The Mutiny Of The Chains Poem Rhyme Scheme

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John Boyle O'reilly

The Mutiny Of The Chains Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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PENAL COLONY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA	A
	-
	-
THE sun rose o'er dark Fremantle	A
And the Sentry stood on the wall	A
Above him with white lines swinging	B
The flag staff bare and tall	A
The flag at its foot the Mutiny Flag	C
Was always fast to the line	D
For its sanguine field was a cry of fear	E
And the Colony counted an hour a year	E
In the need of the blood red sign	D
	-
The staff and the line with its ruddy flash	F
lake a threat or an evil bode	G
Were a monstrous whip with a crimson lash	F
Fit sign for the penal code	G
	-
The Sentry leant on his rifle and stood	H
By the mast with a deep drawn breath	I
A stern browed man but there heaved a sigh	J
For the sight that greeted his downward eye	J
In the prison square beneath	K
	-
In yellow garb in soldier lines	L
One hundred men in chains	M
While the watchful warders sword in hand	N
With eyes suspicious keenly scanned	N
The links of the living lanes	M
	-
There wary eyes met stony eyes	O
And stony face met stone	P
There was never a gleam of trust or truce	Q
In the covert thought of an iron loose	Q
Grim warder and ward were one	R
	-
Why was it so that there they stood	H
Stern driver and branded slave	S
Why rusted the gyve in the bondman's blood	T
No hope for him but the grave	S
Out of thousands there why was it so	U
That one hundred hearts must feel	A
The bitterest pang of the penal woe	U
And the grind of a nation's heel	A
	-
Why but for choice the bondman's choice	V
They balanced the gains and pains	M
They took their chance of the chains	M
There spake in their hearts a hidden voice	V
Of the blinding joy of a freeman's burst	W
Through the great dim woods Then the toil accurst	W
The scorching days and the nights in tears	X
The riveted rings for years and years	Y
They weighed them all they looked before	Z
At the one and other and spoke them o'er	A2
And they saw what the heart of man must see	B2
That the uttermost blessing is Liberty	B2
Ah pity them God they must always choose	C2
For the life to gain and the death to lose	C2
They dream of the woods and the mountain spring	B
And they grasp the flower to clutch the sting	B
	-
Even so they are better than those who bend	W
Like beasts to the lash and go on to the end	W
As a beast will go with to day for a life	D2
And to morrow a blank Offer peace and strife	D2
To a man enslaved let him vote for ease	E2
And coward labor and be content	W
Or let him go out in the front as these	E2
With their eyes on the doom and the danger went	W
And take your choice the man who remains	M
A self willed serf or the one who stains	M
His sudden hand with a drive for light	W
Through a bristling rank and a gloomy night	W
This man for me for his heart he'll share	F2
With a friend with a foe he'll fight him fair	F2
And such as he are in every rank	G2
Of the column that moves with a dismal clank	G2
And a dead march step toward the rock bound place	H2
Where the chain gangs toil o'er the beetling face	H2
Of the cliff that roots in the Swan's deep tide	W
Steep walls of granite on either side	W
At the precipice' foot the river wide	W
Behind them in ranks the warders fall	A
And above them the Sentry paces the wall	A
	-
Year in year out has the Sentry stood	W
On the wall at the foot of the mast	W
He has turned from the toilers to watch the flood	W
Like his own slow life go past	W
He has noted the Chains grow fat and lean	I2
He has sighed for their empty spaces	J2
And thought of the cells where their end had been	K2
Where they lay with their poor dead faces	J2
With never a kiss or prayer or knell	A
They were better at rest in the river	A2
He thinks of the shadow that o'er them fell	A
From the mast with its whip like quiver	A2
He has seen it tipped with its crimson lash	F
When the mutiny flood had risen	R
And swept like a sea with an awful swash	F
Through the squares and the vaulted prison	R
