The Trail Of Ninety-eight Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCBB DDDD EFGG HHII DDJJ KKLL MMNN OLPP QQRR SSDD TTUU VVDD WWJJ DDDD DDDD XXUY DDHH ZZA2A2 B2B2C2C2 D2D2DD E2A2D2D2 F2F2LO FFG2G2 A2A2DD GGDD DDD2D2| Gold We leapt from our benches Gold We sprang from our stools | A |
| Gold We wheeled in the furrow fired with the faith of fools | A |
| Fearless unfound unfitted far from the night and the cold | B |
| Heard we the clarion summons followed the master lure Gold | B |
| - | |
| Men from the sands of the Sunland men from the woods of the West | C |
| Men from the farms and the cities into the Northland we pressed | C |
| Graybeards and striplings and women good men and bad men and bold | B |
| Leaving our homes and our loved ones crying exultantly Gold | B |
| - | |
| Never was seen such an army pitiful futile unfit | D |
| Never was seen such a spirit manifold courage and grit | D |
| Never has been such a cohort under one banner unrolled | D |
| As surged to the ragged edged Arctic urged by the arch tempter Gold | D |
| - | |
| Farewell we cried to our dearests little we cared for their tears | E |
| Farewell we cried to the humdrum and the yoke of the hireling years | F |
| Just like a pack of school boys and the big crowd cheered us good bye | G |
| Never were hearts so uplifted never were hopes so high | G |
| - | |
| The spectral shores flitted past us and every whirl of the screw | H |
| Hurled us nearer to fortune and ever we planned what we'd do | H |
| Do with the gold when we got it big shiny nuggets like plums | I |
| There in the sand of the river gouging it out with our thumbs | I |
| - | |
| And one man wanted a castle another a racing stud | D |
| A third would cruise in a palace yacht like a red necked prince of blood | D |
| And so we dreamed and we vaunted millionaires to a man | J |
| Leaping to wealth in our visions long ere the trail began | J |
| - | |
| II | - |
| - | |
| We landed in wind swept Skagway We joined the weltering mass | K |
| Clamoring over their outfits waiting to climb the Pass | K |
| We tightened our girths and our pack straps we linked on the Human Chain | L |
| Struggling up to the summit where every step was a pain | L |
| - | |
| Gone was the joy of our faces grim and haggard and pale | M |
| The heedless mirth of the shipboard was changed to the care of the trail | M |
| We flung ourselves in the struggle packing our grub in relays | N |
| Step by step to the summit in the bale of the winter days | N |
| - | |
| Floundering deep in the sump holes stumbling out again | O |
| Crying with cold and weakness crazy with fear and pain | L |
| Then from the depths of our travail ere our spirits were broke | P |
| Grim tenacious and savage the lust of the trail awoke | P |
| - | |
| Klondike or bust rang the slogan every man for his own | Q |
| Oh how we flogged the horses staggering skin and bone | Q |
| Oh how we cursed their weakness anguish they could not tell | R |
| Breaking their hearts in our passion lashing them on till they fell | R |
| - | |
| For grub meant gold to our thinking and all that could walk must pack | S |
| The sheep for the shambles stumbled each with a load on its back | S |
| And even the swine were burdened and grunted and squealed and rolled | D |
| And men went mad in the moment huskily clamoring Gold | D |
| - | |
| Oh we were brutes and devils goaded by lust and fear | T |
| Our eyes were strained to the summit the weaklings dropped to the rear | T |
| Falling in heaps by the trail side heart broken limp and wan | U |
| But the gaps closed up in an instant and heedless the chain went on | U |
| - | |
| Never will I forget it there on the mountain face | V |
| Antlike men with their burdens clinging in icy space | V |
| Dogged determined and dauntless cruel and callous and cold | D |
| Cursing blaspheming reviling and ever that battle cry Gold | D |
| - | |
| Thus toiled we the army of fortune in hunger and hope and despair | W |
| Till glacier mountain and forest vanished and radiantly fair | W |
| There at our feet lay Lake Bennett and down to its welcome we ran | J |
| The trail of the land was over the trail of the water began | J |
| - | |
| III | - |
| - | |
| We built our boats and we launched them Never has been such a fleet | D |
| A packing case for a bottom a mackinaw for a sheet | D |
| Shapeless grotesque lopsided flimsy makeshift and crude | D |
| Each man after his fashion builded as best he could | D |
| - | |
| Each man worked like a demon as prow to rudder we raced | D |
| The winds of the Wild cried Hurry the voice of the waters Haste | D |
| We hated those driving before us we dreaded those pressing behind | D |
| We cursed the slow current that bore us we prayed to the God of the wind | D |
| - | |
| Spring and the hillsides flourished vivid in jewelled green | X |
| Spring and our hearts' blood nourished envy and hatred and spleen | X |
| Little cared we for the Spring birth much cared we to get on | U |
| Stake in the Great White Channel stake ere the best be gone | Y |
| - | |
| The greed of the gold possessed us pity and love were forgot | D |
| Covetous visions obsessed us brother with brother fought | D |
| Partner with partner wrangled each one claiming his due | H |
| Wrangled and halved their outfits sawing their boats in two | H |
| - | |
| Thuswise we voyaged Lake Bennett Tagish then Windy Arm | Z |
| Sinister savage and baleful boding us hate and harm | Z |
| Many a scow was shattered there on that iron shore | A2 |
| Many a heart was broken straining at sweep and oar | A2 |
| - | |
| We roused Lake Marsh with a chorus we drifted many a mile | B2 |
| There was the canyon before us cave like its dark defile | B2 |
| The shores swept faster and faster the river narrowed to wrath | C2 |
| Waters that hissed disaster reared upright in our path | C2 |
| - | |
| Beneath us the green tumult churning above us the cavernous gloom | D2 |
| Around us swift twisting and turning the black sullen walls of a tomb | D2 |
| We spun like a chip in a mill race our hearts hammered under the test | D |
| Then oh the relief on each chill face we soared into sunlight and rest | D |
| - | |
| Hand sought for hand on the instant Cried we Our troubles are o'er | E2 |
| Then like a rumble of thunder heard we a canorous roar | A2 |
| Leaping and boiling and seething saw we a cauldron afume | D2 |
| There was the rage of the rapids there was the menace of doom | D2 |
| - | |
| The river springs like a racer sweeps through a gash in the rock | F2 |
| Buts at the boulder ribbed bottom staggers and rears at the shock | F2 |
| Leaps like a terrified monster writhes in its fury and pain | L |
| Then with the crash of a demon springs to the onset again | O |
| - | |
| Dared we that ravening terror heard we its din in our ears | F |
| Called on the Gods of our fathers juggled forlorn with our fears | F |
| Sank to our waists in its fury tossed to the sky like a fleece | G2 |
| Then when our dread was the greatest crashed into safety and peace | G2 |
| - | |
| But what of the others that followed losing their boats by the score | A2 |
| Well could we see them and hear them strung down that desolate shore | A2 |
| What of the poor souls that perished Little of them shall be said | D |
| On to the Golden Valley pause not to bury the dead | D |
| - | |
| Then there were days of drifting breezes soft as a sigh | G |
| Night trailed her robe of jewels over the floor of the sky | G |
| The moonlit stream was a python silver sinuous vast | D |
| That writhed on a shroud of velvet well it was done at last | D |
| - | |
| There were the tents of Dawson there the scar of the slide | D |
| Swiftly we poled o'er the shallows swiftly leapt o'er the side | D |
| Fires fringed the mouth of Bonanza sunset gilded the dome | D2 |
| The test of the trail was over thank God thank God we were Home | D2 |
Robert Service
(1)
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