While The Bannock Bakes Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCD EAEAFGHG IBIBJKJL MNMNOPOP QRQRMSMS TUDUVWXW YAYAZWZW XA2XA2B2AC2A D2E2D2E2YWYW F2A2F2A2G2H2G2H2 SGI2GJ2A2J2A2 E2K2E2K2L2AL2A

Light up your pipe again old chum and sit awhile with meA
I've got to watch the bannock bake how restful is the airB
You'd little think that we were somewhere north of Sixty threeA
Though where I don't exactly know and don't precisely careB
The man size mountains palisade us round on every sideC
The river is a flop with fish and ripples silver clearD
The midnight sunshine brims yon cleft we think it's the DivideC
We'll get there in a month maybe or maybe in a yearD
-
It doesn't matter does it pal We're of that breed of menE
With whom the world of wine and cards and women disagreeA
Your trouble was a roofless game of poker now and thenE
And raising up my elbow that's what got away with meA
We're merely Undesirables artistic more or lessF
My horny hands are Chopin wise you quote your Browning wellG
And yet we're fooling round for gold in this damned wildernessH
The joke is if we found it we would both go straight to hellG
-
Well maybe we won't find it and at least we've got the lifeI
We're both as brown as berries and could wrestle with a bearB
That bannock's raising nicely pal just jab it with your knifeI
Fine specimens of manhood they would reckon us out thereB
It's the tracking and the packing and the poling in the sunJ
It's the sleeping in the open it's the rugged unfaked foodK
It's the snow shoe and the paddle and the campfire and the gunJ
And when I think of what I was I know that it is goodL
-
Just think of how we've poled all day up this strange little streamM
Since life began no eye of man has seen this place beforeN
How fearless all the wild things are the banks with goose grass gleamM
And there's a bronzy musk rat sitting sniffing at his doorN
A mother duck with brood of ten comes squattering alongO
The tawny white winged ptarmigan are flying all aboutP
And in that swirly golden pool a restless gleaming throngO
The trout are waiting till we condescend to take them outP
-
Ah yes it's good I'll bet that there's no doctor like the WildQ
Just turn that bannock over there it's getting nicely brownR
I might be in my grave by now forgotten and reviledQ
Or rotting like a sickly cur in some far foreign townR
I might be that vile thing I was it all seems like a dreamM
I owed a man a grudge one time that only life could payS
And yet it's half forgotten now how petty these things seemM
But that's another story pal I'll tell it you some dayS
-
How strange two irresponsibles should chum away up hereT
But round the Arctic Circle friends are few and far betweenU
We've shared the same camp fire and tent for nigh on seven yearD
And never had a word that wasn't cheering and sereneU
We've halved the toil and split the spoil and borne each other's packsV
By all the Wild's freemasonry we're brothers tried and trueW
We've swept on danger side by side and fought it back to backX
And you would die for me old pal and I would die for youW
-
Now there was that time I got lost in Rory Bory LandY
How quick the blizzards sweep on one across that Polar seaA
You formed a rescue crew of One and saw a frozen handY
That stuck out of a drift of snow and partner it was MeA
But I got even did I not that day the paddle brokeZ
White water on the Coppermine a rock a split canoeW
Two fellows struggling in the foam one couldn't swim a strokeZ
A half drowned man I dragged ashore and partner it was YouW
-
-
-
In Rory Borealis Land the winter's long and blackX
The silence seems a solid thing shot through with wolfish woeA2
And rowelled by the eager stars the skies vault vastly backX
And man seems but a little mite on that weird lit plateauA2
No thing to do but smoke and yarn of wild and misspent livesB2
Beside the camp fire there we sat what tales you told to meA
Of love and hate and chance and fate and temporary wivesC2
In Rory Borealis Land beside the Arctic SeaA
-
One yarn you told me in those days I can remember stillD2
It seemed as if I visioned it so sharp you sketched it inE2
Bellona was the name I think a coast town in BrazilD2
Where nobody did anything but serenade and sinE2
I saw it all the jewelled sea the golden scythe of sandY
The stately pillars of the palms the feathery bambooW
The red roofed houses and the swart sun dominated landY
The people ever children and the heavens ever blueW
-
You told me of that girl of yours that blossom of old SpainF2
All glamour grace and witchery all passion verve and glowA2
How maddening she must have been You made me see her plainF2
There by our little camp fire in the silence and the snowA2
You loved her and she loved you She'd a husband too I thinkG2
A doctor chap you told me whom she treated like a dogH2
A white man living on the beach a hopeless slave to drinkG2
Just turn that bannock over there that's propped against the logH2
-
That story seemed to strike me pal it happens every dayS
You had to go away awhile then somehow it befellG
The doctor chap discovered gave her up and disappearedI2
You came back tired of her in time there's nothing more to tellG
Hist see those willows silvering where swamp and river meetJ2
Just reach me up my rifle quick that's Mister Moose I knowA2
There now I've got him dead to rights but hell we've lots to eatJ2
I don't believe in taking life we'll let the beggar goA2
-
Heigh ho I'm tired the bannock's cooked it's time we both turned inE2
The morning mist is coral kissed the morning sky is goldK2
The camp fire's a confessional what funny yarns we spinE2
It sort of made me think a bit that story that you toldK2
The fig leaf belt and Rory Bory are such odd extremesL2
Yet after all how very small this old world seems to beA
Yes that was quite a yarn old pal and yet to me it seemsL2
You missed the point the point is that the doctor chap was MEA

Robert Service



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