Langemarck At Ypres Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCB DEBE FGHG IJKLJ MNON BAPA AQKQBQ KRSR TUVU WRXR PYAY ZA2AA2 BEA2E BEB2E C2XD2X BKE2KF2K BG2H2I2G2 B2J2EK2 L2EG2E M2B2N2B2 O2G2CG2 AABA P2Q2AAQ2 L2B2R2R2B2 ABCB

This is the ballad of LangemarckA
A story of glory and mightB
Of the vast Hun horde and Canada s partC
In the great grim fightB
-
It was April fair on the Flanders FieldsD
But the dreadest April thenE
That ever the years in their fateful flightB
Had brought to this world of menE
-
North and east a monster wallF
The mighty Hun ranks layG
With fort on fort and iron ringed trenchH
Menacing grim and grayG
-
And south and west like a serpent of fireI
Serried the British linesJ
And in between the dying and deadK
And the stench of blood and the trampled mudL
On the fair sweet Belgian vinesJ
-
And far to the eastward harnessed and tautM
Like a scimitar shining and keenN
Gleaming out of that ominous gloomO
Old France s hosts were seenN
-
When out of the grim Hun lines one nightB
There rolled a sinister smokeA
A strange weird cloud like a pale green shroudP
And death lurked in its cloakA
-
On a fiend like wind it curled alongA
Over the brave French ranksQ
Like a monster tree its vapours spreadK
In hideous burning banksQ
Of poisonous fumes that scorched the nightB
With their sulphurous demon danksQ
-
And men went mad with horror and fledK
From that terrible strangling deathR
That seemed to sear both body and soulS
With its baleful flaming breathR
-
Till even the little dark men of the southT
Who feared neither God nor manU
Those fierce wild fighters of Afric s steppesV
Broke their battalions and ranU
-
Ran as they never had run beforeW
Gasping and fainting for breathR
For they knew t was no human foe that slewX
And that hideous smoke meant deathR
-
Then red in the reek of that evil cloudP
The Hun swept over the plainY
And the murderer s dirk did its monster workA
Mid the scythe like shrapnel rainY
-
Till it seemed that at last the brute Hun hordesZ
Had broken that wall of steelA2
And that soon through this breach in the freeman s dykeA
His trampling hosts would wheelA2
-
And sweep to the south in ravaging mightB
And Europe s peoples againE
Be trodden under the tyrant s heelA2
Like herds in the Prussian penE
-
But in that line on the British rightB
There massed a corps amainE
Of men who hailed from a far west landB2
Of mountain and forest and plainE
-
Men new to war and its dreadest deedsC2
But noble and staunch and trueX
Men of the open East and WestD2
Brew of old Britain s brewX
-
These were the men out there that nightB
When Hell loomed close aheadK
Who saw that pitiful hideous routE2
And breathed those gases dreadK
While some went under and some went madF2
But never a man there fledK
-
For the word was Canada theirs to fightB
And keep on fighting stillG2
Britain said fight and fight they wouldH2
Though the Devil himself in sulphurous moodI2
Came over that hideous hillG2
-
Yea stubborn they stood that hero bandB2
Where no soul hoped to liveJ2
For five gainst eighty thousand menE
Were hopeless odds to giveK2
-
Yea fought they on T was Friday eveL2
When that demon gas drove downE
T was Saturday eve that saw them stillG2
Grimly holding their ownE
-
Sunday Monday saw them yetM2
A steadily lessening bandB2
With no surrender in their heartsN2
But the dream of a far off landB2
-
Where mother and sister and love would weepO2
For the hushed heart lying stillG2
But never a thought but to do their partC
And work the Empire s willG2
-
Ringed round hemmed in and back to backA
They fought there under the darkA
And won for Empire God and RightB
At grim red LangemarckA
-
Wonderful battles have shaken this worldP2
Since the Dawn God overthrew DisQ2
Wonderful struggles of right against wrongA
Sung in the rhymes of the world s great songA
But never a greater than thisQ2
-
Bannockburn Inkerman BalaclavaL2
Marathon s godlike standB2
But never a more heroic deedR2
And never a greater warrior breedR2
In any war man s landB2
-
This is the ballad of LangemarckA
A story of glory and mightB
Of the vast Hun horde and Canada s partC
In the great grim fightB

William Wilfred Campbell



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