The Rowers Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBC DEFE GHGH IJKJ LMLM LDND LOLO LLLL LPLP QRSR PITLWhen Germany proposed that England should help her in a naval demonstration to collect debts from Venezuela | A |
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The banked oars fell an hundred strong | B |
And backed and threshed and ground | C |
But bitter was the rowers' song | B |
As they brought the war boat round | C |
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They had no heart for the rally and roar | D |
That makes the whale bath smoke | E |
When the great blades cleave and hold and leave | F |
As one on the racing stroke | E |
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They sang What reckoning do you keep | G |
And steer by what star | H |
If we come unscathed from the Southern deep | G |
To be wrecked on a Baltic bar | H |
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quot Last night you swore our voyage was done | I |
But seaward still we go | J |
And you tell us now of a secret vow | K |
You have made with an open foe | J |
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quot That we must lie off a lightless coast | L |
And houl and back and veer | M |
At the will of the breed that have wrought us most | L |
For a year and a year and a year | M |
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quot There was never a shame in Christendie | L |
They laid not to our door | D |
And you say we must take the winter sea | N |
And sail with them once more | D |
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quot Look South The gale is scarce o'erpast | L |
That stripped and laid us down | O |
When we stood forth but they stood fast | L |
And prayed to see us drown | O |
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quot Our dead they mocked are scarcely cold | L |
Our wounds are bleeding yet | L |
And you tell us now that our strength is sold | L |
To help them press for a debt | L |
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quot 'Neath all the flags of all mankind | L |
That use upon the seas | P |
Was there no other fleet to find | L |
That you strike bands with these | P |
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quot Of evil times that men can choose | Q |
On evil fate to fall | R |
What brooding Judgment let you loose | S |
To pick the worst of all | R |
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quot In sight of peace from the Narrow Seas | P |
O'er half the world to run | I |
With a cheated crew to league anew | T |
With the Goth and the shameless Hun quot | L |
Rudyard Kipling
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