The Cemetary Of Eylau Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCDEEEEFFEEG GHHIIA EEJ E EEEEE KLLM C NN EOPAAQQR SSEE EEEEEEEETUVVEEWWEEXX YYEEGGEEZOAAEEFJKKAA N KKEEEE WJA2IIVVB2B2C2C2EEXX D2D2C2 E2F FF2F2G2G2EEH2H2I2I2J 2K2L2L2FFQQM2M2EEEEM 2GE2E2GGN2N2EE EEMMO2O2P2P2Q2VR2This to my elder brothers schoolboys gay | A |
Was told by Uncle Louis on a day | A |
He bid me play with tender voice and bland | B |
Thinking me still too young to understand | B |
Howe'er I listened and his tale was this | C |
'A battle Bah and know you what it is | D |
A deal of smoke You rise at dawn and late | E |
You go to bed Here's one that I'll relate | E |
The battle is called Eylau As I wot | E |
I then was captain and the Cross had got | E |
Yes I was captain after all in war | F |
Man but a shadow is and does not score | F |
But ne'er mind me Eylau you understand | E |
Is part of Prussia water wood and land | E |
Ice winter everywhere and rain and snow | G |
- | |
'Well we were camped a ruined wall below | G |
And round the ancient belfry tombs appear | H |
B nigssens' tactics were first to come near | H |
Then fly The Emperor such arts disdains | I |
And the snow whitened over all the plains | I |
Spy glass in hand Napoleon passed our way | A |
The guard declared 'To morrow is the day ' | - |
Old men and women fled in troops confused | E |
With children I looked on the graves and mused | E |
The night fires lit and colonel bending o'er | J |
Cried 'Hugo ' Here ' 'How many men ' 'Six score ' | - |
'Well your entire company take round | E |
And there get killed ' 'Where ' 'In the burial ground ' | - |
I answered 'Apter place you could not find ' | - |
I had my flask we drank an icy wind | E |
Blew He said 'Captain death is close at hand | E |
Life's pleasant 'tis a thing you understand | E |
But none dies better than your jolly blade | E |
I give my heart but sell my skin ' he said | E |
'Let's woman toast your post's the worst of all ' | - |
Our colonel oft a merry jest let fall | K |
He adds 'The foe from ditch and wall keep back | L |
Stay there 'tis rather open to attack | L |
This graveyard of the battle is the key | M |
Keep it ' 'We will ' 'Some straw will handy be ' | - |
'We've none ' 'Sleep on the ground Now tell me this | C |
Your drummer is he brave ' 'As Barra is ' | - |
'Good Let him blindly madly sound the charge | N |
Noise must be great when numbers are not large | N |
D'ye hear you little scamp what you are bid ' | - |
'Yes Captain ' said the grinning child half hid | E |
In snow and rime The colonel then went on | O |
'The battle will be fought with guns alone | P |
I myself like cold steel and hate the way | A |
In which the dastard shells are made to slay | A |
Valiant the sword the shell's a traitor Well | Q |
The emperor sees to that Naught more to tell | Q |
And so good bye The post you will not leave | R |
Nor budge a foot till six to morrow eve ' | - |
The colonel left I cried 'Right turn ' and thence | S |
We soon all entered in that narrow fence | S |
Grass walled around a church amid the sod | E |
In gloom and o'er the graves the Blessed God | E |
- | |
'A sombre yard with many a snowy plate | E |
Looked somewhat like the sea We crenolate | E |
The wall I order all things and decide | E |
The ambulance shall 'neath the cross abide | E |
'We'll sup then rest ' I said Snow lay about | E |
Our clothes mere rags 'Tis very fine no doubt | E |
But still unpleasant when the weather's bad | E |
I made my pillow of a grave and had | E |
My feet benumbed my boots had lost their sole | T |
And captain soon and soldier cheek by jowl | U |
No longer stirred each sleeping o'er a corse | V |
So soldiers sleep they neither know remorse | V |
Pity nor fear not being in command | E |
And frozen by the snow or burnt by sand | E |
They sleep Besides fighting keen joy supplies | W |
I said 'Good night ' and then I shut my eyes | W |
War has no time for pantomimes inept | E |
It snowed the sky was sullen and we slept | E |
Some tools we found and made a mighty flame | X |
My drummer poked it up and to me came | X |
To cast the reckoning as best he can | Y |
Sons a great soldier was the little man | Y |
The crucifix looked like a gibbet vast | E |
The snow still fell the fire died out at last | E |
For how long time it was we slumbered so | G |
I say the devil take me if I know | G |
Soundly we slept In sleep is death rehears'd | E |
'Tis good in war I was right cold at first | E |
