The Headless Trooper Poem Rhyme Scheme

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James Brunton Stephens

The Headless Trooper Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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No not another step for all	A
The troopers out of hell	B
I'll camp beside this swamp to night	C
Despite the yarns you tell	B
I'm dead beat that's a solid fact	D
The other thing's a sell	B
	-
And Ike gave in good easy Ike	E
Though now and then he stole	F
A glance across that dismal swamp	G
Lugubriously droll	F
'Twas plain that Headless Trooper lay	H
Heavily on his soul	F
	-
And ere he slept again he told	I
That tale of bloody men	J
And how the Headless Trooper still	K
Rode nightly in the fen	J
And then he slept but in his sleep	L
He told it all again	J
	-
I cannot rest beside a man	M
Who mutters in his sleep	L
It makes the chilly goose flesh rise	N
The epidermis creep	L
'Tis no objection in a wife	O
You get her secrets cheap	L
	-
I put a hundred yards between	P
The muttering Ike and me	Q
I lay and thought of things that were	R
And things that yet might be	Q
I could not sleep I know not why	S
My hair rose eerily	Q
	-
I rose and sat me on a log	T
And tried to keep me cool	U
I thought of Hume on Miracles	V
And called myself a fool	U
But still the proverb racked my soul	F
Exceptions prove the rule	U
	-
The moon was full the stars were out	W
I tried to fix my eye	S
Where Night laid shining love gifts	X
On the bosom of the sky	S
	-
But well I knew that all the while	Y
The Thing was standing by	S
	-
How tall this pine tree on my left	Z
How graceful in its height	C
Its topmost branches seem to touch	A2
The very brow of Night	C
But all the while I knew the Thing	B2
Was panting at my right	C
	-
The 'possum leaves his hollow tree	Q
The bandicoot is glad	C2
It is the human heart alone	D2
The still night maketh sad	C2
And all the while the Headless Thing	B2
Was wheezing there like mad	C2
	-
How ghostly is the mist that crawls	E2
Along the swampy ground	F2
The Headless Thing here cleared its throat	G2
With most unearthly sound	F2
And then I heard a gurgling voice	H2
But dared not glance around	F2
	-
They shot me Was it not enough	I2
Look darn you Here's the hole	F
Was this not passage amply wide	J2
For any human soul	F
But no the blasted convict gang	K2
Must likewise take my poll	F
	-
I turned looked up and at the sight	C
My heart within me sunk	L2
'Twas new to me to find myself	M2
In such a mortal funk	L2
But newer still to fraternise	H2
With a bifurcated trunk	L2
	-
Above the neck no trooper was	H2
But formless void alone	D2
There physiognomy was nil	K
Phrenology unknown	D2
Where head had been there but remained	N2
The frustum of a cone	D2
	-
Nay I retract the formless void	O2
The case was otherwise	H2
For on the clotted marge there spun	P2
A living globe of flies	H2
When one is dealing with the truth	Q2
	-
One can't be too precise	H2
	-
The loathsome whirling substitute	R2
Buzzed in the vacant space	H2
And a thousand thousand little heads	H2
Of one head took the place	H2
And oh the fly expression	P2
Of that rotatory face	H2
	-
The breast was bare the shirt thrown back	S2
Exposed the wound to view	T2
The bullet in its course of death	U2
Had cleared an avenue	T2
Oh Gemini I saw the Twins	H2
Distinctly shining through	T2
And those same Twins are shining still	K
To prove my story true	T2
	-
In breeches boots and spurs arrayed	V2
The nether Trooper stood	W2
The soundless phantom of a horse	H2
Grazed in his neighbourhood	W2
At all events went through the form	X2
Of hoisting in his food	W2
	-
What would'st thou Headless Trooper	R
On the night's Plutonian shore	Y2
I took it from Poe's Raven	P2
I had read not long before	Y2
And I more than half expected	W2
He would answer Nevermore	Y2
	-
But the Trooper only answered	W2
By a perfect storm of sighs	H2
Which through his crater issuing	B2
Played Hades with the flies	H2
As I have seen Vesuvius	H2
Blow ashes to the skies	H2
	-
O wherefore Headless Trooper	R
With the living intermix	H2
Since thou art dead and hast no head	W2
Why kick against the pricks	H2
Why dost thou not as others do	W2
Get clear across the Styx	H2
