The Ballad Of The Northern Lights Poem Rhyme Scheme

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One of the Down and Out that's me Stare at me well ay stare	A
Stare and shrink say you wouldn't think that I was a millionaire	A
Look at my face it's crimped and gouged one of them death mask things	B
Don't seem the sort of man do I as might be the pal of kings	B
Slouching along in smelly rags a bleary eyed no good bum	C
A knight of the hollow needle pard spewed from the sodden slum	C
Look me all over from head to foot how much would you think I was worth	D
A dollar a dime a nickel Why I'm the wealthest man on earth	D
	-
No don't you think that I'm off my base You'll sing a different tune	E
If only you'll let me spin my yarn Come over to this saloon	E
Wet my throat it's as dry as chalk and seeing as how it's you	F
I'll tell the tale of a Northern trail and so help me God it's true	F
I'll tell of the howling wilderness and the haggard Arctic heights	G
Of a reckless vow that I made and how I staked the Northern Lights	G
	-
Remember the year of the Big Stampede and the trail of Ninety eight	H
When the eyes of the world were turned to the North and the hearts of men elate	H
Hearts of the old dare devil breed thrilled at the wondrous strike	I
And to every man who could hold a pan came the message Up and hike	I
Well I was there with the best of them and I knew I would not fail	J
You wouldn't believe it to see me now but wait till you've heard my tale	J
	-
You've read of the trail of Ninety eight but its woe no man may tell	K
It was all of a piece and a whole yard wide and the name of the brand was Hell	K
We heard the call and we staked our all we were plungers playing blind	L
And no man cared how his neighbor fared and no man looked behind	L
For a ruthless greed was born of need and the weakling went to the wall	M
And a curse might avail where a prayer would fail and the gold lust crazed us all	M
	-
Bold were we and they called us three the Unholy Trinity	N
There was Ole Olson the Sailor Swede and the Dago Kid and me	N
We were the discards of the pack the foreloopers of Unrest	O
Reckless spirits of fierce revolt in the ferment of the West	O
We were bound to win and we revelled in the hardships of the way	P
We staked our ground and our hopes were crowned and we hoisted out the pay	P
We were rich in a day beyond our dreams it was gold from the grass roots down	Q
But we weren't used to such sudden wealth and there was the siren town	Q
We were crude and careless frontiersmen with much in us of the beast	R
We could bear the famine worthily but we lost our heads at the feast	R
The town looked mighty bright to us with a bunch of dust to spend	S
And nothing was half too good them days and everyone was our friend	S
Wining meant more than mining then and life was a dizzy whirl	T
Gambling and dropping chunks of gold down the neck of a dance hall girl	T
Till we went clean mad it seems to me and we squandered our last poke	U
And we sold our claim and we found ourselves one bitter morning broke	U
	-
The Dago Kid he dreamed a dream of his mother's aunt who died	V
In the dawn light dim she came to him and she stood by his bedside	V
And she said Go forth to the highest North till a lonely trail ye find	L
Follow it far and trust your star and fortune will be kind	L
But I jeered at him and then there came the Sailor Swede to me	N
And he said I dreamed of my sister's son who croaked at the age of three	N
From the herded dead he sneaked and said Seek you an Arctic trail	J
'Tis pale and grim by the Polar rim but seek and ye shall not fail '	-
And lo that night I too did dream of my mother's sister's son	W
And he said to me By the Arctic Sea there's a treasure to be won	W
Follow and follow a lone moose trail till you come to a valley grim	X
On the slope of the lonely watershed that borders the Polar brim	X
Then I woke my pals and soft we swore by the mystic Silver Flail	J
'Twas the hand of Fate and to morrow straight we would seek the lone moose trail	J
	-
We watched the groaning ice wrench free crash on with a hollow din	Y
Men of the wilderness were we freed from the taint of sin	Y
The mighty river snatched us up and it bore us swift along	Z
The days were bright and the morning light was sweet with jewelled song	Z
We poled and lined up nameless streams portaged o'er hill and plain	A2
We burnt our boat to save the nails and built our boat again	B2
We guessed and groped North ever North with many a twist and turn	C2
We saw ablaze in the deathless days the splendid sunsets burn	C2
O'er soundless lakes where the grayling makes a rush at the clumsy fly	D2
By bluffs so steep that the hard hit sheep falls sheer from out the sky	D2
By lilied pools where the bull moose cools and wallows in huge content	E2
By rocky lairs where the pig eyed bears peered at our tiny tent	E2
Through the black canyon's angry foam we hurled to dreamy bars	F2
And round in a ring the dog nosed peaks bayed to the mocking stars	F2
Spring and summer and autumn went the sky had a tallow gleam	G2
Yet North and ever North we pressed to the land of our Golden Dream	G2
	-
So we came at last to a tundra vast and dark and grim and lone	H2
And there was the little lone moose trail and we knew it for our own	H2
By muskeg hollow and nigger head it wandered endlessly	N
Sorry of heart and sore of foot weary men were we	N
The short lived sun had a leaden glare and the darkness came too soon	E
And stationed there with a solemn stare was the pinched anaemic moon	E
Silence and silvern solitude till it made you dumbly shrink	I2
And you thought to hear with an outward ear the things you thought to think	I2
	-
Oh it was wild and weird and wan and ever in camp o' nights	G
We would watch and watch the silver dance of the mystic Northern Lights	G
And soft they danced from the Polar sky and swept in primrose haze	J2
And swift they pranced with their silver feet and pierced with a blinding blaze	J2
They danced a cotillion in the sky they were rose and silver shod	K2
It was not good for the eyes of man 'twas a sight for the eyes of God	K2
It made us mad and strange and sad and the gold whereof we dreamed	L2
Was all forgot and our only thought was of the lights that gleamed	L2
	-
Oh the tundra sponge it was golden brown and some was a bright blood red	M2
And the reindeer moss gleamed here and there like the tombstones of the dead	M2
And in and out and around about the little trail ran clear	N2
And we hated it with a deadly hate and we feared with a deadly fear	N2
And the skies of night were alive with light with a throbbing thrilling flame	O2
Amber and rose and violet opal and gold it came	O2
It swept the sky like a giant scythe it quivered back to a wedge	P2
Argently bright it cleft the night with a wavy golden edge	P2
Pennants of silver waved and streamed lazy banners unfurled	Q2
Sudden splendors of sabres gleamed lightning javelins were hurled	Q2
There in our awe we crouched and saw with our wild uplifted eyes	R2
Charge and retire the hosts of fire in the battlefield of the skies	R2
	-
But all things come to an end at last and the muskeg melted away	P
And frowning down to bar our path a muddle of mountains lay	P
And a gorge sheered up in granite walls and the moose trail crept betwixt	S2
'Twas as if the earth had gaped too far and her stony jaws were fixt	S2
Then the winter fell with a sudden swoop and the heavy clouds sagged low	T2
And earth and sky were blotted out in a whirl of driving snow	T2
	-
We were climbing up a glacier in the neck of a mountain pass	U2
When the Dago Kid slipped down and fell into a deep crevasse	U2
When we got him out one leg hung limp and his brow was wreathed with pain	A2
And he says 'Tis badly broken boys and I'll never walk again	B2
It's death for all if ye linger here and that's no cursed lie	D2
Go on go on while the trail is good and leave me down to die	D2
He raved and swore but we tended him with our uncouth clumsy care	A
The camp fire gleamed and he gazed and dreamed with a fixed and curious stare	A
Then all at once he grabbed my gun an	V2

Robert William Service

The Ballad Of The Northern Lights Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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