"What are the bugles blowin' for?" said Files-on-Parade. In a grim question-and-answer ballad, a regiment is forced to watch one of its own soldiers hanged at dawn. This free worksheet has Kipling's full poem with numbered lines, vocabulary, five discussion questions, a writing prompt and an answer key. No signup needed.
Grades 9–12 · Common Core RL.9-10.5, RL.9-10.4, RL.9-10.3 · US Letter PDF, with an answer key on the last page
What’s on the worksheet
"Danny Deever" was published in 1890 and collected in Barrack-Room Ballads (1892). It is a ballad told almost entirely as dialogue between a young soldier (Files-on-Parade) and an older Colour-Sergeant, with a refrain ending "in the mornin'". Danny is executed for shooting a comrade in his sleep.
Vocabulary
- bugles: brass horns used to give army signals
- Dead March: a funeral march
- 'ollow square: a hollow square formation of troops
- stripes: badges of rank on a uniform
- comrade: fellow soldier
- disgrace: shame
- quickstep: a fast marching tune
- recruits: new soldiers
Discussion questions
- Who are the two speakers, and how are their attitudes different?
- What crime did Danny commit? Quote the line.
- Why does the Colour-Sergeant say the men "must look 'im in the face"?
- What does "What's that so black agin' the sun?" describe?
- How does the final stanza's change from "hangin'" to "done with" affect the mood?
Writing prompt
Write a diary entry from Files-on-Parade on the night after the hanging.
The answer key is included in the PDF, on its own page for teachers.