Uncle Ned-s Tale: An Old Dragoon's Story Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGHBBIIJJ KKBBLLMMCCJJCCNN JJOOPPQQRRJJSSTTUUVV WWJJXXYYZZA2A2B2B2C2 D2D2E2 RRF2F2PPF2 G2G2H2I2 J2 RR K2L2L2M2M2N2YO2P2F2F 2SS Q2Q2R2S2TTT2T2F2F2HH U2U2SSBBF2I OFTEN musing wander back to days long since gone by | A |
And far off scenes and long lost forms arise to fancy's eye | A |
A group familiar now I see who all but one are fled | B |
My mother sister Jane myself and dear old Uncle Ned | B |
I'll tell you how I see them now First mother in her chair | C |
Sits knitting by the parlor fire with anxious matron air | C |
My sister Jane just nine years old is seated at her feet | D |
With look demure as if she too were thinking how to meet | D |
The butcher's or the baker's bill though not a thought has she | E |
Of aught beside her girlish toys and next to her I see | E |
Myself a sturdy lad of twelve neglectful of the book | F |
That open lies upon my knee my fixed admiring look | F |
At Uncle Ned upon the left whose upright martial mien | G |
Whose empty sleeve and gray mustache proclaim what he has been | H |
My mother I had always loved my father then was dead | B |
But 'twas more than love 'twas worship I felt for Uncle Ned | B |
Such tales he had of battle fields the victory and the rout | I |
The ringing cheer the dying shriek the loud exulting shout | I |
And how forgetting age and wounds his eye would kindle bright | J |
When telling of some desperate ride or close and deadly fight | J |
But oft I noticed in the midst of some wild martial tale | K |
To which I lent attentive ear my mother's cheek grow pale | K |
She sighed to see my kindled look and feared I might be led | B |
To follow in the wayward steps of poor old Uncle Ned | B |
But with all the wondrous tales he told 'twas strange I never heard | L |
Of his last fight for of that day he never spoke a word | L |
And yet 'twas there he lost his arm and once he e'en confessed | M |
'Twas there he won the glittering cross he wore upon his breast | M |
It hung the center of a group of Glory's emblems fair | C |
And royal hands he told me once had placed the bauble there | C |
Each day that passed I hungered more to hear about that fight | J |
And oftentimes I prayed in vain At length one winter's night | J |
The very night I speak of now with more than usual care | C |
I filled his pipe then took my stand beside my uncle's chair | C |
I fixed my eyes upon the Cross he saw my youthful plan | N |
And smiling laid the pipe aside and thus the tale began | N |
- | |
'Well boy it was in summer time and just at morning's light | J |
We heard the 'Boot and Saddle ' sound the foe was then in sight | J |
Just winding round a distant hill and opening on the plain | O |
Each trooper looked with careful eye to girth and curb and rein | O |
We snatched a hasty breakfast we were old campaigners then | P |
That morn of all our splendid corps we'd scarce one hundred men | P |
But they were soldiers tried and true who'd rather die than yield | Q |
The rest were scattered far and wide o'er many a hard fought field | Q |
Our trumpet now rang sharply out and at a swinging pace | R |
We left the bivouac behind and soon the eye could trace | R |
The columns moving o'er the plain Oh ' twas a stirring sight | J |
To see two mighty armies there preparing for the fight | J |
To watch the heavy masses as with practiced steady wheel | S |
They opened out in slender lines of brightly flashing steel | S |
Our place was on the farther flank behind some rising ground | T |
That hid the stirring scene from view but soon a booming sound | T |
Proclaimed the opening of the fight Then war's loud thunder rolled | U |
And hurtling shells and whistling balls their deadly message told | U |
We hoped to have a gallant day our hearts were all aglow | V |
We longed for one wild sweeping charge to chase the flying foe | V |
Our troopers marked the hours glide by but still no orders came | W |
They clutched their swords and muttered words 'twere better not to name | W |
For hours the loud artillery roared the sun was at its height | J |
Still there we lay behind that hill shut out from all the fight | J |
We heard the maddened charging yells the ringing British cheers | X |
And all the din of glorious war kept sounding in our ears | X |
