The Song Of The Camp-fire Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGHGHIJIJ BKBKLMAM NNN OOO PPP QQR SSS TTT DDD EEE UVV WWX YZYZEA2EA2 AB2AB2C2CC2C D2E2F2E2BABBBA

Heed me feed me I am hungry I am red tongued with desireA
Boughs of balsam slabs of cedar gummy fagots of the pineB
Heap them on me let me hug them to my eager heart of fireA
Roaring soaring up to heaven as a symbol and a signB
Bring me knots of sunny maple silver birch and tamarackC
Leaping sweeping I will lap them with my ardent wings of flameD
I will kindle them to glory I will beat the darkness backC
Streaming gleaming I will goad them to my glory and my fameD
Bring me gnarly limbs of live oak aid me in my frenzied fightE
Strips of iron wood scaly blue gum writhing redly in my holdF
With my lunge of lurid lances with my whips that flail the nightE
They will burgeon into beauty they will foliate in goldF
Let me star the dim sierras stab with light the inland seasG
Roaming wind and roaring darkness seek no mercy at my handsH
I will mock the marly heavens lamp the purple prairiesG
I will flaunt my deathless banners down the far unhouseled landsH
In the vast and vaulted pine gloom where the pillared forests frownI
By the sullen bestial rivers running where God only knowsJ
On the starlit coral beaches when the combers thunder downI
In the death spell of the barrens in the shudder of the snowsJ
In a blazing belt of triumph from the palm leaf to the pineB
As a symbol of defiance lo the wilderness I spanK
And my beacons burn exultant as an everlasting signB
Of unending domination of the mastery of ManK
I the Life the fierce Uplifter I that weaned him from the mireL
I the angel and the devil I the tyrant and the slaveM
I the Spirit of the Struggle I the mighty God of FireA
I the Maker and Destroyer I the Giver and the GraveM
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II-
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Gather round me boy and grey beard frontiersman of every kindN
Few are you and far and lonely yet an army forms behindN
By your camp fires shall they know you ashes scattered to the windN
-
Peer into my heart of solace break your bannock at my blazeO
Smoking stretched in lazy shelter build your castles as you gazeO
Or it may be deep in dreaming think of dim unhappy daysO
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Let my warmth and glow caress you for your trails are grim and hardP
Let my arms of comfort press you hunger hewn and battle scarredP
O my lovers how I bless you with your lives so madly marredP
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For you seek the silent spaces and their secret lore you gleanQ
For you win the savage races and the brutish Wild you weanQ
And I gladden desert places where camp fire has never beenR
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From the Pole unto the Tropics is there trail ye have not daredS
And because you hold death lightly so by death shall you be sparedS
As the sages of the ages in their pages have declaredS
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On the roaring Arkilinik in a leaky bark canoeT
Up the cloud of Mount McKinley where the avalanche leaps throughT
In the furnace of Death Valley when the mirage glimmers blueT
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Now a smudge of wiry willows on the weary KuskoquimD
Now a flare of gummy pine knots where Vancouver's scaur is grimD
Now a gleam of sunny ceiba when the Cuban beaches dimD
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Always always God's Great Open lo I burn with keener lightE
In the corridors of silence in the vestibules of nightE
'Mid the ferns and grasses gleaming was there ever gem so brightE
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Not for weaklings not for women like my brother of the hearthU
Ring your songs of wrath around me I was made for manful mirthV
In the lusty gusty greatness on the bald spots of the earthV
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Men my masters men my lovers ye have fought and ye have bledW
Gather round my ruddy embers softly glowing is my bedW
By my heart of solace dreaming rest ye and be comfortedX
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III-
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I am dying O my masters by my fitful flame ye sleepY
My purple plumes of glory droop forlornZ
Grey ashes choke and cloak me and above the pines there creepY
The stealthy silver moccasins of mornZ
There comes a countless army it's the Legion of the LightE
It tramps in gleaming triumph round the worldA2
And before its jewelled lances all the shadows of the nightE
Back in to abysmal darknesses are hurledA2
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Leap to life again my lovers ye must toil and never tireA
The day of daring doing brightens clearB2
When the bed of spicy cedar and the jovial camp fireA
Must only be a memory of cheerB2
There is hope and golden promise in the vast portentous dawnC2
There is glamour in the glad effluent skyC
Go and leave me I will dream of you and love you when you're goneC2
I have served you O my masters let me dieC
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A little heap of ashes grey and sodden by the rainD2
Wind scattered blurred and blotted by the snowE2
Let that be all to tell of me and glorious againF2
Ye things of greening gladness leap and glowE2
A black scar in the sunshine by the palm leaf or the pineB
Blind to the night and dead to all desireA
Yet oh of life and uplift what a symbol and a signB
Yet oh of power and conquest what a destiny is mineB
A little heap of ashes Yea a miracle divineB
The foot print of a god all radiant FireA

Robert Service



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