The Black Sheep Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB CDCDEFGF HHH III JJJ KKK LLL MMM NNN III DDO PPP QQQ RRR STT LLL| The aristocratic ne'er do well in Canada frequently finds his way | A |
| into the ranks of the Royal North West Mounted Police Extract | B |
| - | |
| Hark to the ewe that bore him | C |
| What has muddied the strain | D |
| Never his brothers before him | C |
| Showed the hint of a stain | D |
| Hark to the tups and wethers | E |
| Hark to the old gray ram | F |
| We're all of us white but he's black as night | G |
| And he'll never be worth a damn | F |
| - | |
| I'm up on the bally wood pile at the back of the barracks yard | H |
| A damned disgrace to the force sir with a comrade standing guard | H |
| Making the bluff I'm busy doing my six months hard | H |
| - | |
| Six months hard and dismissed sir Isn't that rather hell | I |
| And all because of the liquor laws and the wiles of a native belle | I |
| Some hooch I gave to a siwash brave who swore that he wouldn't tell | I |
| - | |
| At least they say that I did it It's so in the town report | J |
| All that I can recall is a night of revel and sport | J |
| When I woke with a head in the guard room and they dragged me sick into court | J |
| - | |
| And the O C said You are guilty and I said never a word | K |
| For hang it you see I couldn't I didn't know what had occurred | K |
| And under the circumstances denial would be absurd | K |
| - | |
| But the one that cooked my bacon was Grubbe of the City Patrol | L |
| He fagged for my room at Eton and didn't I devil his soul | L |
| And now he is getting even landing me down in the hole | L |
| - | |
| Plugging away on the wood pile doing chores round the square | M |
| There goes an officer's lady gives me a haughty stare | M |
| Me that's an earl's own nephew that is the hardest to bear | M |
| - | |
| To think of the poor old mater awaiting her prodigal son | N |
| Tho' I broke her heart with my folly I was always the white haired one | N |
| That fatted calf that they're cooking will surely be overdone | N |
| - | |
| I'll go back and yarn to the Bishop I'll dance with the village belle | I |
| I'll hand round tea to the ladies and everything will be well | I |
| Where I have been won't matter what I have seen I won't tell | I |
| - | |
| I'll soar to their ken like a comet They'll see me with never a stain | D |
| But will they reform me far from it We pay for our pleasure with pain | D |
| But the dog will return to his vomit the hog to his wallow again | O |
| - | |
| I've chewed on the rind of creation and bitter I've tasted the same | P |
| Stacked up against hell and damnation I've managed to stay in the game | P |
| I've had my moments of sorrow I've had my seasons of shame | P |
| - | |
| That's past when one's nature's a cracked one it's too jolly hard to mend | Q |
| So long as the road is level so long as I've cash to spend | Q |
| I'm bound to go to the devil and it's all the same in the end | Q |
| - | |
| The bugle is sounding for stables the men troop off through the gloom | R |
| An orderly laying the tables sings in the bright mess room | R |
| I'll wash in the prison bucket and brush with the prison broom | R |
| - | |
| I'll lie in my cell and listen I'll wish that I couldn't hear | S |
| The laugh and the chaff of the fellows swigging the canteen beer | T |
| The nasal tone of the gramophone playing The Bandolier | T |
| - | |
| And it seems to me though it's misty that night of the flowing bowl | L |
| That the man who potlatched the whiskey and landed me into the hole | L |
| Was Grubble that unmerciful bounder Grubble of the City Patrol | L |
Robert William Service
(1)
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