His Boys Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD AEAE BFBF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MBMB NONO| I'm going Billy old fellow Hist lad Don't make any noise | A |
| There's Boches to beat all creation the pitch of a bomb away | B |
| I've fixed the note to your collar you've got to get back to my Boys | A |
| You've got to get back to warn 'em before it's the break of day | B |
| - | |
| The order came to go forward to a trench line traced on the map | C |
| I knew the brass hats had blundered I knew and I told 'em so | D |
| I knew if I did as they ordered I would tumble into a trap | C |
| And I tried to explain but the answer came like a pistol Go | D |
| - | |
| Then I thought of the Boys I commanded I always called them my Boys | A |
| The men of my own recruiting the lads of my countryside | E |
| Tested in many a battle I knew their sorrows and joys | A |
| And I loved them all like a father with more than a father's pride | E |
| - | |
| To march my Boys to a shambles as soon as the dawn of day | B |
| To see them helplessly slaughtered if all that I guessed was true | F |
| My Boys that trusted me blindly I thought and I tried to pray | B |
| And then I arose and I muttered It's either them or it's you | F |
| - | |
| I rose and I donned my rain coat I buckled my helmet tight | G |
| I remember you watched me Billy as I took my cane in my hand | H |
| I vaulted over the sandbags into the pitchy night | G |
| Into the pitted valley that served us as No Man's Land | H |
| - | |
| I strode out over the hollow of hate and havoc and death | I |
| From the heights the guns were angry with a vengeful snarling of steel | J |
| And once in a moment of stillness I heard hard panting breath | I |
| And I turned it was you old rascal following hard on my heel | J |
| - | |
| I fancy I cursed you Billy but not so much as I ought | K |
| And so we went forward together till we came to the valley rim | L |
| And then a star shell sputtered it was even worse than I thought | K |
| For the trench they told me to move in was packed with Boche to the brim | L |
| - | |
| They saw me too and they got me they peppered me till I fell | M |
| And there I scribbled my message with my life blood ebbing away | B |
| Now Billy you fat old duffer you've got to get back like hell | M |
| And get them to cancel that order before it's the dawn of day | B |
| - | |
| Billy old boy I love you I kiss your shiny black nose | N |
| Now home there Hurry you devil or I'll cut you to ribands See | O |
| Poor brute he's off and I'm dying I go as a soldier goes | N |
| I'm happy My Boys God bless 'em It had to be them or me | O |
Robert Service
(1)
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