The Rear-guard Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCC DEDE FGGFHIHIJJK KCKKCCB| Hindenburg Line April | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| Groping along the tunnel step by step | B |
| He winked his prying torch with patching glare | C |
| From side to side and sniffed the unwholesome air | C |
| - | |
| Tins boxes bottles shapes too vague to know | D |
| A mirror smashed the mattress from a bed | E |
| And he exploring fifty feet below | D |
| The rosy gloom of battle overhead | E |
| - | |
| Tripping he grabbed the wall saw some one lie | F |
| Humped at his feet half hidden by a rug | G |
| And stooped to give the sleeper's arm a tug | G |
| I'm looking for headquarters No reply | F |
| God blast your neck For days he'd had no sleep | H |
| Get up and guide me through this stinking place | I |
| Savage he kicked a soft unanswering heap | H |
| And flashed his beam across the livid face | I |
| Terribly glaring up whose eyes yet wore | J |
| Agony dying hard ten days before | J |
| And fists of fingers clutched a blackening wound | K |
| - | |
| Alone he staggered on until he found | K |
| Dawn's ghost that filtered down a shafted stair | C |
| To the dazed muttering creatures underground | K |
| Who hear the boom of shells in muffled sound | K |
| At last with sweat of horror in his hair | C |
| He climbed through darkness to the twilight air | C |
| Unloading hell behind him step by step | B |
Siegfried Sassoon
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