	-
The Trooper cleared his cone of flies	H2
And through his crater said	W2
'Tis true I have no business here	Z2
'Tis true that I am dead	W2
	-
And yet I cannot cross the Styx	H2
They've fixed a fare per head	W2
	-
Fain would I cross as others do	W2
Fain would I pay my shot	W2
They only mock me when I ask	A3
For leave to go to Pot	W2
How can I pay so much per head	W2
When I no head have got	W2
	-
Yet what could I thus headless do	W2
In that last Land of Nod	W2
It is not that the thing is dear	B3
So much as that it's odd	W2
They only charge an obolus	H2
A sort of Tommy Dodd	W2
	-
I've tried the ferryman with gold	W2
With every coin that goes	H2
He merely cries Oh go a head	W2
And laughing off he rows	H2
He can't twit me at all events	H2
With paying through the nose	H2
	-
A drachma once I offered him	C3
Six times the fare in Greek	D3
He merely cursed my impudence	H2
And pushed off in a pique	D3
I didn't think a faceless man	M
Could be accused of cheek	D3
	-
From day to day from night to night	W2
My prayer the wretch denies	H2
Yet even in this headless breast	W2
Some grateful thoughts arise	H2
For though he's blasted all my hopes	H2
He cannot blast my eyes	H2
	-
I know not where the convict crew	W2
My missing head consigned	W2
But I am doomed to walk the earth	E3
Till that same head I find	W2
Oh could I come across it	W2
I would know it though I'm blind	W2
The bump of amativeness sticks	H2
So strongly out behind	W2
	-
The mouth extends from ear to ear	Z2
The hair is fiery red	W2
Perchance it might attract thine eye	S
	-
Who art not blind or dead	W2
I pray thee help me to obtain	F3
My disembodied head	W2
	-
Oh Headless Trooper fain would I	S
With thee the search begin	G3
But ere the day I must away	H
And trudge through thick and thin	G3
For I am bound to Stanthorpe town	H3
And time with me is tin	G3
	-
But ere upon my pilgrimage	I3
With dawn's first streak I go	J3
I fain would do what in me lies	H2
To mitigate thy woe	J3
If I can serve thee anywise	H2
I pray thee let me know	J3
	-
The Trooper thought a little space	H2
His body forward bowed	W2
With plenteous sighs dispersed the flies	H2
And once more spoke aloud	W2
'Tis long since I have tried the weed	W2
I'd like to blow a cloud	W2
	-
How canst thou headless man who hast	W2
No lips wherewith to puff	I2
Here deprecatingly he waved	W2
His hand and said Enough	I2
Myself will guarantee the how	K3
If thou supply the stuff	I2
	-
I took a meerschaum from my pouch	L3
A meerschaum clean and new	W2
As white as is undoctored milk	M3
As pure as morning dew	W2
I pray you mark that it was white	W2
'Twill prove my story true	W2
	-
I passed it to him filled and lit	W2
Still wondering in my mind	W2
Thanks generous colonial	N3
Thou art very very kind	W2
Now pick a thickish waddy up	O3
And plug my wound behind	W2
	-
I picked a thickish waddy up	O3
And did as I was bid	W2
And right into the bullet hole	F
The amber mouth he slid	W2
	-
And then You never saw the like	E
At least I never did	W2
	-
Like a forge bellows went his chest	W2
And upward from his cone	D2
There shot a vaporous spire like that	W2
From Cotopaxi blown	D2
The flies unglobed themselves and fled	W2
With angry monotone	D2
	-
So fierce the blast the pipe was void	W2
Ere one might reckon ten	J
And then with gesture wild he signed	W2
To fill the bowl again	J
The which I did till he had smoked	W2
Enough for fifty men	J
	-
Hour after hour he drew and blew	W2
Till twist began to fail	P3
Till all the sky grew dim with smoke	Q3
And all the stars grew pale	P3
Till even the seasoned stomach turned	W2
Of him who tells the tale	P3
	-
The smoke mixed darkly with the mists	H2
On the adjacent bogs	H2
And roused the hoarse remonstrant wail	P3
Of semi stifled frogs	H2
The 'possums all within a mile	Y
Went home as sick as dogs	H2
	-
But suddenly the phantom steed	W2
Neighed with sepulchral sound	W2
And where both man and horse had been	G3
Nor man nor horse was found	W2
I stood alone the meerschaum lay	H
Before me on the ground	W2
	-
The meerschaum lay upon the ground	W2
This much I may avouch	L3
I took it and with trembling hand	W2
Replaced it in my pouch	L3
And overcome with nausea	H2