The Scholars Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBBCC BBDEFF GGHIIJJKLLH MMMMMJJNNBBMM OOPPMM QQHHRR| Oh show me how a rose can shut and be a bud again | A |
| Nay watch my Lords of the Admiralty for they have the work in train | B |
| They have taken the men that were careless lads at Dartmouth in 'Fourteen | B |
| And entered them at the landward schools as though no war had been | B |
| They have piped the children off all the seas from the Falklands to the Bight | C |
| And quartered them on the Colleges to learn to read and write | C |
| - | |
| Their books were rain and sleet and fog the dry gale and the snow | B |
| Their teachers were the horned mines and the hump backed Death below | B |
| Their schools were walled by the walking mist and roofed by the waiting skies | D |
| When they conned their task in a new sown field with the Moonlight Sacrifice | E |
| They were not rated too young to teach nor reckoned unfit to guide | F |
| When they formed their class on Helles' beach at the bows of the River Clyde | F |
| - | |
| Their eyes are sunk by endless watch their faces roughed by the spray | G |
| Their feet are drawn by the wet sea boots they changed not night or day | G |
| When they guarded the six knot convoy's flank on the road to Norroway | H |
| Their ears are stuffed with the week long roar of the West Atlantic gale | I |
| When the sloops were watching the Irish Shore from Galway to Kinsale | I |
| Their hands are scored where the life lines cut or the dripping funnel stays | J |
| When they followed their leader at thirty knot between the Skaw and the Naze | J |
| Their mouths are filled with the magic words they learned at the collier's hatch | K |
| When they coaled in the foul December dawns and sailed in the forenoon watch | L |
| Or measured the weight of a Pentland tide and the wind off Ronaldshay | L |
| Till the target mastered the breathless tug and the hawser carried away | H |
| - | |
| They know the price to be paid for a fault for a gauge clock wrongly read | M |
| Or a picket boat to the gangway brought bows on and fullahead | M |
| Or the drowsy second's lack of thought that costs a dozen dead | M |
| They have touched a knowledge outreaching speech as when the cutters were sent | M |
| To harvest the dreadful mile of beach after the Vanguard went | M |
| They have learned great faith and little fear and a high heart in distress | J |
| And how to suffer each sodden year of heaped up weariness | J |
| They have borne the bridle upon their lips and the yoke upon their neck | N |
| Since they went down to the sea in ships to save the world from wreck | N |
| Since the chests were slung down the College stair at Dartmouth in 'Fourteen | B |
| And now they are quit of the sea affair as though no war had been | B |
| Far have they steamed and much have they known and most would they fain forget | M |
| But now they are come to their joyous own with all the world in their debt | M |
| - | |
| Soft blow soft on them little East Wind Be smooth for them mighty stream | O |
| Though the cams they use are not of your kind and they bump for choice by steam | O |
| Lightly dance with them Newnham maid but none too lightly believe | P |
| They are hot from the fifty month blockade and they carry their hearts on their sleeve | P |
| Tenderly Proctor let them down if they do not walk as they should | M |
| For by God if they owe you half a crown you owe 'em your four years' food | M |
| - | |
| Hallowed River most gracious Trees Chapel beyond compare | Q |
| Here be gentlemen sick of the seas take them into your care | Q |
| Far have they come much have they braved Give them their hour of play | H |
| While the hidden things their hands have saved work for them day by day | H |
| Till the grateful Past their youth redeemed return them their youth once more | R |
| And the Soul of the Child at last lets fall the unjust load that it bore | R |
Rudyard Kipling
(1)
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