The Lost Legion Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABACABABA DEAEFGBBBB HIBIAJKJBJ JDADBJLJBJ BMBMNBABJB BABADJAJBJDJOJLJThere's a Legion that never was 'listed | A |
That carries no colours or crest | A |
But split in a thousand detachments | B |
Is breaking the road for the rest | A |
Our fathers they left us their blessing | C |
They taught us and groomed us and crammed | A |
But we've shaken the Clubs and the Messes | B |
To go and find out and be damned | A |
Dear boys | B |
To go and get shot and be damned | A |
- | |
So some of us chivy the slaver | D |
And some of us cherish the black | E |
And some of us hunt on the Oil Coast | A |
And some on the Wallaby track | E |
And some of us drift to Sarawak | F |
And some of us drift up The Fly | G |
And some share our tucker with tigers | B |
And some with the gentle Masai | B |
Dear boys | B |
Take tea with the giddy Masai | B |
- | |
We've painted The Islands vermilion | H |
We've pearled on half shares in the Bay | I |
We've shouted on seven ounce nuggets | B |
We've starved on a Seedeeboy's pay | I |
We've laughed at the world as we found it | A |
Its women and cities and men | J |
From Sayyid Burgash in a tantrum | K |
To the smoke reddened eyes of Loben | J |
Dear boys | B |
We've a little account with Loben | J |
- | |
The ends o' the Earth were our portion | J |
The ocean at large was our share | D |
There was never a skirmish to windward | A |
But the Leaderless Legion was there | D |
Yes somehow and somewhere and always | B |
We were first when the trouble began | J |
From a lottery row in Manila | L |
To an I D B race on the Pan | J |
Dear boys | B |
With the Mounted Police on the Pan | J |
- | |
We preach in advance of the Army | B |
We skirmish ahead of the Church | M |
With never a gunboat to help us | B |
When we're scuppered and left in the lurch | M |
But we know as the cartridges finish | N |
And we're filed on our last little shelves | B |
That the Legion that never was 'listed | A |
Will send us as good as ourselves | B |
Good men | J |
Five hundred as good as ourselves | B |
- | |
Then a health we must drink it in whispers | B |
To our wholly unauthorised horde | A |
To the line of our dusty foreloopers | B |
The Gentlemen Rovers abroad | A |
Yes a health to ourselves ere we scatter | D |
For the steamer won't wait for the train | J |
And the Legion that never was 'listed | A |
Goes back into quarters again | J |
'Regards | B |
Goes back under canvas again | J |
Hurrah | D |
The swag and the billy again | J |
Here's how | O |
The trail and the packhorse again | J |
Salue | L |
The trek and the laager again | J |
Rudyard Kipling
(2)
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