His thoughts are afar with the woeful day	W
With the ranged dead men and the dying	B
And slowly he treads till they pass away	W
Then a pause and a start and a scuffling sound	W
And a glance beneath at a battle ground	W
Where the lines are drawn and the Chains are found	W
	-
Their armed guards defying	B
A hush of death and the Sentry stands	L2
By the mast with the halyards tight in his hands	L2
And the Mutiny Flag is flying	B
	-
Woe to the weak to the mutineers	Y
The bolt of their death is driven	R
A mercy waits on all other tears	X
But the Chains are never forgiven	R
Woe to the rebels their hands are bare	F2
Their manacled bodies helpless there	F2
Their faces lit with a strange wild light	W
As if they had fought and had won the fight	W
	-
No cry is uttered upraised no hand	W
All stilled to a muscle's quiver	A2
One line on the brink of the cliff they stand	W
Their shadows flung down on the river	A2
The quarry wall is on either side	W
The blood red flag high o'er them	M2
But the lurid light in their eyes defied	W
The gathering guards before them	M2
No parley is held when the Chains revolt	W
Grimly silent they stand secure	N2
On the outward lip of the embrasure	N2
Waiting fierce eyed for the fatal bolt	W
A voice from the guard in a monotone	P
A voice that was cold and hard as stone	P
'Make ready Fire '	-
O Christ the cry	N2
From the manacled men not fear to die	N2
Or whine for mercy rebelled they stood	W
Well knowing the price of revolt was blood	W
Well knowing but each one knew that he	B2
Would sell his blood for his liberty	B2
	-
Unwarned by a word uncalled unshriven	P
They dare by a look and the doom is given	P
They raise their brows in the wild revolt	W
And God's wrath flames in the fierce death bolt	W
God's wrath nay man's God never smote	W
A rebel dead whose swelling throat	W
Was full with protest Hear then smite	W
God's justice weighs not shrieks the right	W
	-
'Make ready Fire '	-
Again outburst	W
The horror and shame for the deed accurst	W
O cry of the weak as the hot blood calls	O2
From the burning wound and the stricken falls	O2
With his face in the dust and the strong one stands	L2
With scornful lips and ensanguined hands	L2
O blood of the weak unbought unpriced	W
Thy smoke is a piteous prayer to Christ	W
	-
They stand on the brink of the cliff they bend	W
To the dead in their chains then rise and send	W
To the murdering muzzles defiant eyes	O
	-
'Make ready Fire '	-
The smoke clouds rise	O
They are still on the face of the cliff they bend	W
Once more to the dead they whisper a word	W
To the hearts in the dust then undeterred	W
They raise their faces so grimly set	W
Till the eyes of slayer and doomed have met	W
O merciful God let thy pity rain	P
Ere the hideous lightning leaps again	P
They have sinned they have erred let the living stand	W
They have dared and rued let thy loving hand	W
Be laid on those brows that bravely face	H2
The death that shall wash them of all disgrace	H2
Be swift with pity O late too late	W
The tubes are leveled the marksmen wait	W
For the word of doom the spring is pressed	W
By the nervous finger the sight is straight	W
'Make ready '	-
Why falters the dread command	W
Why stare as affrighted the armed band	W
Why lower the rifles from shoulder to hip	P2
Why dies the word on the leader's lip	P2
While the voice that was hard grows husky deep	Q2
And the face is a tremble as if to weep	Q2
	-
The Chains on the brink of the cliff are lined	W
The living are bowed o'er the dead they rise	O
And they face the rifles with burning eyes	O
Then they bend again and with one set mind	W
They raise the dead and the wounded raise	R2
In their loving arms with words of praise	R2
And tender grief for the torturing wounds	S2
One backward step with a burdened tread	W
They bear toward the precipice wounded and dead	W
Then they turned on the cliff to front the guard	W
With faces like men that have died in fight	W
Their brows were raised as if proud reward	W
Were theirs and their eyes had a victor's light	W
	-
They spoke not a word but stood sublime	T2
In their somber strength and the watchers saw	U2
That they smiled	W