Ballad Of The Army Carts Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGEHIIJKLEBBGMN OIPQEQRQS| The carts squeak and trundle the horses whinny the conscripts go by each | A |
| with a bow and arrows at his waist Their fathers mothers wives and children | B |
| run along beside them to see them off The Hsien yang Bridge cannot be seen for | C |
| dust They pluck at the men's clothes stamp their feet or stand in the way | D |
| weeping The sound of their weeping seems to mount up to the blue sky above A | E |
| passer by questions the conscripts and the conscripts reply | F |
| They're always mobilizing now There are some of us who went north at | G |
| fifteen to garrison the River and who are still at forty being sent to the | E |
| Military Settlements in the west When we left as lads the village headman had | H |
| to tie our head cloths for us We came back white haired but still we have to | I |
| go back for frontier duty On those frontier posts enough blood has flowed to | I |
| fill the sea but the Martial Emperor's dreams of expansion remain unsatisfied | J |
| Haven't you heard sir in our land of Han throughout the two hundred | K |
| prefectures east of the mountains briers and brambles are growing in thousands | L |
| of little hamlets and though many a sturdy wife turns her own hand at the | E |
| hoeing and ploughing the crops grow just anywhere and you can't see where one | B |
| field ends and the next begins And it's even worse for the men from Ch'in | B |
| Because they make such good fighters they are driven about this way and that | G |
| like so many dogs or chickens | M |
| Though you are good enough to ask us sir it's not for the likes of | N |
| us to complain But take this winter now The Kuan hsi troops are not being | O |
| demobilized The District Officers press for the land tax but where is it to | I |
| come from I really believe it's a misfortune to have sons It's actually | P |
| better to have a daughter If you have a daughter you can at least marry her | Q |
| off to one of the neighbors but a son is born only to end up lying in the | E |
| grass somewhere dead and unburied Why look sir on the shores of the Kokonor | Q |
| the bleached bones have lain for many a long year but no one has ever gathered | R |
| them up The new ghosts complain and the old ghosts weep and under the grey | Q |
| and dripping sky the air is full of their baleful twitterings '' | S |
Tu Fu
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