Funk

Robert William Service 1874 – 1958



When your marrer bone seems 'oller,
And you're glad you ain't no taller,
    And you're all a-shakin' like you 'ad the chills;
When your skin creeps like a pullet's,
And you're duckin' all the bullets,
    And you're green as gorgonzola round the gills;
When your legs seem made of jelly,
And you're squeamish in the belly,
    And you want to turn about and do a bunk:
For Gawd's sake, kid, don't show it!
Don't let your mateys know it --
    You're just sufferin' from funk, funk, funk.

Of course there's no denyin'
That it ain't so easy tryin'
    To grin and grip your rifle by the butt,
When the 'ole world rips asunder,
And you sees yer pal go under,
    As a bunch of shrapnel sprays 'im on the nut;
I admit it's 'ard contrivin'
When you 'ears the shells arrivin',
    To discover you're a bloomin' bit o' spunk;
But, my lad, you've got to do it,
And your God will see you through it,
    For wot 'E 'ates is funk, funk, funk.

So stand up, son; look gritty,
And just 'um a lively ditty,
    And only be afraid to be afraid;
Just 'old yer rifle steady,
And 'ave yer bay'nit ready,
    For that's the way good soldier-men is made.
And if you 'as to die,
As it sometimes 'appens, why,
    Far better die a 'ero than a skunk;
A-doin' of yer bit,
And so -- to 'ell with it,
    There ain't no bloomin' funk, funk, funk.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:20 min read
63

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBXBCCDEED FFGAAGFFDEED CCHCCHIIDEED
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,294
Words 249
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 12, 12, 12

Robert William Service

Robert William Service was a poet and writer sometimes referred to as the Bard of the Yukon He is best-known for his writings on the Canadian North including the poems The Shooting of Dan McGrew The Law of the Yukon and The Cremation of Sam McGee His writing was so expressive that his readers took him for a hard-bitten old Klondike prospector not the later-arriving bank clerk he actually was Robert William Service was born 16 January 1874 in Preston England but also lived in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1894 Service went to the Yukon Territory in 1904 as a bank clerk and became famous for his poems about this region which are mostly in his first two books of poetry He wrote quite a bit of prose as well and worked as a reporter for some time but those writings are not nearly as well known as his poems He travelled around the world quite a bit and narrowly escaped from France at the beginning of the Second World War during which time he lived in Hollywood California He died 11 September 1958 in France Incidentally he played himself in a movie called The Spoilers starring John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich more…

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