The Grave Of The Hundred Heads Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABAB CDEDDD AFGHAH AEIEAE AJKJBJ ELMNOL AHEHGF EPPPGP AQBQER SLMNEL ETUTAT AKVPAP WQEQER AAUADDA ABABAB

There's a widow in sleepy ChesterA
Who weeps for her only sonB
There's a grave on the Pabeng RiverA
A grave that the Burmans shunB
And there's Subadar Prag TewarriA
Who tells how the work was doneB
-
A Snider squibbed in the jungleC
Somebody laughed and fledD
And the men of the First ShikarisE
Picked up their Subaltern deadD
With a big blue mark in his foreheadD
And the back blown out of his headD
-
Subadar Prag TewarriA
Jemadar Hira LalF
Took command of the partyG
Twenty rifles in allH
Marched them down to the riverA
As the day was beginning to fallH
-
They buried the boy by the riverA
A blanket over his faceE
They wept for their dead LieutenantI
The men of an alien raceE
They made a samadh in his honorA
A mark for his resting placeE
-
For they swore by the Holy WaterA
They swore by the salt they ateJ
That the soul of Lieutenant Eshmitt SahibK
Should go to his God in stateJ
With fifty file of BurmanB
To open him Heaven's gateJ
-
The men of the First ShikarisE
Marched till the break of dayL
Till they came to the rebel villageM
The village of PabengmayN
A jingal covered the clearingO
Calthrops hampered the wayL
-
Subadar Prag TewarriA
Bidding them load with ballH
Halted a dozen riflesE
Under the village wallH
Sent out a flanking partyG
With Jemadar Hira LalF
-
The men of the First ShikarisE
Shouted and smote and slewP
Turning the grinning jingalP
On to the howling crewP
The Jemadar's flanking partyG
Butchered the folk who flewP
-
Long was the morn of slaughterA
Long was the list of slainQ
Five score heads were takenB
Five score heads and twainQ
And the men of the First ShikarisE
Went back to their grave againR
-
Each man bearing a basketS
Red as his palms that dayL
Red as the blazing villageM
The village of PabengmayN
And the quot drip drip drip quot from the basketsE
Reddened the grass by the wayL
-
They made a pile of their trophiesE
High as a tall man's chinT
Head upon head distortedU
Set in a sightless grinT
Anger and pain and terrorA
Stamped on the smoke scorched skinT
-
Subadar Prag TewarriA
Put the head of the BohK
On the top of the mound of triumphV
The head of his son belowP
With the sword and the peacock bannerA
That the world might behold and knowP
-
Thus the samadh was perfectW
Thus was the lesson plainQ
Of the wrath of the First ShikarisE
The price of a white man slainQ
And the men of the First ShikarisE
Went back into camp againR
-
Then a silence came to the riverA
A hush fell over the shoreA
And Bohs that were brave departedU
And Sniders squibbed no moreA
For he Burmans saidD
That a kullah's headD
Must be paid for with heads five scoreA
-
There's a widow in sleepy ChesterA
Who weeps for her only sonB
There's a grave on the Pabeng RiverA
A grave that the Burmans shunB
And there's Subadar Prag TewarriA
Who tells how the work was doneB

Rudyard Kipling



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