The Guides At Cabul Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABBCC DEDEEFF GHGHHII JKLK MM NONOOP QRQRRSS| Sons of the Island race wherever ye dwell | A |
| Who speak of your fathers' battles with lips that burn | B |
| The deed of an alien legion hear me tell | A |
| And think not shame from the hearts ye tamed to learn | B |
| When succour shall fail and the tide for a season turn | B |
| To fight with joyful courage a passionate pride | C |
| To die at last as the Guides of Cabul died | C |
| - | |
| For a handful of seventy men in a barrack of mud | D |
| Foodless waterless dwindling one by one | E |
| Answered a thousand yelling for English blood | D |
| With stormy volleys that swept them gunner from gun | E |
| And charge on charge in the glare of the Afghan sun | E |
| Till the walls were shattered wherein they couched at bay | F |
| And dead or dying half of the seventy lay | F |
| - | |
| Twice they had taken the cannon that wrecked their hold | G |
| Twice toiled in vain to drag it back | H |
| Thrice they toiled and alone wary and bold | G |
| Whirling a hurricane sword to scatter the rack | H |
| Hamilton last of the English covered their track | H |
| 'Never give in ' he cried and he heard them shout | I |
| And grappled with death as a man that knows not doubt | I |
| - | |
| And the Guides looked down from their smouldering barrack again | J |
| And behold a banner of truce and a voice that spoke | K |
| 'Come for we know that the English all are slain | L |
| We keep no feud with men of a kindred folk | K |
| Rejoice with us to be free of the conqueror's yolk ' | - |
| Silence fell for a moment then was heard | M |
| A sound of laughter and scorn and an answering word | M |
| - | |
| 'Is it we or the lords we serve who have earned this wrong | N |
| That ye call us to flinch from the battle they bade us fight | O |
| We that live do ye doubt that our hands are strong | N |
| They that are fallen ye know that their blood was bright | O |
| Think ye the Guides will barter for lust of the light | O |
| The pride of an ancient people in warfare bred | P |
| Honour of comrades living and faith to the dead ' | - |
| - | |
| Then the joy that spurs the warrior's heart | Q |
| To the last thundering gallop and sheer leap | R |
| Came on the men of the Guides they flung apart | Q |
| The doors not all their valour could longer keep | R |
| They dressed their slender line they breathed deep | R |
| And with never a foot lagging or head bent | S |
| To the clash and clamour and dust of death they went | S |
Sir Henry Newbolt
(1)
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