My Friends Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAA BBB CCC DDD EFE BBB GGG HHH IJI KKK LLL AAA| The man above was a murderer the man below was a thief | A |
| And I lay there in the bunk between ailing beyond belief | A |
| A weary armful of skin and bone wasted with pain and grief | A |
| - | |
| My feet were froze and the lifeless toes were purple and green and gray | B |
| The little flesh that clung to my bones you could punch it in holes like clay | B |
| The skin on my gums was a sullen black and slowly peeling away | B |
| - | |
| I was sure enough in a direful fix and often I wondered why | C |
| They did not take the chance that was left and leave me alone to die | C |
| Or finish me off with a dose of dope so utterly lost was I | C |
| - | |
| But no they brewed me the green spruce tea and nursed me there like a child | D |
| And the homicide he was good to me and bathed my sores and smiled | D |
| And the thief he starved that I might be fed and his eyes were kind and mild | D |
| - | |
| Yet they were woefully wicked men and often at night in pain | E |
| I heard the murderer speak of his deed and dream it over again | F |
| I heard the poor thief sorrowing for the dead self he had slain | E |
| - | |
| I'll never forget that bitter dawn so evil askew and gray | B |
| When they wrapped me round in the skins of beasts and they bore me to a sleigh | B |
| And we started out with the nearest post an hundred miles away | B |
| - | |
| I'll never forget the trail they broke with its tense unuttered woe | G |
| And the crunch crunch crunch as their snowshoes sank through the crust of the hollow snow | G |
| And my breath would fail and every beat of my heart was like a blow | G |
| - | |
| And oftentimes I would die the death yet wake up to life anew | H |
| The sun would be all ablaze on the waste and the sky a blighting blue | H |
| And the tears would rise in my snow blind eyes and furrow my cheeks like dew | H |
| - | |
| And the camps we made when their strength outplayed and the day was pinched and wan | I |
| And oh the joy of that blessed halt and how I did dread the dawn | J |
| And how I hated the weary men who rose and dragged me on | I |
| - | |
| And oh how I begged to rest to rest the snow was so sweet a shroud | K |
| And oh how I cried when they urged me on cried and cursed them aloud | K |
| Yet on they strained all racked and pained and sorely their backs were bowed | K |
| - | |
| And then it was all like a lurid dream and I prayed for a swift release | L |
| From the ruthless ones who would not leave me to die alone in peace | L |
| Till I wakened up and I found myself at the post of the Mounted Police | L |
| - | |
| And there was my friend the murderer and there was my friend the thief | A |
| With bracelets of steel around their wrists and wicked beyond belief | A |
| But when they come to God's judgment seat may I be allowed the brief | A |
Robert Service
(2)
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