A Song For Soldiers Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDCEFGFCFFFCC FHIJFCFK FLFMFF BNBNFFOO MO FEMFCMCNONNB JOF OOFFCPFQOP FEOCEFKF| WHAT song is best for the soldiers | A |
| Take no heed of the words nor choose yon the style of the story | B |
| Let it burst out from the heart like a spring from the womb of a mountain | C |
| Natural clear resistless leaping its way to the levels | D |
| Whether of love or hate or war or the pathos and pain of affliction | C |
| Whether of manly pluck in the perilous hour or that which is higher | E |
| And highest of all the slowly bleeding sacrifice | F |
| The giving of life and its joys for the sake of men and freedom | G |
| Any song for the soldier that will harmonize with the life throbs | F |
| For he has laved in the mystical sea by which men are one | C |
| His pulse has thrilled into blinding tune with the vaster anthems | F |
| Which God plays on the battle fields when he sweeps the strings of nations | F |
| And the song of the earth planet bursts on the silent spheres | F |
| Shot through like the cloud of Etna with flames of heroic devotion | C |
| And shaded with quivering lines from the mourning of women and children | C |
| - | |
| Here is a song for the soldiers a song of the Cheyenne Indians | F |
| Of men with soldierly hearts who walked with Death as a comrade | H |
| Hush Let the present fade let the distance die let the last year stand | I |
| We are far to the West in Montana on the desolate plains of Montana | J |
| We ride with the cavalry troopers on the bloody trail of the Cheyennes | F |
| Forty braves of the tribe who have leaped from the reservation | C |
| Down on the mining camps in their desecrated valleys | F |
| Down to their fathers' graves and the hunting ground of their people | K |
| - | |
| Chilled with the doom of Death they gaze on the white men's changes | F |
| Ruthless the brutal force that has crushed their homes and their manhood | L |
| And ruthless the hearts of the Cheyenne braves as they swoop on the camps of the miners | F |
| Back to the hills they dash with reeking trophies around them | M |
| But swift on their trail the cavalry ride and their trumpets | F |
| Break on the ears of the braves with a threat of oncoming vengeance | F |
| - | |
| At last they are bayed and barred corraled in a straightwalled valley | B |
| The Indians back to the cliffs with the shattered rocks as a breastwork | N |
| The soldiers in lined stockades across the mouth of the valley | B |
| Hungrily hiss the bullets not wasted in random firing | N |
| But every shot for a mark thrice their number of soldiers | F |
| Raking the Cheyenne rocks with a pitiless rain of missiles | F |
| One to three in the firing but every Cheyenne bullet | O |
| Tumbled a reckless trooper behind his fence in the stockade | O |
| - | |
| 'God they are brave ' cried the captain 'Seven hours we've held them | M |
| Three ay five to one if you count their dead and their wounded | O |
| Damn them why don't they yield for the sake of their lives and their wounded ' | - |
| - | |
| But never a sign but flame and the hiss of the leaden defiance | F |
| Comes from the Cheyenne braves though their firing slackens in vigor | E |
| To grow in fatal precision grim as the cliff above them | M |
| They fight their fight and the valley is lined with death from their rifles | F |
| Cried the captain ''Men we must charge ' and he grieves for his boys and their foemen | C |
| 'But show them a sign of quarter ' and he swings them a flag to tell them | M |
| That his side is willing to parley the Indians riddle the ensign | C |
| And the captain groans in his heart as he gives the order for charging | N |
| Terrible getting ready of men who prepare for a death fight | O |
| Scabbards are thrown aside and belts unstrapped for the striking | N |
| Ominous outward signs of the deadlier inner preparing | N |
| When the soul flings danger aside and the human heart its mercy | B |
| - | |
| Out from the fatal earthworks their eyes like fire in a | J |
| With naked blades the troopers and nerves wire strung for the onset | O |
| When suddenly up from the rocks a sign at last from the Cheyennes | F |
| - | |
| Two tall braves on the rocks 'Re form ' brays the cavalry trumpet | O |
| And grimly the soldiers return reluctantly leaving the conflict | O |
| Still on the rocks two forms of bronze as if prepared for the stormers | F |
| Then down to the field and behold they dash toward the wondering troopers | F |
| The soldiers stare at the charge but no man laughs at the foemen | C |
| Instead of a sneer a tremor at many a mouth in sorrow | P |
| On they come to their death and standing at fifty paces | F |
| They fire in the face of the squadron and dash with their knives to the death grip | Q |
| Fifty rifles give flame and the breasts of the heroes are shattered | O |
| But falling they plunge toward the fight and their knives sink deep in the meadow | P |
| - | |
| 'On to the rocks ' and the soldiers have done with their feelings of mercy | F |
| But never a foe to meet them nor a shot from the deadly barrier | E |
| First on the rocks the captain with a cheer that died as he gave it | O |
| A cheer that was half a groan and a cry of admiration | C |
| Awed stood the troopers who followed and lowered their swords with their leader | E |
| Homage of brave to the brave saluting with souls and weapons | F |
| There at their feet lay the foemen every man dead on his rifle | K |
| The two who had charged the troops were the last alive of the Cheyennes | F |
John Boyle O'reilly
(1)
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