Gentlmen-rankers Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDEDFGFHIIIG CJCJKLIL MNMNCOPO QRQRCSCSFGFHIIIG| To the legion of the lost ones to the cohort of the damned | A |
| To my brethren in their sorrow overseas | B |
| Sings a gentleman of England cleanly bred machinely crammed | A |
| And a trooper of the Empress if you please | B |
| Yea a trooper of the forces who has run his own six horses | C |
| And faith he went the pace and went it blind | D |
| And the world was more than kin while he held the ready tin | E |
| But to day the Sergeant's something less than kind | D |
| We're poor little lambs who've lost our way | F |
| Baa Baa Baa | G |
| We're little black sheep who've gone astray | F |
| Baa aa aa | H |
| Gentlemen rankers out on the spree | I |
| Damned from here to Eternity | I |
| God ha' mercy on such as we | I |
| Baa Yah Bah | G |
| - | |
| Oh it's sweet to sweat through stables sweet to empty kitchen slops | C |
| And it's sweet to hear the tales the troopers tell | J |
| To dance with blowzy housemaids at the regimental hops | C |
| And thrash the cad who says you waltz too well | J |
| Yes it makes you cock a hoop to be Rider to your troop | K |
| And branded with a blasted worsted spur | L |
| When you envy O how keenly one poor Tommy living cleanly | I |
| Who blacks your boots and sometimes calls you Sir | L |
| - | |
| If the home we never write to and the oaths we never keep | M |
| And all we know most distant and most dear | N |
| Across the snoring barrack room return to break our sleep | M |
| Can you blame us if we soak ourselves in beer | N |
| When the drunken comrade mutters and the great guard lantern gutters | C |
| And the horror of our fall is written plain | O |
| Every secret self revealing on the aching white washed ceiling | P |
| Do you wonder that we drug ourselves from pain | O |
| - | |
| We have done with Hope and Honour we are lost to Love and Truth | Q |
| We are dropping down the ladder rung by rung | R |
| And the measure of our torment is the measure of our youth | Q |
| God help us for we knew the worst too young | R |
| Our shame is clean repentance for the crime that brought the sentence | C |
| Our pride it is to know no spur of pride | S |
| And the Curse of Reuben holds us till an alien turf enfolds us | C |
| And we die and none can tell Them where we died | S |
| We're poor little lambs who've lost our way | F |
| Baa Baa Baa | G |
| We're little black sheep who've gone astray | F |
| Baa aa aa | H |
| Gentlemen rankers out on the spree | I |
| Damned from here to Eternity | I |
| God ha' mercy on such as we | I |
| Baa Yah Bah | G |
Rudyard Kipling
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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