His Boys Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD AEAE BFBF GHGH IJIJ KLKL MBMB NONOI'm going Billy old fellow Hist lad Don't make any noise | A |
There's Boches to beat all creation the pitch of a bomb away | B |
I've fixed the note to your collar you've got to get back to my Boys | A |
You've got to get back to warn 'em before it's the break of day | B |
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The order came to go forward to a trench line traced on the map | C |
I knew the brass hats had blundered I knew and I told 'em so | D |
I knew if I did as they ordered I would tumble into a trap | C |
And I tried to explain but the answer came like a pistol Go | D |
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Then I thought of the Boys I commanded I always called them my Boys | A |
The men of my own recruiting the lads of my countryside | E |
Tested in many a battle I knew their sorrows and joys | A |
And I loved them all like a father with more than a father's pride | E |
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To march my Boys to a shambles as soon as the dawn of day | B |
To see them helplessly slaughtered if all that I guessed was true | F |
My Boys that trusted me blindly I thought and I tried to pray | B |
And then I arose and I muttered It's either them or it's you | F |
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I rose and I donned my rain coat I buckled my helmet tight | G |
I remember you watched me Billy as I took my cane in my hand | H |
I vaulted over the sandbags into the pitchy night | G |
Into the pitted valley that served us as No Man's Land | H |
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I strode out over the hollow of hate and havoc and death | I |
From the heights the guns were angry with a vengeful snarling of steel | J |
And once in a moment of stillness I heard hard panting breath | I |
And I turned it was you old rascal following hard on my heel | J |
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I fancy I cursed you Billy but not so much as I ought | K |
And so we went forward together till we came to the valley rim | L |
And then a star shell sputtered it was even worse than I thought | K |
For the trench they told me to move in was packed with Boche to the brim | L |
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They saw me too and they got me they peppered me till I fell | M |
And there I scribbled my message with my life blood ebbing away | B |
Now Billy you fat old duffer you've got to get back like hell | M |
And get them to cancel that order before it's the dawn of day | B |
- | |
Billy old boy I love you I kiss your shiny black nose | N |
Now home there Hurry you devil or I'll cut you to ribands See | O |
Poor brute he's off and I'm dying I go as a soldier goes | N |
I'm happy My Boys God bless 'em It had to be them or me | O |
Robert William Service
(1)
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