The Ballad Of The Black Fox Skin Poem Rhyme Scheme

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I	A
	-
There was Claw fingered Kitty and Windy Ike living the life of shame	B
When unto them in the Long Long Night came the man who had no name	B
Bearing his prize of a black fox pelt out of the Wild he came	B
	-
His cheeks were blanched as the flume head foam when the brown spring freshets flow	C
Deep in their dark sin calcined pits were his sombre eyes aglow	C
They knew him far for the fitful man who spat forth blood on the snow	C
	-
Did ever you see such a skin quoth he there's nought in the world so fine	D
Such fullness of fur as black as the night such lustre such size such shine	D
It's life to a one lunged man like me it's London it's women it's wine	D
	-
The Moose hides called it the devil fox and swore that no man could kill	E
That he who hunted it soon or late must surely suffer some ill	E
But I laughed at them and their old squaw tales Ha Ha I'm laughing still	E
	-
For look ye the skin it's as smooth as sin and black as the core of the Pit	F
By gun or by trap whatever the hap I swore I would capture it	F
By star and by star afield and afar I hunted and would not quit	F
	-
For the devil fox it was swift and sly and it seemed to fleer at me	G
I would wake in fright by the camp fire light hearing its evil glee	G
Into my dream its eyes would gleam and its shadow would I see	G
	-
It sniffed and ran from the ptarmigan I had poisoned to excess	H
Unharmed it sped from my wrathful lead 'twas as if I shot by guess	H
Yet it came by night in the stark moonlight to mock at my weariness	I
	-
I tracked it up where the mountains hunch like the vertebrae of the world	J
I tracked it down to the death still pits where the avalanche is hurled	J
From the glooms to the sacerdotal snows where the carded clouds are curled	J
	-
From the vastitudes where the world protrudes through clouds like seas up shoaled	J
I held its track till it led me back to the land I had left of old	J
The land I had looted many moons I was weary and sick and cold	J
	-
I was sick soul sick of the futile chase and there and then I swore	K
The foul fiend fox might scathless go for I would hunt no more	K
Then I rubbed mine eyes in a vast surprise it stood by my cabin door	K
	-
A rifle raised in the wraith like gloom and a vengeful shot that sped	J
A howl that would thrill a cream faced corpse and the demon fox lay dead	J
Yet there was never a sign of wound and never a drop he bled	J
	-
So that was the end of the great black fox and here is the prize I've won	L
And now for a drink to cheer me up I've mushed since the early sun	L
We'll drink a toast to the sorry ghost of the fox whose race is run	L
	-
II	A
	-
Now Claw fingered Kitty and Windy Ike bad as the worst were they	M
In their road house down by the river trail they waited and watched for prey	M
With wine and song they joyed night long and they slept like swine by day	M
	-
For things were done in the Midnight Sun that no tongue will ever tell	N
And men there be who walk earth free but whose names are writ in hell	N
Are writ in flames with the guilty names of Fournier and Labelle	N
	-
Put not your trust in a poke of dust would ye sleep the sleep of sin	O
For there be those who would rob your clothes ere yet the dawn comes in	O
And a prize likewise in a woman's eyes is a peerless black fox skin	O
	-
Put your faith in the mountain cat if you lie within his lair	P
Trust the fangs of the mother wolf and the claws of the lead ripped bear	P
But oh of the wiles and the gold tooth smiles of a dance hall wench beware	P
	-
Wherefore it was beyond all laws that lusts of man restrain	Q
A man drank deep and sank to sleep never to wake again	R
And the Yukon swallowed through a hole the cold corpse of the slain	Q
	-
III	A
	-
The black fox skin a shadow cast from the roof nigh to the floor	K
And sleek it seemed and soft it gleamed and the woman stroked it o'er	S
And the man stood by with a brooding eye and gnashed his teeth and swore	K
	-
When thieves and thugs fall out and fight there's fell arrears to pay	M
And soon or late sin meets its fate and so it fell one day	M
That Claw fingered Kitty and Windy Ike fanged up like dogs at bay	M
	-
The skin is mine all mine she cried I did the deed alone	T
It's share and share with a guilt yoked pair he hissed in a pregnant tone	T
And so they snarled like malamutes over a mildewed bone	T
	-
And so they fought by fear untaught till haply it befell	N
One dawn of day she slipped away to Dawson town to sell	N
The fruit of sin this black fox skin that had made their lives a hell	N
	-
She slipped away as still he lay she clutched the wondrous fur	S
Her pulses beat her foot was fleet her fear was as a spur	S
She laughed with glee she did not see him rise and follow her	S
	-
The bluffs uprear and grimly peer far over Dawson town	U
They see its lights a blaze o' nights and harshly they look down	U
They mock the plan and plot of man with grim ironic frown	U
	-
The trail was steep 'twas at the time when swiftly sinks the snow	C
All honey combed the river ice was rotting down below	C
The river chafed beneath its rind with many a mighty throe	S
	-
And up the swift and oozy drift a woman climbed in fear	S
Clutching to her a black fox fur as if she held it dear	S
And hard she pressed it to her breast then Windy Ike drew near	S
	-
She made no moan her heart was stone she read his smiling face	V
And like a dream flashed all her life's dark horror and disgrace	V
A moment only with a snarl he hurled her into space	V
	-
She rolled for nigh an hundred feet she bounded like a ball	W
From crag to crag she carromed down through snow and timber fall	W
A hole gaped in the river ice the spray flashed that was all	W
	-
A bird sang for the joy of spring so piercing sweet and frail	X
And blinding bright the land was dight in gay and glittering mail	X
And with a wondrous black fox skin a man slid down the trail	X
	-
IV	-
	-
A wedge faced man there was who ran along the river bank	Y
Who stumbled through each drift and slough and ever slipped and sank	Y
And ever cursed his Maker's name and ever hooch he drank	Y
	-
He travelled like a hunted thing hard harried sore distrest	M
The old grandmother moon crept out from her cloud quilted nest	M
The aged mountains mocked at him in their primeval rest	M
	-
Grim shadows diapered the snow the air was strangely mild	M
The valley's girth was dumb with mirth the laughter of the wild	M
The still sardonic laughter of an ogre o'er a child	M
	-
The river writhed beneath the ice it groaned like one in pain	Q
And yawning chasms opened wide and closed and yawned again	R
And sheets of silver heaved on high until they split in twain	Q
	-
From out the road house by the trail they saw a man afar	S
Make for the narrow river reach where the swift cross currents are	S
Where frail and worn the ice is torn and the angry waters jar	S
	-
But they did not see him crash and sink into the icy flow	C
They did not see him clinging there gripped by the undertow	C
Clawing with bleeding finger nails at the jagged ice and snow	C
	-
They found a note beside the hole where he had stumbled in	O
Here met his fate by evil luck a man who lived in sin	O
And to the one who loves me least I leave this black fox skin	O
	-
And strange it is for though they searched the river all around	M
No trace or sign of black fox skin was ever after found	M
Though one man said he saw the tread of HOOFS deep in the ground	M

Robert William Service

The Ballad Of The Black Fox Skin Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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