Death's Way Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCB EFEF GHGH IJIJ FKFK LDLB MNMKN| Old Man Death's a lousy heel who will not play the game | A |
| Let Graveyard yawn and doom down crash he'll sneer and turn away | B |
| But when the sky with rapture rings and joy is like a flame | A |
| Then Old Man Death grins evilly and swings around to slay | B |
| - | |
| Jack Duval was my chosen pal in the ranks of the Reckless Men | C |
| Thick as thieves they used to say and it may be that we were | D |
| Where the price of life is a naked knife and dammed are nine in ten | C |
| It doesn't do to be curious in the Legion Etrang egrave re | B |
| - | |
| So when it came to a hidden shame our mugs were zippered tight | E |
| He never asked me what I'd done and he would never tell | F |
| But though like men we revelled when it came to bloody fight | E |
| I knew that I could bank on him clear to the hubs of hell | F |
| - | |
| They still tell how we held the Fort back on the blasted bled | G |
| And blazed from out the shambles till the fagged relief arrived | H |
| The garrison are slaughtered all the Captain grimly said | G |
| Piped Jack Give us a slug of hooch and say that TWO survived | H |
| - | |
| Then was that time we were lost canteen and carcase dry | I |
| As on we staggered with the thought Here's where our story ends | J |
| Ten desert days delirious when black against the sky | I |
| We saw a line of camels and the Arabs were our friends | J |
| - | |
| And last of all the lurid night we crashed the gates of hell | F |
| And stemmed the Teuton torrent as it roared on every side | K |
| And we were left in blood and mud to rot on the Moselle | F |
| Two lacerated Legionaires whom all supposed had died | K |
| - | |
| Three times death thought to take us and three times he stayed his hand | L |
| But when we left the Legion what a happy pair we were | D |
| Then reckless roving up and down the sunny land | L |
| I found Jack eating bouillabaisse back on the Cannebi egrave re | B |
| - | |
| Next week I wed he gaily said the sweetest girl on earth | M |
| I wonder why did Death pass by just then and turn to gloat | N |
| Oh I'm so happy You must come and join us in our mirth | M |
| Death struck Jack gasped and choked and died | K |
| A fishbone in his throat | N |
Robert William Service
(1)
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