Lost Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD CEFEGGHIHIAA JKJKCLFM NANAAOAO AAAAAHAHOGPGAAAA AAAAADAD QRQRSHSHTUVUWXWX YZYZ AA2AA2 B2TB2VHRHRDDBlack is the sky but the land is white | A |
O the wind the snow and the storm | B |
Father where is our boy to night | A |
Pray to God he is safe and warm | B |
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Mother mother why should you fear | C |
Safe is he and the Arctic moon | D |
Over his cabin shines so clear | C |
Rest and sleep 'twill be morning soon | D |
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It's getting dark awful sudden Say this is mighty queer | C |
Where in the world have I got to It's still and black as a tomb | E |
I reckoned the camp was yonder I figured the trail was here | F |
Nothing Just draw and valley packed with quiet and gloom | E |
Snow that comes down like feathers thick and gobby and gray | G |
Night that looks spiteful ugly seems that I've lost my way | G |
The cold's got an edge like a jackknife it must be forty below | H |
Leastways that's what it seems like it cuts so fierce to the bone | I |
The wind's getting real ferocious it's heaving and whirling the snow | H |
It shrieks with a howl of fury it dies away to a moan | I |
Its arms sweep round like a banshee's swift and icily white | A |
And buffet and blind and beat me Lord it's a hell of a night | A |
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I'm all tangled up in a blizzard There's only one thing to do | J |
Keep on moving and moving it's death it's death if I rest | K |
Oh God if I see the morning if only I struggle through | J |
I'll say the prayers I've forgotten since I lay on my mother's breast | K |
I seem going round in a circle maybe the camp is near | C |
Say did somebody holler Was it a light I saw | L |
Or was it only a notion I'll shout and maybe they'll hear | F |
No the wind only drowns me shout till my throat is raw | M |
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The boys are all round the camp fire wondering when I'll be back | N |
They'll soon be starting to seek me they'll scarcely wait for the light | A |
What will they find I wonder when they come to the end of my track | N |
A hand stuck out of a snowdrift frozen and stiff and white | A |
That's what they'll strike I reckon that's how they'll find their pard | A |
A pie faced corpse in a snowbank curse you don't be a fool | O |
Play the game to the finish bet on your very last card | A |
Nerve yourself for the struggle Oh you coward keep cool | O |
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I'm going to lick this blizzard I'm going to live the night | A |
It can't down me with its bluster I'm not the kind to be beat | A |
On hands and knees will I buck it with every breath will I fight | A |
It's life it's life that I fight for never it seemed so sweet | A |
I know that my face is frozen my hands are numblike and dead | A |
But oh my feet keep a moving heavy and hard and slow | H |
They're trying to kill me kill me the night that's black overhead | A |
The wind that cuts like a razor the whipcord lash of the snow | H |
Keep a moving a moving don't don't stumble you fool | O |
Curse this snow that's a piling a purpose to block my way | G |
It's heavy as gold in the rocker it's white and fleecy as wool | P |
It's soft as a bed of feathers it's warm as a stack of hay | G |
Curse on my feet that slip so my poor tired stumbling feet | A |
I guess they're a job for the surgeon they feel so queerlike to lift | A |
I'll rest them just for a moment oh but to rest is sweet | A |
The awful wind cannot get me deep deep down in the drift | A |
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Father a bitter cry I heard | A |
Out of the night so dark and wild | A |
Why is my heart so strangely stirred | A |
'Twas like the voice of our erring child | A |
Mother mother you only heard | A |
A waterfowl in the locked lagoon | D |
Out of the night a wounded bird | A |
Rest and sleep 'twill be morning soon | D |
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Who is it talks of sleeping I'll swear that somebody shook | Q |
Me hard by the arm for a moment but how on earth could it be | R |
See how my feet are moving awfully funny they look | Q |
Moving as if they belonged to a someone that wasn't me | R |
The wind down the night's long alley bowls me down like a pin | S |
I stagger and fall and stagger crawl arm deep in the snow | H |
Beaten back to my corner how can I hope to win | S |
And there is the blizzard waiting to give me the knockout blow | H |
Oh I'm so warm and sleepy No more hunger and pain | T |
Just to rest for a moment was ever rest such a joy | U |
Ha what was that I'll swear it somebody shook me again | V |
Somebody seemed to whisper Fight to the last my boy | U |
Fight That's right I must struggle I know that to rest means death | W |
Death but then what does death mean ease from a world of strife | X |
Life has been none too pleasant yet with my failing breath | W |
Still and still must I struggle fight for the gift of life | X |
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Seems that I must be dreaming Here is the old home trail | Y |
Yonder a light is gleaming oh I know it so well | Z |
The air is scented with clover the cattle wait by the rail | Y |
Father is through with the milking there goes the supper bell | Z |
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Mother your boy is crying out in the night and cold | A |
Let me in and forgive me I'll never be bad any more | A2 |
I'm oh so sick and so sorry please dear mother don't scold | A |
It's just your boy and he wants you Mother open the door | A2 |
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Father father I saw a face | B2 |
Pressed just now to the window pane | T |
Oh it gazed for a moment's space | B2 |
Wild and wan and was gone again | V |
Mother mother you saw the snow | H |
Drifted down from the maple tree | R |
Oh the wind that is sobbing so | H |
Weary and worn and old are we | R |
Only the snow and a wounded loon | D |
Rest and sleep 'twill be morning soon | D |
Robert William Service
(1)
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