The Ballad Of Gum-boot Ben Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ KKGL MMNN OOPP BBQQ RREE SSDD DDTT DDUU| He was an old prospector with a vision bleared and dim | A |
| He asked me for a grubstake and the same I gave to him | A |
| He hinted of a hidden trove and when I made so bold | B |
| To question his veracity this is the tale he told | B |
| - | |
| I do not seek the copper streak nor yet the yellow dust | C |
| I am not fain for sake of gain to irk the frozen crust | C |
| Let fellows gross find gilded dross far other is my mark | D |
| Oh gentle youth this is the truth I go to seek the Ark | D |
| - | |
| I prospected the Pelly bed I prospected the White | E |
| The Nordenscold for love of gold I piked from morn till night | E |
| Afar and near for many a year I led the wild stampede | F |
| Until I guessed that all my quest was vanity and greed | F |
| - | |
| Then came I to a land I knew no man had ever seen | G |
| A haggard land forlornly spanned by mountains lank and lean | G |
| The nitchies said 'twas full of dread of smoke and fiery breath | H |
| And no man dare put foot in there for fear of pain and death | H |
| - | |
| But I was made all unafraid so careless and alone | I |
| Day after day I made my way into that land unknown | I |
| Night after night by camp fire light I crouched in lonely thought | J |
| Oh gentle youth this is the truth I knew not what I sought | J |
| - | |
| I rose at dawn I wandered on 'Tis somewhat fine and grand | K |
| To be alone and hold your own in God's vast awesome land | K |
| Come woe or weal 'tis fine to feel a hundred miles between | G |
| The trails you dare and pathways where the feet of men have been | L |
| - | |
| And so it fell on me a spell of wander lust was cast | M |
| The land was still and strange and chill and cavernous and vast | M |
| And sad and dead and dull as lead the valleys sought the snows | N |
| And far and wide on every side the ashen peaks arose | N |
| - | |
| The moon was like a silent spike that pierced the sky right through | O |
| The small stars popped and winked and hopped in vastitudes of blue | O |
| And unto me for company came creatures of the shade | P |
| And formed in rings and whispered things that made me half afraid | P |
| - | |
| And strange though be 'twas borne on me that land had lived of old | B |
| And men had crept and slain and slept where now they toiled for gold | B |
| Through jungles dim the mammoth grim had sought the oozy fen | Q |
| And on his track all bent of back had crawled the hairy men | Q |
| - | |
| And furthermore strange deeds of yore in this dead place were done | R |
| They haunted me as wild and free I roamed from sun to sun | R |
| Until I came where sudden flame uplit a terraced height | E |
| A regnant peak that seemed to seek the coronal of night | E |
| - | |
| I scaled the peak my heart was weak yet on and on I pressed | S |
| Skyward I strained until I gained its dazzling silver crest | S |
| And there I found with all around a world supine and stark | D |
| Swept clean of snow a flat plateau and on it lay the Ark | D |
| - | |
| Yes there I knew by two and two the beasts did disembark | D |
| And so in haste I ran and traced in letters on the Ark | D |
| My human name Ben Smith's the same And now I want to float | T |
| A syndicate to haul and freight to town that noble boat | T |
| - | |
| I met him later in a bar and made a gay remark | D |
| Anent an ancient miner and an option on the Ark | D |
| He gazed at me reproachfully as only topers can | U |
| But what he said I can't repeat he was a bad old man | U |
Robert William Service
(1)
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