The Ghosts Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDDEEF GGCC HHIJGGKKDD IJEEHHEE LLEEE GGEEGGMMN OOPP NNEEHHQQDDRQQ STGGGGHHE NNEEQQGGEECCU VVWWEEG QQLLXX| Smith great writer of stories drank found it immortalized his pen | A |
| Fused in his brain pan else a blank heavens of glory now and then | A |
| Gave him the magical genius touch God given power to gouge out fling | B |
| Flat in your face a soul thought Bing | B |
| Twiddle your heart strings in his clutch Bah said Smith let my body lie | C |
| stripped to the buff in swinish shame | D |
| If I can blaze in the radiant sky out of adoring stars my name | D |
| Sober am I nonentitized drunk am I more than half a god | E |
| Well let the flesh be sacrificed spirit shall speak and shame the clod | E |
| Who would not gladly gladly give Life to do one thing that will live | F |
| - | |
| Smith had a friend we'll call him Brown dearer than brothers were those two | G |
| When in the wassail Smith would drown Brown would rescue and pull him through | G |
| When Brown was needful Smith would lend so it fell as the years went by | C |
| Each on the other would depend then at the last Smith came to die | C |
| - | |
| There Brown sat in the sick man's room still as a stone in his despair | H |
| Smith bent on him his eyes of doom shook back his lion mane of hair | H |
| Said Is there one in my chosen line writer of forthright tales my peer | I |
| Look in that little desk of mine there is a package bring it here | J |
| Story of stories gem of all essence and triumph key and clue | G |
| Tale of a loving woman's fall soul swept hell ward and God it's true | G |
| I was the man Oh yes I've paid paid with mighty and mordant pain | K |
| Look here's the masterpiece I've made out of my sin my manhood slain | K |
| Art supreme yet the world would stare know my mistress and blaze my shame | D |
| I have a wife and daughter there take it and thrust it in the flame | D |
| - | |
| Brown answered Master you have dipped pen in your heart your phrases sear | I |
| Ruthless unflinching you have stripped naked your soul and set it here | J |
| Have I not loved you well and true See between us the shadows drift | E |
| This bit of blood and tears means You oh let me have it a parting gift | E |
| Sacred I'll hold it a trust divine sacred your honour her dark despair | H |
| Never shall it see printed line here by the living God I swear | H |
| Brown on a Bible laid his hand Smith great writer of stories sighed | E |
| Comrade I trust you and understand Keep my secret And so he died | E |
| - | |
| Smith was buried up soared his sales lured you his books in every store | L |
| Exquisite whimsy heart wrung tales men devoured them and craved for more | L |
| So when it slyly got about Brown had a posthumous manuscript | E |
| Jones the publisher sought him out into his pocket deep he dipped | E |
| A thousand dollars Brown shook his head The story is not for sale he said | E |
| - | |
| Jones went away then others came Tempted and taunted Brown was true | G |
| Guarded at friendship's shrine the fame of the unpublished story grew and grew | G |
| It's a long long lane that has no end but some lanes end in the Potter's field | E |
| Smith to Brown had been more than friend patron protector spur and shield | E |
| Poor loving wistful dreamy Brown long and lean with a smile askew | G |
| Friendless he wandered up and down gaunt as a wolf as hungry too | G |
| Brown with his lilt of saucy rhyme Brown with his tilt of tender mirth | M |
| Garretless in the gloom and grime singing his glad mad songs of earth | M |
| So at last with a faith divine down and down to the Hunger line | N |
| - | |
| There as he stood in a woeful plight tears a freeze on his sharp cheek bones | O |
| Who should chance to behold his plight but the publisher the plethoric Jones | O |
| Peered at him for a little while held out a bill NOW will you sell | P |
| Brown scanned it with his twisted smile A thousand dollars you go to hell | P |
| - | |
| Brown enrolled in the homeless host sleeping anywhere anywhen | N |
| Suffered strove became a ghost slave of the lamp for other men | N |
| For What's his name and So and so in the abyss his soul he stripped | E |
| Yet in his want his worst of woe held he fast to the manuscript | E |
| Then one day as he chewed his pen half in hunger and half despair | H |
| Creaked the door of his garret den Dick his brother was standing there | H |
| Down on the pallet bed he sank ashen his face his voice a wail | Q |
| Save me brother I've robbed the bank to morrow it's ruin capture gaol | Q |
| Yet there's a chance I could to day pay back the money save our name | D |
| You have a manuscript they say worth a thousand think man the shame | D |
| Brown with his heart pain pierced the while with his stern starved face | R |
| and his lips stone pale | Q |
| Shuddered and smiled his twisted smile Brother I guess you go to gaol | Q |
| - | |
| While poor Brown in the leer of dawn wrestled with God for the sacred fire | S |
| Came there a woman weak and wan out of the mob the murk the mire | T |
| Frail as a reed a fellow ghost weary with woe with sorrowing | G |
| Two pale souls in the legion lost lo Love bent with a tender wing | G |
| Taught them a joy so deep so true it seemed that the whole world fabric shook | G |
| Thrilled and dissolved in radiant dew then Brown made him a golden book | G |
| Full of the faith that Life is good that the earth is a dream divinely fair | H |
| Lauding his gem of womanhood in many a lyric rich and rare | H |
| Took it to Jones who shook his head I will consider it he said | E |
| - | |
| While he considered Brown's wife lay clutched in the tentacles of pain | N |
| Then came the doctor grave and grey spoke of decline of nervous strain | N |
| Hinted Egypt the South of France Brown with terror was tiger gripped | E |
| Where was the money What the chance Pitiful God the manuscript | E |
| A thousand dollars his only hope he gazed and gazed at the garret wall | Q |
| Reached at last for the envelope turned to his wife and told her all | Q |
| Told of his friend his promise true told like his very heart would break | G |
| Oh my dearest what shall I do shall I not sell it for your sake | G |
| Ghostlike she lay as still as doom turned to the wall her weary head | E |
| Icy cold in the pallid gloom silent as death at last she said | E |
| Do my husband Keep your vow Guard his secret and let me die | C |
| Oh my dear I must tell you now the women he loved and wronged was I | C |
| Darling I haven't long to live I never told you forgive forgive | U |
| - | |
| For a long long time Brown did not speak sat bleak browed in the wretched room | V |
| Slowly a tear stole down his cheek and he kissed her hand in the dismal gloom | V |
| To break his oath to brand her shame his well loved friend his worshipped wife | W |
| To keep his vow to save her name yet at the cost of what Her life | W |
| A moment's space did he hesitate a moment of pain and dread and doubt | E |
| Then he broke the seals and stern as fate unfolded the sheets and spread them out | E |
| On his knees by her side he limply sank peering amazed each page was blank | G |
| - | |
| For oh the supremest of our art are the stories we do not dare to tell | Q |
| Locked in the silence of the heart for the awful records of Heav'n and Hell | Q |
| Yet those two in the silence there seemed less weariful than before | L |
| Hark a step on the garret stair a postman knocks at the flimsy door | L |
| Registered letter Brown thrills with fear opens and reads then bends above | X |
| Glorious tidings Egypt dear The book is accepted life and love | X |
Robert Service
(1)
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