and broken | W |
Bearing each some frightful token | W |
Of a scene ne'er to be spoken | W |
In their silent sleep they lay | X |
- | |
Here a noble charger stiffens | A |
There his rider grasps the hilt | X |
Of his sabre lying bloody | Z |
By his side upon the muddy | Z |
Trampled ground which darkly ruddy | Z |
Shows the blood that he has spilt | X |
- | |
And to night the moon shall shudder | O |
As she looks down on the moor | A2 |
Where the dead of hostile races | D |
Slumber slaughtered in their places | D |
All their rigid ghastly faces | D |
Spattered hideously with gore | B2 |
- | |
And the sleepers ah the sleepers | J |
Make a Westminster that day | X |
'Mid the seething battle's lava | P |
And each man who fell shall have a | P |
Proud inscription BALAKLAVA | P |
Which shall never fade away | X |
James Barron Hope
(1)
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