Jobson Of The Star Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEE FFEEGGHHII JJFFKKAALL MMNNOOAAPPCCIIQQ AARSAAKRPPAATTEELL UUVVWWXXWithin a pub that's off the Strand and handy to the bar | A |
With pipe in mouth and mug in hand sat Jobson of the Star | A |
Come sit ye down ye wond'ring wight and have a yarn says he | B |
I can't says I because to night I'm off to Tripoli | B |
To Tripoli and Trebizond and Timbuctoo mayhap | C |
Or any magic name beyond I find upon the map | C |
I go errant trail to try to clutch the skirts of Chance | D |
To make once more before I die the gesture of Romance | D |
The Jobson yawned above his jug and rumbled Is that so | E |
Well anyway sit down you mug and have a drink before you go | E |
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Now Jobson is a chum of mine and in a dusty den | F |
Within the street that's known as Fleet he wields a wicked pen | F |
And every night it's his delight above the fleeting show | E |
To castigate the living Great and keep the lowly low | E |
And all there is to know he knows for unto him is spurred | G |
The knowledge of the knowledge of the Thing That Has Occurred | G |
And all that is to hear he hears for to his ear is whirled | H |
The echo of the echo of the Sound That Shocks The World | H |
Let Revolutions rage and rend and Kingdoms rise and fall | I |
There Jobson sits and smokes and spits and writes about it all | I |
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And so we jawed a little while on matters small and great | J |
He told me his cynic smile of graves affairs of state | J |
Of princes peers and presidents and folks beyond my ken | F |
He spoke as you and I might speak of ordinary men | F |
For Jobson is a scribe of worth and has respect for none | K |
And all the mighty ones of earth are targets for his fun | K |
So when I said good bye says he with his satyric leer | A |
Too bad to go when life is so damned interesting here | A |
The Government rides for a fall and things are getting hot | L |
You'd better stick around old pal you'll miss an awful lot | L |
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Yet still I went and wandered far by secret ways and wide | M |
Adventure was the shining star I took to be my guide | M |
For fifty moons I followed on and every moon was sweet | N |
And lit as if for me alone the trail before my feet | N |
From cities desolate with doom my moons swam up and set | O |
On tower and temple tent and tomb on mosque and minaret | O |
To heights that hailed the dawn I scaled by cliff and chasm sheer | A |
To far Cathy I found my way and fabolous Kashmir | A |
From camel back I traced the track that bars the barren bled | P |
And leads to hell and blazes and I followed where it led | P |
Like emeralds in sapphire set and ripe for human rape | C |
I passed with passionate regret the Islands of Escape | C |
With death I clinched a time or two and gave the brute a fall | I |
Hunger and cold and thirst I knew yet how I loved it all | I |
Then suddenly I seemed to tire of trecking up and town | Q |
And longed for some domestic fire and sailed for London Town | Q |
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And in a pub that's off the Strand and handy to the bar | A |
With pipe in mouth and mug in hand sat Jobson of the Star | A |
Hullo says he come take a pew and tell me where you've been | R |
It seems to me that lately you have vanished from the scene | S |
I've been says I to Kordovan and Kong and Calabar | A |
To Sarawak and Samarkand to Ghat and Bolivar | A |
To Caracas and Guayaquil to Lhasa and Pekin | K |
To Brahmapurta and Brazil to Bagdad and Benin | R |
I've sailed the Black Sea and the White The Yellow and the Red | P |
The Sula and the Celebes the Bering and the Dead | P |
I've climbed on Chimborazo and I've wandered in Peru | A |
I've camped on Kinchinjunga and I've crossed the Great Karoo | A |
I've drifted on the Hoang ho the Nile and Amazon | T |
I've swam the Tiber and the Po thus I was going on | T |
When Jobson yawned above his beer and rumbled Is that so | E |
It's been so damned exciting here too bad you had to go | E |
We've had the devil of a slump the market's gone to pot | L |
You should have stuck around you chump you've missed an awful lot | L |
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In haggard lands where ages brood on plains burnt out and dim | U |
I broke the bread of brotherhood with ruthless men and grim | U |
By ways untrod I walked with God by parched and bitter path | V |
In deserts dim I talked with Him and learned to know His Wrath | V |
But in a pub that's off the Strand sits Jobson every night | W |
And tells me what a fool I am and maybe he is right | W |
For Jobson is a man of stamp and proud of him am I | X |
And I am just a bloody tramp and will be till I die | X |
Robert Service
(1)
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