The Wife Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCB DCDCEC FCFCGC HBHBHB IJIJCK LBLBMB NONOPO QCQCRCOBOBST ST FCFCUC| Tell Annie I'll be home in time | A |
| To help her with her Christmas tree | B |
| That's what he wrote and hark the chime | A |
| Of Christmas bells and where is he | B |
| And how the house is dark and sad | C |
| And Annie's sobbing on my knee | B |
| - | |
| The page beside the candle flame | D |
| With cruel type was overfilled | C |
| I read and read until a name | D |
| Leapt at me and my heart was stilled | C |
| My eye crept up the column up | E |
| Unto its hateful heading Killed | C |
| - | |
| And there was Annie on the stair | F |
| And will he not be long she said | C |
| Her eyes were bright and in her hair | F |
| She'd twined a bit of riband red | C |
| And every step was daddy's sure | G |
| Till tired out she went to bed | C |
| - | |
| And there alone I sat so still | H |
| With staring eyes that did not see | B |
| The room was desolate and chill | H |
| And desolate the heart of me | B |
| Outside I heard the news boys shrill | H |
| Another Glorious Victory | B |
| - | |
| A victory Ah what care I | I |
| A thousand victories are vain | J |
| Here in my ruined home I cry | I |
| From out my black despair and pain | J |
| I'd rather rather damned defeat | C |
| And have my man with me again | K |
| - | |
| They talk to us of pride and power | L |
| Of Empire vast beyond the sea | B |
| As here beside my hearth I cower | L |
| What mean such words as these to me | B |
| Oh will they lift the clouds that low'r | M |
| Or light my load in years to be | B |
| - | |
| What matters it to us poor folk | N |
| Who win or lose it's we who pay | O |
| Oh I would laugh beneath the yoke | N |
| If I had him at home to day | O |
| One's home before one's country comes | P |
| Aye so a million women say | O |
| - | |
| Hush Annie dear don't sorrow so | Q |
| How can I tell her See we'll light | C |
| With tiny star of purest glow | Q |
| Each little candle pink and white | C |
| They make mistakes I'll tell myself | R |
| I did not read that name aright | C |
| Come dearest one come let us pray | O |
| Beside our gleaming Christmas tree | B |
| Just fold your little hands and say | O |
| These words so softly after me | B |
| God pity mothers in distress | S |
| And little children fatherless | T |
| - | |
| God pity mothers in distress | S |
| And little children fatherless | T |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| What's that a step upon the stair | F |
| A shout the door thrown open wide | C |
| My hero and my man is there | F |
| And Annie's leaping by his side | C |
| The room reels round I faint I fall | U |
| O God Thy world is glorified | C |
Robert Service
(1)
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About The Wife
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