The White Comrade Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDB ECEFFEG FHAFAIJJKIK LMLMLNNOOPBBPFF QQRRSSTQTEUUB VWXXEWYWYZZEA2B2B2A2 JB2BJBJB2SESEYC2C2| Under our curtain of fire | A |
| Over the clotted clods | B |
| We charged to be withered to reel | C |
| And despairingly wheel | C |
| When the bugles bade us retire | D |
| From the terrible odds | B |
| - | |
| As we ebbed with the battle tide | E |
| Fingers of red hot steel | C |
| Suddenly closed on my side | E |
| I fell and began to pray | F |
| I crawled on my hands and lay | F |
| Where a shallow crater yawned wide | E |
| Then I swooned | G |
| - | |
| When I woke it was yet day | F |
| Fierce was the pain of my wound | H |
| But I saw it was death to stir | A |
| For fifty paces away | F |
| Their trenches were | A |
| In torture I prayed for the dark | I |
| And the stealthy step of my friend | J |
| Who stanch to the very end | J |
| Would creep to the danger zone | K |
| And offer his life as a mark | I |
| To save my own | K |
| - | |
| Night fell I heard his tread | L |
| Not stealthy but firm and serene | M |
| As if my comrade's head | L |
| Were lifted far from that scene | M |
| Of passion and pain and dread | L |
| As if my comrade's heart | N |
| In carnage took no part | N |
| As if my comrade's feet | O |
| Were set on some radiant street | O |
| Such as no darkness might haunt | P |
| As if my comrade's eyes | B |
| No deluge of flame could surprise | B |
| No death and destruction daunt | P |
| No red beaked bird dismay | F |
| Nor sight of decay | F |
| - | |
| Then in the bursting shells' dim light | Q |
| I saw he was clad in white | Q |
| For a moment I thought that I saw the smock | R |
| Of a shepherd in search of his flock | R |
| Alert were the enemy too | S |
| And their bullets flew | S |
| Straight at a mark no bullet could fail | T |
| For the seeker was tall and his robe was bright | Q |
| But he did not flee nor quail | T |
| Instead with unhurrying stride | E |
| He came | U |
| And gathering my tall frame | U |
| Like a child in his arms | B |
| - | |
| I slept | V |
| And awoke | W |
| From a blissful dream | X |
| In a cave by a stream | X |
| My silent comrade had bound my side | E |
| No pain now was mine but a wish that I spoke | W |
| A mastering wish to serve this man | Y |
| Who had ventured through hell my doom to revoke | W |
| As only the truest of comrades can | Y |
| I begged him to tell me how best I might aid him | Z |
| And urgently prayed him | Z |
| Never to leave me whatever betide | E |
| When I saw he was hurt | A2 |
| Shot through the hands that were clasped in prayer | B2 |
| Then as the dark drops gathered there | B2 |
| And fell in the dirt | A2 |
| The wounds of my friend | J |
| Seemed to me such as no man might bear | B2 |
| Those bullet holes in the patient hands | B |
| Seemed to transcend | J |
| All horrors that ever these war drenched lands | B |
| Had known or would know till the mad world's end | J |
| Then suddenly I was aware | B2 |
| That his feet had been wounded too | S |
| And dimming the white of his side | E |
| A dull stain grew | S |
| You are hurt White Comrade I cried | E |
| His words I already foreknew | Y |
| These are old wounds said he | C2 |
| But of late they have troubled me | C2 |
Robert Haven Schauffler
(1)
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About The White Comrade
The White Comrade is a poem by Robert Haven Schauffler. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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