The Last Of The Narwhale Poem Rhyme Scheme

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THE STORY OF AN ARCTIC NIP	A
	-
	-
AY ay I'll tell you shipmates	B
If you care to hear the tale	C
How myself and the royal yard alone	D
Were left of the old Narwhale	C
'A stouter ship was never launched	E
Of all the Clyde built whalers	F
And forty years of a life at sea	G
Haven't matched her crowd of sailors	F
Picked men they were all young and strong	H
And used to the wildest seas	I
From Donegal and the Scottish coast	J
And the rugged Hebrides	I
Such men as women cling to mates	B
Like ivy round their lives	K
And the day we sailed the quays were lined	L
With weeping mothers and wives	M
They cried and prayed and we gave 'em a cheer	N
In the thoughtless way of men	O
God help them shipmates thirty years	P
They've waited and prayed since then	O
'We sailed to the North and I mind it well	C
The pity we felt and pride	Q
When we sighted the cliffs of Labrador	R
From the sea where Hudson died	Q
We talked of ships that never came back	S
And when the great floes passed	T
Like ghosts in the night each moonlit peak	U
Like a great war frigate's mast	T
'Twas said that a ship was frozen up	V
In the iceberg's awful breast	W
The clear ice holding the sailor's face	X
As he lay in his mortal rest	W
And I've thought since then when the ships came home	Y
That sailed for the Franklin band	Z
A mistake was made in the reckoning	A2
That looked for the crews on land	Z
'They're floating still ' I've said to myself	B2
'And Sir John has found the goal	C
The Erebus and the Terror mates	B
Are icebergs up at the Pole '	-
	-
'We sailed due North to Baffin's Bay	C2
And cruised through weeks of light	D2
'Twas always day and we slept by the bell	C
And longed for the dear old night	D2
And the blessed darkness left behind	L
Like a curtain round the bed	E2
But a month dragged on like an afternoon	F2
With the wheeling sun o'erhead	E2
We found the whales were farther still	C
The farther north we sailed	E2
Along the Greenland glacier coast	E2
The boldest might have quailed	E2
Such shapes did keep us company	G
No sail in all that sea	G
But thick as ships in Mersey's tide	E2
The bergs moved awfully	G
Within the current's northward stream	G2
But ere the long day' s close	H2
We found the whales and filled the ship	A
Amid the friendly floes	H2
	-
'Then came a rest the day was blown	D
Like a cloud before the night	E2
In the South the sun went redly down	I2
In the North rose another light	E2
Neither sun nor moon but a shooting dawn	J2
That silvered our lonely way	C2
It seemed we sailed in a belt of gloom	K2
Upon either side a day	C2
The north wind smote the sea to death	L2
The pack ice closed us round	E2
The Narwhale stood in the level fields	H2
As fast as a ship aground	E2
A weary time it was to wait	E2
And to wish for spring to come	M2
With the pleasant breeze and the blessed sun	N2
To open the way toward home	Y
	-
'Spring came at last the ice fields groaned	E2
Like living things in pain	O2
They moaned and swayed then rent amain	O2
And the Narwhale sailed again	O2
With joy the dripping sails were loosed	E2
And round the vessel swung	P2
To cheer the crew full south she drew	Q2
The shattered floes among	P2
We had no books in those old days	H2
To carry the friendly faces	H2
But I think the wives and lasses then	O2
Were held in better places	H2
The face of sweetheart and wife to day	C2
Is locked in the sailor's chest	E2
But aloft on the yard with the thought of home	Y
The face in the heart was best	E2
Well well God knows mates when and where	R2
To take the things he gave	S2
We steered for home but the chart was his	H2
And the port ahead the grave	S2
	-
'We cleared the floes through an open sea	H2
The Narwhale south'ard sailed	E2
Till a day came round when the white fog rose	H2
And the wind astern had failed	E2
In front of the Greenland glacier line	O2
And close to its base were we	H2
Through the misty pall we could see the wall	C
That beetled above the sea	H2
A fear like the fog crept over our hearts	H2
As we heard the hollow roar	R
Of the deep sea thrashing the cliffs of ice	H2
For leagues along the shore	R
	-
'The years have come and the years have gone	O2
But it never wears away	C2
The sense I have of the sights and sounds	H2
That marked that woeful day	C2
Flung here and there at the ocean's will	C
As it flung the broken floe	C
What strength had we 'gainst the tiger sea	H2
That sports with a sailor's woe	C
The lifeless berg and the lifeful ship	A
Were the same to the sullen wave	S2
As it swept them far from ridge to ridge	T2
Till at last the Narwhale drave	S2
With a crashing rail on the glacier wall	C
As sheer as the vessel's mast	E2
A crashing rail and a shivered yard	E2
But the worst we thought was past	E2
The brave lads sprang to the fending work	U2
And the skipper's voice rang hard	E2
'Aloft there one with a ready knife	S2
Cut loose that royal yard '	-
I sprang to the rigging young I was	H2
And proud to be first to dare	R2
The yard swung free and I turned to gaze	H2
Toward the open sea o'er the field of haze	H2
And my heart grew cold as if frozen through	Q2
At the moving shape that met my view	Q2
O Christ what a sight was there	R2
	-
'Above the fog as I hugged the yard	E2
I saw that an iceberg lay	C2
A berg like a mountain closing fast	E2
Not a cable's length away	C2
I could not see through the sheet of mist	E2
That covered all below	C
But I heard the cheery voices still	C
And I screamed to let them know	C
The cry went down and the skipper hailed	E2
But before the word could come	M2
It died in his throat and I knew they saw	H2
The shape of the closing doom	K2
	-
'No sound but that but the hail that died	E2
Came up through the mist to me	H2
Thank God it covered the ship like a veil	C
And I was not forced to see	H2
But I heard it mates O I heard the rush	V2
And the timbers rend and rive	Q2
As the yard I clung to swayed and fell I lay on the ice alive	Q2
Alive O God of mercy ship and crew and sea were gone	O2
The hummocked ice and the broken yard	E2
And a kneeling man alone	O2
	-
'A kneeling man on a frozen hill	C
The sounds of life in the air	R2
All death and ice and a minute before	R
The sea and the ship were there	R2
I could not think they were dead and gone	O2
And I listened for sound or word	E2
But the deep sea roar on the desolate shore	R
Was the only sound I heard	E2
O mates I had no heart to thank	W2
The Lord for the life He gave	Q2
I spread my arms on the ice and cried	E2
Aloud on my shipmates' grave	Q2
The brave strong lads with their strength all vain	O2
I called them name by name	X2
And it seemed to me from the dying hearts	H2
A message upward came	X2
Ay mates a message up through the ice	H2
From every sailor's breast	E2
'Go tell our mothers and wives at home	Y
To pray for us here at rest '	-
	-
'Yes that's what it means 'tis a little word	E2
But mates the strongest ship	A
That ever was built is a baby's toy	E2
When it copes with an Arctic Nip '	-

John Boyle O'reilly

The Last Of The Narwhale Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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