Wounded Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGG HIHIJKJKLMLMNN OPQPJRJRSBSBTUTUVWVW XYXYHZHZA2MA2MB2C2C2 C2D2E2D2E2F2G2F2G2C2 H2C2H2UI2UI2J2K2J2K2 C2C2 A2D2A2D2L2AL2AC2M2C2 M2N2N2 C2O2C2O2P2Q2R2Q2S2T2 S2T2AAT2A| Is it not strange A year ago to day | A |
| With scarce a thought beyond the hum drum round | B |
| I did my decent job and earned my pay | A |
| Was averagely happy I'll be bound | B |
| Ay in my little groove I was content | C |
| Seeing my life run smoothly to the end | D |
| With prosy days in stolid labour spent | C |
| And jolly nights a pipe a glass a friend | D |
| In God's good time a hearth fire's cosy gleam | E |
| A wife and kids and all a fellow needs | F |
| When presto like a bubble goes my dream | E |
| I leap upon the Stage of Splendid Deeds | F |
| I yell with rage I wallow deep in gore | G |
| I that was clerk in a drysalter's store | G |
| - | |
| Stranger than any book I've ever read | H |
| Here on the reeking battlefield I lie | I |
| Under the stars propped up with smeary dead | H |
| Like too if no one takes me in to die | I |
| Hit on the arms legs liver lungs and gall | J |
| Damn glad there's nothing more of me to hit | K |
| But calm and feeling never pain at all | J |
| And full of wonder at the turn of it | K |
| For of the dead around me three are mine | L |
| Three foemen vanquished in the whirl of fight | M |
| So if I die I have no right to whine | L |
| I feel I've done my little bit all right | M |
| I don't know how but there the beggars are | N |
| As dead as herrings pickled in a jar | N |
| - | |
| And here am I worse wounded than I thought | O |
| For in the fight a bullet bee like stings | P |
| You never heed the air is metal hot | Q |
| And all alive with little flicking wings | P |
| But on you charge You see the fellows fall | J |
| Your pal was by your side fair fighting mad | R |
| You turn to him and lo no pal at all | J |
| You wonder vaguely if he's copped it bad | R |
| But on you charge The heavens vomit death | S |
| And vicious death is besoming the ground | B |
| You're blind with sweat you're dazed and out of breath | S |
| And though you yell you cannot hear a sound | B |
| But on you charge Oh War's a rousing game | T |
| Around you smoky clouds like ogres tower | U |
| The earth is rowelled deep with spurs of flame | T |
| And on your helmet stones and ashes shower | U |
| But on you charge It's odd You have no fear | V |
| Machine gun bullets whip and lash your path | W |
| Red yellow black the smoky giants rear | V |
| The shrapnel rips the heavens roar in wrath | W |
| But on you charge Barbed wire all trampled down | X |
| The ground all gored and rent as by a blast | Y |
| Grim heaps of grey where once were heaps of brown | X |
| A ragged ditch the Hun first line at last | Y |
| All smashed to hell Their second right ahead | H |
| So on you charge There's nothing else to do | Z |
| More reeking holes blood barbed wire gruesome dead | H |
| Your puttee strap's undone that worries you | Z |
| You glare around You think you're all alone | A2 |
| But no your chums come surging left and right | M |
| The nearest chap flops down without a groan | A2 |
| His face still snarling with the rage of fight | M |
| Ha here's the second trench just like the first | B2 |
| Only a little more so more laid out | C2 |
| More pounded flame corroded death accurst | C2 |
| A pretty piece of work beyond a doubt | C2 |
| Now for the third and there your job is done | D2 |
| So on you charge You never stop to think | E2 |
| Your cursed puttee's trailing as you run | D2 |
| You feel you'd sell your soul to have a drink | E2 |
| The acrid air is full of cracking whips | F2 |
| You wonder how it is you're going still | G2 |
| You foam with rage Oh God to be at grips | F2 |
| With someone you can rush and crush and kill | G2 |
| Your sleeve is dripping blood you're seeing red | C2 |
| You're battle mad your turn is coming now | H2 |
| See there's the jagged barbed wire straight ahead | C2 |
| And there's the trench you'll get there anyhow | H2 |
| Your puttee catches on a strand of wire | U |
| And down you go perhaps it saves your life | I2 |
| For over sandbag rims you see 'em fire | U |
| Crop headed chaps their eyes ablaze with strife | I2 |
| You crawl you cower then once again you plunge | J2 |
| With all your comrades roaring at your heels | K2 |
| Have at 'em lads You stab you jab you lunge | J2 |
| A blaze of glory then the red world reels | K2 |
| A crash of triumph then you're faint a bit | C2 |
| That cursed puttee Now to fasten it | C2 |
| - | |
| Well that's the charge And now I'm here alone | A2 |
| I've built a little wall of Hun on Hun | D2 |
| To shield me from the leaden bees that drone | A2 |
| It saves me worry and it hurts 'em none | D2 |
| The only thing I'm wondering is when | L2 |
| Some stretcher men will stroll along my way | A |
| It isn't much that's left of me but then | L2 |
| Where life is hope is so at least they say | A |
| Well if I'm spared I'll be the happy lad | C2 |
| I tell you I won't envy any king | M2 |
| I've stood the racket and I'm proud and glad | C2 |
| I've had my crowning hour Oh War's the thing | M2 |
| It gives us common working chaps our chance | N2 |
| A taste of glory chivalry romance | N2 |
| - | |
| Ay War they say is hell it's heaven too | C2 |
| It lets a man discover what he's worth | O2 |
| It takes his measure shows what he can do | C2 |
| Gives him a joy like nothing else on earth | O2 |
| It fans in him a flame that otherwise | P2 |
| Would flicker out these drab discordant days | Q2 |
| It teaches him in pain and sacrifice | R2 |
| Faith fortitude grim courage past all praise | Q2 |
| Yes War is good So here beside my slain | S2 |
| A happy wreck I wait amid the din | T2 |
| For even if I perish mine's the gain | S2 |
| Hi there you fellows won't you take me in | T2 |
| Give me a fag to smoke upon the way | A |
| We've taken La Boiselle The hell you say | A |
| Well that would make a corpse sit up and grin | T2 |
| Lead on I'll live to fight another day | A |
Robert Service
(1)
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