Our hearts with fierce impatience throbbed we cursed the very hill | Y |
That hid the sight the evening fell and we were idle still | Y |
The horses too were almost wild and told with angry snort | Z |
And blazing eye their fierce desire to join the savage sport | Z |
When lower still the sun had sunk and with it all our hope | A2 |
A horseman soiled with smoke and sweat came dashing down the slope | A2 |
He bore the wished for orders ' At last ' our Colonel cried | B2 |
And as he read the brief dispatch his glance was filled with pride | B2 |
Then he who bore the orders in a low emphatic tone | C2 |
The stern expressive sentence spoke 'He said it must be done ' | - |
'It shall be done ' our Colonel cried 'Men look to strap and girth | D2 |
We've work to do this day will prove what every man is worth | D2 |
Ay work my lads will make amends for all our long delay | E2 |
The General says on us depends the fortune of the day ' | - |
'No order needed we to mount each man was in his place | R |
And stern and dangerous was the look on every veteran face | R |
We trotted sharply up the hill and halted on the brow | F2 |
And then that glorious field appeared Oh lad I see it now | F2 |
But little time had we to spare for idle gazing then | P |
Beneath us in the valley stood a dark clad mass of men | P |
It cut the British line in two Our Colonel shouted 'There | F2 |
Behold your work Our orders are to charge and break that square ' | - |
Each trooper drew a heavy breath then gathered up his reins | G2 |
And pressed the helmet o'er his brow the horses tossed their manes | G2 |
In protest fierce against the curb and spurned the springy heath | H2 |
Impatient for the trumpet's sound to bid them rush to death | I2 |
- | |
'Well boy that moment seemed an hour at last we heard the words | J2 |
'Dragoons I know you'll follow me Ride steady men Draw swords ' | - |
The trumpet sounded off we dashed at first with steady pace | R |
But growing swifter as we went Oh 'twas a gallant race | R |
Three fourths the ground was left behind the loud and thrilling 'Charge ' | - |
Rang out but fairly frantic now we needed not to urge | K2 |
With voice or rein our gallant steeds or touch their foaming flanks | L2 |
They seemed to fly Now straight in front appeared the kneeling ranks | L2 |
Above them waved a standard broad we saw their rifles raised | M2 |
A moment more with awful crash the deadly volley blazed | M2 |
The bullets whistled through our ranks and many a trooper fell | N2 |
But we were left What cared we then but onward rushing still | Y |
Again the crash roared fiercely out but on still madly on | O2 |
We heard the shrieks of dying men but recked not who was gone | P2 |
We gored the horses' foaming flanks and on through smoke and glare | F2 |
We wildly dashed with clenched teeth We had no thought no care | F2 |
Then came a sudden sweeping rush Again with savage heel | S |
I struck my horse with awful bound he rose right o'er their steel | S |
- | |
'Well boy I cannot tell you how that dreadful leap was made | Q2 |
But there I rode inside the square and grasped a reeking blade | Q2 |
I cared not that I was alone my eyes seemed filled with blood | R2 |
I never thought a man could feel in such a murderous mood | S2 |
I parried not nor guarded thrusts I felt not pain or wound | T |
But madly spurred the frantic horse and swept my sword around | T |
I tried to reach the standard sheet but there at last was foiled | T2 |
The gallant horse was jaded now and from the steel recoiled | T2 |
They saw his fright and pressed him then his terror made him rear | F2 |
And falling back he crushed their ranks and broke their guarded square | F2 |
My comrades saw the gap 'he made and soon came dashing in | H |
They raised me up I felt no hurt but mingled in the din | H |
I'd seen some fearful work before but never was engaged | U2 |
In such a wild and savage fight as now around me raged | U2 |
The foe had ceased their firing and now plied the deadly steel | S |
Though all our men were wounded then no pain they seemed to feel | S |
No groans escaped from those who fell but horrid oaths instead | B |
And scowling looks of hate were on the features of the dead | B |
The fight was ro | F2 |
John Boyle O'reilly
(1)
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