The Shooting Of Dan Mcgrew Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDDBB EEFFBB GGHHII JKLLMM NNOOBB KJPPBB QQRRI ISTBB UUBB VVBB

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloonA
The kid that handles the music box was hitting a jag time tuneA
Back of the bar in a solo game sat Dangerous Dan McGrewB
And watching his luck was his light o' love the lady that's known as LouB
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When out of the night which was fifty below and into the din and the glareC
There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks dog dirty and loaded for bearC
He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louseD
Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar and he called for drinks for the houseD
There was none could place the stranger's face though we searched ourselves for a clueB
But we drank his health and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrewB
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There's men that somehow just grip your eyes and hold them hard like a spellE
And such was he and he looked to me like a man who had lived in hellE
With a face most hair and the dreary stare of a dog whose day is doneF
As he watered the green stuff in his glass and the drops fell one by oneF
Then I got to figgering who he was and wondering what he'd doB
And I turned my head and there watching him was the lady that's known as LouB
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His eyes went rubbering round the room and he seemed in a kind of dazeG
Till at last that old piano fell in the way of his wandering gazeG
The rag time kid was having a drink there was no one else on the stoolH
So the stranger stumbles across the room and flops down there like a foolH
In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat and I saw him swayI
Then he clutched the keys with his talon hands my God but that man could playI
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Were you ever out in the Great Alone when the moon was awful clearJ
And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could HEARK
With only the howl of a timber wolf and you camped there in the coldL
A half dead thing in a stark dead world clean mad for the muck called goldL
While high overhead green yellow and red the North Lights swept in barsM
Then you've a haunch what the music meant hunger and night and the starsM
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And hunger not of the belly kind that's banished with bacon and beansN
But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all that it meansN
For a fireside far from the cares that are four walls and a roof aboveO
But oh so cramful of cosy joy and crowned with a woman's loveO
A woman dearer than all the world and true as Heaven is trueB
God how ghastly she looks through her rouge the lady that's known as LouB
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Then on a sudden the music changed so soft that you scarce could hearK
But you felt that your life had been looted clean of all that it once held dearJ
That someone had stolen the woman you loved that her love was a devil's lieP
That your guts were gone and the best for you was to crawl away and dieP
'Twas the crowning cry of a heart's despair and it thrilled you through and throughB
I guess I'll make it a spread misere said Dangerous Dan McGrewB
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The music almost died away then it burst like a pent up floodQ
And it seemed to say Repay repay and my eyes were blind with bloodQ
The thought came back of an ancient wrong and it stung like a frozen lashR
And the lust awoke to kill to kill then the music stopped with a crashR
And the stranger turned and his eyes they burned in a most peculiar wayI
-
In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat and I saw him swayI
Then his lips went in in a kind of grin and he spoke and his voice was calmS
And Boys says he you don't know me and none of you care a damnT
But I want to state and my words are straight and I'll bet my poke they're trueB
That one of you is a hound of hell and that one is Dan McGrewB
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Then I ducked my head and the lights went out and two guns blazed in the darkU
And a woman screamed and the lights went up and two men lay stiff and starkU
Pitched on his head and pumped full of lead was Dangerous Dan McGrewB
While the man from the creeks lay clutched to the breast of the lady that's known as LouB
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These are the simple facts of the case and I guess I ought to knowV
They say that the stranger was crazed with hooch and I'm not denying it's soV
I'm not so wise as the lawyer guys but strictly between us twoB
The woman that kissed him and pinched his poke was the lady that's known as LouB

Robert Service



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