Playing At Soldiers Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCDDE FFBGGB HHAHHA IIJKKJ LLMNNM OOPQQP RRHSSH KKFKKF HHKTTK DDPKKP UUHHHH HHVWWV XXTKKT YYRFFR HHKHHK ZZA2HHA2| Who'll serve the King | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| What little urchin is there never | B |
| Hath had that early scarlet fever | B |
| Of martial trappings caught | C |
| Trappings well call'd because they trap | D |
| And catch full many a country chap | D |
| To go where fields are fought | E |
| - | |
| What little urchin with a rag | F |
| Hath never made a little flag | F |
| Our plate will show the manner | B |
| And wooed each tiny neighbor still | G |
| Tommy or Harry Dick or Will | G |
| To come beneath the banner | B |
| - | |
| Just like that ancient shape of mist | H |
| In Hamlet crying 'List oh 'list | H |
| Come who will serve the king | A |
| And strike frog eating Frenchmen dead | H |
| And cut off Bonyparty's head | H |
| And all that sort of thing | A |
| - | |
| So used I when I was a boy | I |
| To march with military toy | I |
| And ape the soldier's life | J |
| And with a whistle or a hum | K |
| I thought myself a Duke of Drum | K |
| At least or Earl of Fife | J |
| - | |
| With gun of tin and sword of lath | L |
| Lord how I walk'd in glory's path | L |
| With regimental mates | M |
| By sound of trump and rub a dubs | N |
| To 'siege the washhouse charge the tubs | N |
| Or storm the garden gates | M |
| - | |
| Ah me my retrospective soul | O |
| As over memory's muster roll | O |
| I cast my eyes anew | P |
| My former comrades all the while | Q |
| Rise up before me rank and file | Q |
| And form in dim review | P |
| - | |
| Ay there they stand and dress in line | R |
| Lubbock and Fenn and David Vine | R |
| And dark Jamaeky Forde | H |
| And limping Wood and Cockey Hawes | S |
| Our captain always made because | S |
| He had a real sword | H |
| - | |
| Long Lawrence Natty Smart and Soame | K |
| Who said he had a gun at home | K |
| But that was all a brag | F |
| Ned Ryder too that used to sham | K |
| A prancing horse and big Sam Lamb | K |
| That would hold up the flag | F |
| - | |
| Tom Anderson and Dunny White | H |
| Who never right abouted right | H |
| For he was deaf and dumb | K |
| Jack Pike Jem Crack and Sandy Gray | T |
| And Dickey Bird that wouldn't play | T |
| Unless he had the drum | K |
| - | |
| And Peter Holt and Charley Jepp | D |
| A chap that never kept the step | D |
| No more did Surly Hugh | P |
| Bob Harrington and Fighting Jim | K |
| We often had to halt for him | K |
| To let him tie his shoe | P |
| - | |
| Quarrelsome Scott and Martin Dick | U |
| That kill'd the bantam cock to stick | U |
| The plumes within his hat | H |
| Bill Hook and little Tommy Grout | H |
| That got so thump'd for calling out | H |
| Eyes right to Squinting Matt | H |
| - | |
| Dan Simpson that with Peter Dodd | H |
| Was always in the awkward squad | H |
| And those two greedy Blakes | V |
| That took our money to the fair | W |
| To buy the corps a trumpet there | W |
| And laid it out in cakes | V |
| - | |
| Where are they now an open war | X |
| With open mouth declaring for | X |
| Or fall'n in bloody fray | T |
| Compell'd to tell the truth I am | K |
| Their fights all ended with the sham | K |
| Their soldiership in play | T |
| - | |
| Brave Soame sends cheeses out in trucks | Y |
| And Martin sells the cock he plucks | Y |
| And Jepp now deals in wine | R |
| Harrington bears a lawyer's bag | F |
| And warlike Lamb retains his flag | F |
| But on a tavern sign | R |
| - | |
| They tell me Cockey Hawes's sword | H |
| Is seen upon a broker's board | H |
| And as for Fighting Jim | K |
| In Bishopsgate last Whitsuntide | H |
| His unresisting cheek I spied | H |
| Beneath a Quaker brim | K |
| - | |
| Quarrelsome Scott is in the church | Z |
| For Ryder now your eye must search | Z |
| The marts of silk and lace | A2 |
| Bird's drums are filled with figs and mute | H |
| And I I've got a substitute | H |
| To Soldier in my place | A2 |
Thomas Hood
(1)
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About Playing At Soldiers
Playing At Soldiers is a poem by Thomas Hood. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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