The Song Of The Wage-slave Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ KKLLMMNOPPPPQQPPRR| When the long long day is over and the Big Boss gives me my pay | A |
| I hope that it won't be hell fire as some of the parsons say | A |
| And I hope that it won't be heaven with some of the parsons I've met | B |
| All I want is just quiet just to rest and forget | B |
| Look at my face toil furrowed look at my calloused hands | C |
| Master I've done Thy bidding wrought in Thy many lands | C |
| Wrought for the little masters big bellied they be and rich | D |
| I've done their desire for a daily hire and I die like a dog in a ditch | D |
| I have used the strength Thou hast given Thou knowest I did not shirk | E |
| Threescore years of labor Thine be the long day's work | E |
| And now Big Master I'm broken and bent and twisted and scarred | F |
| But I've held my job and Thou knowest and Thou will not judge me hard | F |
| Thou knowest my sins are many and often I've played the fool | G |
| Whiskey and cards and women they made me the devil's tool | G |
| I was just like a child with money I flung it away with a curse | H |
| Feasting a fawning parasite or glutting a harlot's purse | H |
| Then back to the woods repentant back to the mill or the mine | I |
| I the worker of workers everything in my line | I |
| Everything hard but headwork I'd no more brains than a kid | J |
| A brute with brute strength to labor doing as I was bid | J |
| Living in camps with men folk a lonely and loveless life | K |
| Never knew kiss of sweetheart never caress of wife | K |
| A brute with brute strength to labor and they were so far above | L |
| Yet I'd gladly have gone to the gallows for one little look of Love | L |
| I with the strength of two men savage and shy and wild | M |
| Yet how I'd ha' treasured a woman and the sweet warm kiss of a child | M |
| Well 'tis Thy world and Thou knowest I blaspheme and my ways be rude | N |
| But I've lived my life as I found it and I've done my best to be good | O |
| I the primitive toiler half naked and grimed to the eyes | P |
| Sweating it deep in their ditches swining it stark in their styes | P |
| Hurling down forests before me spanning tumultuous streams | P |
| Down in the ditch building o'er me palaces fairer than dreams | P |
| Boring the rock to the ore bed driving the road through the fen | Q |
| Resolute dumb uncomplaining a man in a world of men | Q |
| Master I've filled my contract wrought in Thy many lands | P |
| Not by my sins wilt Thou judge me but by the work of my hands | P |
| Master I've done Thy bidding and the light is low in the west | R |
| And the long long shift is over Master I've earned it Rest | R |
Robert Service
(1)
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