Barb-wire Bill Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDD EEFFGGHH CCIIJJKKLL MMNNOOPPQQ RRSSGGQQ TTUUFFQQ OOVV GGWWXXOY AAZZLLA2A2MMUU B2B2At dawn of day the white land lay all gruesome like and grim | A |
When Bill Mc'Gee he says to me We've got to do it Jim | A |
We've got to make Fort Liard quick I know the river's bad | B |
But oh the little woman's sick why don't you savvy lad | B |
And me Well yes I must confess it wasn't hard to see | C |
Their little family group of two would soon be one of three | C |
And so I answered careless like Why Bill you don't suppose | D |
I'm scared of that there babbling brook' Whatever you say goes | D |
- | |
A real live man was Barb wire Bill with insides copper lined | E |
For barb wire was the brand of hooch to which he most inclined | E |
They knew him far his igloos are on Kittiegazuit strand | F |
They knew him well the tribes who dwell within the Barren Land | F |
From Koyokuk to Kuskoquim his fame was everywhere | G |
And he did love all life above that little Julie Claire | G |
The lithe white slave girl he had bought for seven hundred skins | H |
And taken to his wickiup to make his moccasins | H |
- | |
We crawled down to the river bank and feeble folk were we | C |
That Julie Claire from God knows where and Barb wire Bill and me | C |
From shore to shore we heard the roar the heaving ice floes make | I |
And loud we laughed and launched our raft and followed in their wake | I |
The river swept and seethed and leapt and caught us in its stride | J |
And on we hurled amid a world that crashed on every side | J |
With sullen din the banks caved in the shore ice lanced the stream | K |
The naked floes like spooks arose all jiggling and agleam | K |
Black anchor ice of strange device shot upward from its bed | L |
As night and day we cleft our way and arrow like we sped | L |
- | |
But Faster still cried Barb wire Bill and looked the live long day | M |
In dull despair at Julie Claire as white like death she lay | M |
And sometimes he would seem to pray and sometimes seem to curse | N |
And bent above with eyes of love yet ever she grew worse | N |
And as we plunged and leapt and lunged her face was plucked with pain | O |
And I could feel his nerves of steel a quiver at the strain | O |
And in the night he gripped me tight as I lay fast asleep | P |
The river's kicking like a steer run out the forward sweep | P |
That's Hell gate Canyon right ahead I know of old its roar | Q |
And I'll be damned the ice is jammed We've GOT to make the shore | Q |
- | |
With one wild leap I gripped the sweep The night was black as sin | R |
The float ice crashed and ripped and smashed and stunned us with its din | R |
And near and near and clear and clear I heard the canyon boom | S |
And swift and strong we swept along to meet our awful doom | S |
And as with dread I glimpsed ahead the death that waited there | G |
My only thought was of the girl the little Julie Claire | G |
And so like demon mad with fear I panted at the oar | Q |
And foot by foot and inch by inch we worked the raft ashore | Q |
- | |
The bank was staked with grinding ice and as we scraped and crashed | T |
I only knew one thing to do and through my mind it flashed | T |
Yet while I groped to find the rope I heard Bill's savage cry | U |
That's my job lad It's me that jumps I'll snub this raft or die | U |
I saw him leap I saw him creep I saw him gain the land | F |
I saw him crawl I saw him fall then run with rope in hand | F |
And then the darkness gulped him up and down we dashed once more | Q |
And nearer nearer drew the jam and thunder like its roar | Q |
- | |
Oh God all's lost from Julie Claire there came a wail of pain | O |
And then the rope grew sudden taut and quivered at the strain | O |
It slacked and slipped it whined and gripped and oh I held my breath | V |
And there we hung and there we swung right in the jaws of death | V |
- | |
A little strand of hempen rope and how I watched it there | G |
With all around a hell of sound and darkness and despair | G |
A little strand of hempen rope I watched it all alone | W |
And somewhere in the dark behind I heard a woman moan | W |
And somewhere in the dark ahead I heard a man cry out | X |
Then silence silence silence fell and mocked my hollow shout | X |
And yet once more from out the shore I heard that cry of pain | O |
A moan of mortal agony then all was still again | Y |
- | |
That night was hell with all the frills and when the dawn broke dim | A |
I saw a lean and level land but never sign of him | A |
I saw a flat and frozen shore of hideous device | Z |
I saw a long drawn strand of rope that vanished through the ice | Z |
And on that treeless rockless shore I found my partner dead | L |
No place was there to snub the raft so he had served instead | L |
And with the rope lashed round his waist in last defiant fight | A2 |
He'd thrown himself beneath the ice that closed and gripped him tight | A2 |
And there he'd held us back from death as fast in death he lay | M |
Say boys I'm not the pious brand but I just tried to pray | M |
And then I looked to Julie Claire and sore abashed was I | U |
For from the robes that covered her I heard a baby cry | U |
- | |
Thus was Love conqueror of death and life for life was given | B2 |
And though no saint on earth d'ye think Bill's squared hisself with Heaven | B2 |
Robert William Service
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Barb-wire Bill poem by Robert William Service
Best Poems of Robert William Service