Troop Train Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFEG HIJHHKLH HMHMHHHN OHFFFHPF HQQRHSQE| It stops the town we come through Workers raise | A |
| Their oily arms in good salute and grin | B |
| Kids scream as at a circus Business men | C |
| Glance hopefully and go their measured way | D |
| And women standing at their dumbstruck door | E |
| More slowly wave and seem to warn us back | F |
| As if a tear blinding the course of war | E |
| Might once dissolve our iron in their sweet wish | G |
| - | |
| - | |
| Fruit of the world O clustered on ourselves | H |
| We hang as from a cornucopia | I |
| In total friendliness with faces bunched | J |
| To spray the streets with catcalls and with leers | H |
| A bottle smashes on the moving ties | H |
| And eyes fixed on a lady smiling pink | K |
| Stretch like a rubber band and snap and sting | L |
| The mouth that wants the drink of water kiss | H |
| - | |
| - | |
| And on through crummy continents and days | H |
| Deliberate grimy slightly drunk we crawl | M |
| The good bad boys of circumstance and chance | H |
| Whose bucket helmets bang the empty wall | M |
| Where twist the murdered bodies of our packs | H |
| Next to the guns that only seem themselves | H |
| And distance like a strap adjusted shrinks | H |
| Tightens across the shoulder and holds firm | N |
| - | |
| - | |
| Here is a deck of cards out of this hand | O |
| Dealer deal me my luck a pair of bulls | H |
| The right draw to a flush the one eyed jack | F |
| Diamonds and hearts are red but spades are black | F |
| And spades are spades and clubs are clovers black | F |
| But deal me winners souvenirs of peace | H |
| This stands to reason and arithmetic | P |
| Luck also travels and not all come back | F |
| - | |
| - | |
| Trains lead to ships and ships to death or trains | H |
| And trains to death or trucks and trucks to death | Q |
| Or trucks lead to the march the march to death | Q |
| Or that survival which is all our hope | R |
| And death leads back to trucks and trains and ships | H |
| But life leads to the march O flag at last | S |
| The place of life found after trains and death | Q |
| Nightfall of nations brilliant after war | E |
Karl Shapiro
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Troop Train poem by Karl Shapiro
Best Poems of Karl Shapiro