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 ABABABThere's a widow in sleepy Chester | A |
Who weeps for her only son | B |
There's a grave on the Pabeng River | A |
A grave that the Burmans shun | B |
And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri | A |
Who tells how the work was done | B |
- | |
A Snider squibbed in the jungle | C |
Somebody laughed and fled | D |
And the men of the First Shikaris | E |
Picked up their Subaltern dead | D |
With a big blue mark in his forehead | D |
And the back blown out of his head | D |
- | |
Subadar Prag Tewarri | A |
Jemadar Hira Lal | F |
Took command of the party | G |
Twenty rifles in all | H |
Marched them down to the river | A |
As the day was beginning to fall | H |
- | |
They buried the boy by the river | A |
A blanket over his face | E |
They wept for their dead Lieutenant | I |
The men of an alien race | E |
They made a samadh in his honor | A |
A mark for his resting place | E |
- | |
For they swore by the Holy Water | A |
They swore by the salt they ate | J |
That the soul of Lieutenant Eshmitt Sahib | K |
Should go to his God in state | J |
With fifty file of Burman | B |
To open him Heaven's gate | J |
- | |
The men of the First Shikaris | E |
Marched till the break of day | L |
Till they came to the rebel village | M |
The village of Pabengmay | N |
A jingal covered the clearing | O |
Calthrops hampered the way | L |
- | |
Subadar Prag Tewarri | A |
Bidding them load with ball | H |
Halted a dozen rifles | E |
Under the village wall | H |
Sent out a flanking party | G |
With Jemadar Hira Lal | F |
- | |
The men of the First Shikaris | E |
Shouted and smote and slew | P |
Turning the grinning jingal | P |
On to the howling crew | P |
The Jemadar's flanking party | G |
Butchered the folk who flew | P |
- | |
Long was the morn of slaughter | A |
Long was the list of slain | Q |
Five score heads were taken | B |
Five score heads and twain | Q |
And the men of the First Shikaris | E |
Went back to their grave again | R |
- | |
Each man bearing a basket | S |
Red as his palms that day | L |
Red as the blazing village | M |
The village of Pabengmay | N |
And the quot drip drip drip quot from the baskets | E |
Reddened the grass by the way | L |
- | |
They made a pile of their trophies | E |
High as a tall man's chin | T |
Head upon head distorted | U |
Set in a sightless grin | T |
Anger and pain and terror | A |
Stamped on the smoke scorched skin | T |
- | |
Subadar Prag Tewarri | A |
Put the head of the Boh | K |
On the top of the mound of triumph | V |
The head of his son below | P |
With the sword and the peacock banner | A |
That the world might behold and know | P |
- | |
Thus the samadh was perfect | W |
Thus was the lesson plain | Q |
Of the wrath of the First Shikaris | E |
The price of a white man slain | Q |
And the men of the First Shikaris | E |
Went back into camp again | R |
- | |
Then a silence came to the river | A |
A hush fell over the shore | A |
And Bohs that were brave departed | U |
And Sniders squibbed no more | A |
For he Burmans said | D |
That a kullah's head | D |
Must be paid for with heads five score | A |
- | |
There's a widow in sleepy Chester | A |
Who weeps for her only son | B |
There's a grave on the Pabeng River | A |
A grave that the Burmans shun | B |
And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri | A |
Who tells how the work was done | B |
Rudyard Kipling
(1)
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