Then dreamt and fancied many a skeleton | Z |
And spectre that great epaulets had on | O |
Slowly though I upon my pillow lay | A |
I had a feeling as of coming day | A |
My lids though closed a sense of radiance found | E |
Sudden through sleep a deep and sullen sound | E |
Roused me 'twas like a cannon's distant roar | F |
I woke and something white was gathered o'er | J |
My eyes The snow with soft and gentle fall | K |
During the silent night had wrapped us all | K |
In shrouds I start and shake the snow away | A |
A bullet coming whence I cannot say | A |
Awoke me quite I bid it pass at large | N |
And cried 'Drummer get up and sound the charge ' | - |
- | |
'Then six score heads as isles from ocean all | K |
Rose from the snow the sergeant sounds the call | K |
The dawn then rose red and with joyance glad | E |
As 'twere a bloody mouth with smiling clad | E |
My thoughts ran to my mother and the wind | E |
Seemed whispering to me 'Oft in war we find | E |
That with the rise of day death too doth rise ' | - |
I mused at first around all quiet lies | W |
Those cannon shots only as signals were | J |
Before the ball at times some bars we hear | A2 |
Some prelude dancing with unmeaning strains | I |
The night had clogged the blood within our veins | I |
But coming battle made it hotly course | V |
The army 'gainst us came in all its force | V |
We held the key A handful were my men | B2 |
On whom the shells like woodman's axe were then | B2 |
About to rage I wished myself elsewhere | C2 |
My men to skirmish by the wall with care | C2 |
I placed who confidence and solace found | E |
In hoped promotion bought by grievous wound | E |
In war you confront death to clutch at fame | X |
My young lieutenant from St Cyr who came | X |
Said to me 'Morn how sweet a thing I think | D2 |
How charming the sun's rays The snow is pink | D2 |
Captain all laughs and shines How fresh the air | C2 |
How white the fields how peaceful pure and fair ' | - |
I answered 'Soon 'twill all to horror change ' | - |
My thought were of the Rhine the Alpine range | E2 |
The Adige and our dreadful wars of yore | F |
- | |
'The battle burst six hundred throats and more | F |
Enormous belching forth the fire that fills | F2 |
Their mouths together clamoured from the hills | F2 |
All the whole plain one smoking gulf was seen | G2 |
My drummer beat the charge with fury keen | G2 |
With cannons mixed the trumpets proudly sound | E |
And the shells rained upon our burial ground | E |
As if they wished to kill the very grave | H2 |
The rooks desert the tower theirs lives to save | H2 |
I recollect a shell burst in the earth | I2 |
And the corpse started rose form out his berth | I2 |
As if man's racket woke him in the tomb | J2 |
Then the fog hid the sunshine Ball and bomb | K2 |
Produced a noise dread inconceivable | L2 |
Berthier Prince of the Empire Vice Constable | L2 |
Charged on our right a Hanoverian corps | F |
With thirty squadrons These you saw no more | F |
Save the thickest darkest mist starred o'er by shell | Q |
So wholly had the strife and battle fell | Q |
Within that tragic mist been lost to view | M2 |
A cloud fallen on the earth spread round and grew | M2 |
From smoke which myriad cannons vomited | E |
Children 'twas under this the armies bled | E |
Soft as the down floated the snow that night | E |
Good faith we killed each other as we might | E |
We did our best The dark and ruins through | M2 |
I saw my men like shadows come and go | G |
Ghosts like espaliers which on walls you range | E2 |
The field brought to me musings deep and strange | E2 |
Phantoms above and the still dead below | G |
Some blazing cottages at distance glow | G |
The fog through which was heard the mountain horn | N2 |
E'en thicker than before was towards us borne | N2 |
We now saw nothing but our burial ground | E |
We had the wall at mid day for our bound | E |
- | |
As by a great black hand so by the night | E |
We were enclosed and all things fade from sight | E |
Our church some seagirt rock appeared to be | M |
The bullets through the fog too closely see | M |
They keep us company crushed the church roof | O2 |
And shattered the stone cross and gave us proof | O2 |
That we were not alone on that dread plain | P2 |
We hungered but no soup at hand 'tis vain | P2 |
To look for food in such a place And worse | Q2 |
The hail of balls fell with redoubled force | V |
Bullets are a | R2 |
Victor Marie Hugo
(1)
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