A Message To America Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFG HHIIDDJJKLMMNNEEOOAA PPQRST UUVVWWXXQRIIYZ A2RWWB2C2D2D2E2E2F2F 2G2G2ZZH2H2I2J2K2K2L 2F2HH FGZZM2M2N2N2O2O2GGP2 P2ZZQ2Q2IIL2L2GGIIR2 R2S2S2P2P2 GGPPZZR2R2GG

You have the grit and the guts I knowA
You are ready to answer blow for blowA
You are virile combative stubborn hardB
But your honor ends with your own back yardB
Each man intent on his private goalC
You have no feeling for the wholeC
What singly none would tolerateD
You let unpunished hit the stateD
Unmindful that each man must shareE
The stain he lets his country wearE
And what no traveller ignoresF
That her good name is often yoursG
-
You are proud in the pride that feels its mightH
From your imaginary heightH
Men of another race or hueI
Are men of a lesser breed to youI
The neighbor at your southern gateD
You treat with the scorn that has bred his hateD
To lend a spice to your disrespectJ
You call him the greaser But reflectJ
The greaser has spat on you more than onceK
He has handed you multiple affrontsL
He has robbed you banished you burned and killedM
He has gone untrounced for the blood he spilledM
He has jeering used for his bootblack's ragN
The stars and stripes of the gringo's flagN
And you in the depths of your easy chairE
What did you do what did you careE
Did you find the season too cold and dampO
To change the counter for the campO
Were you frightened by fevers in MexicoA
I can't imagine but this I knowA
You are impassioned vastly moreP
By the news of the daily baseball scoreP
Than to hear that a dozen countrymenQ
Have perished somewhere in DarienR
That greasers have taken their innocent livesS
And robbed their holdings and raped their wivesT
-
Not by rough tongues and ready fistsU
Can you hope to jilt in the modern listsU
The armies of a littler folkV
Shall pass you under the victor's yokeV
Sobeit a nation that trains her sonsW
To ride their horses and point their gunsW
Sobeit a people that comprehendsX
The limit where private pleasure endsX
And where their public dues beginQ
A people made strong by disciplineR
Who are willing to give what you've no mind toI
And understand what you are blind toI
The things that the individualY
Must sacrifice for the good of allZ
-
You have a leader who knows the manA2
Most fit to be called AmericanR
A prophet that once in generationsW
Is given to point to erring nationsW
Brighter ideals toward which to pressB2
And lead them out of the wildernessC2
Will you turn your back on him once againD2
Will you give the tiller once more to menD2
Who have made your country the laughing stockE2
For the older peoples to scorn and mockE2
Who would make you servile despised and weakF2
A country that turns the other cheekF2
Who care not how bravely your flag may floatG2
Who answer an insult with a noteG2
Whose way is the easy way in allZ
And seeing that polished arms appalZ
Their marrow of milk fed pacifistH2
Would tell you menace does not existH2
Are these in the world's great parliamentI2
The men you would choose to representJ2
Your honor your manhood and your prideK2
And the virtues your fathers dignifiedK2
Oh bury them deeper than the seaL2
In universal obloquyF2
Forget the ground where they lie or writeH
For epitaph Too proud to fightH
-
I have been too long from my country's shoresF
To reckon what state of mind is yoursG
But as for myself I know right wellZ
I would go through fire and shot and shellZ
And face new perils and make my bedM2
In new privations if ROOSEVELT ledM2
But I have given my heart and handN2
To serve in serving another landN2
Ideals kept bright that with you are dimO2
Here men can thrill to their country's hymnO2
For the passion that wells in the MarseillaiseG
Is the same that fires the French these daysG
And when the flag that they love goes byP2
With swelling bosom and moistened eyeP2
They can look for they know that it floats there stillZ
By the might of their hands and the strength of their willZ
And through perils countless and trials unknownQ2
Its honor each man has made his ownQ2
They wanted the war no more than youI
But they saw how the certain menace grewI
And they gave two years of their youth or threeL2
The more to insure their libertyL2
When the wrath of rifles and pennoned spearsG
Should roll like a flood on their wrecked frontiersG
They wanted the war no more than youI
But when the dreadful summons blewI
And the time to settle the quarrel cameR2
They sprang to their guns each man was gameR2
And mark if they fight not to the lastS2
For their hearths their altars and their pastS2
Yea fight till their veins have been bled dryP2
For love of the country that WILL not dieP2
-
O friends in your fortunate present easeG
Yet faced by the self same facts as theseG
If you would see how a race can soarP
That has no love but no fear of warP
How each can turn from his private roleZ
That all may act as a perfect wholeZ
How men can live up to the place they claimR2
And a nation jealous of its good nameR2
Be true to its proud inheritanceG
Oh look over here and learn from FRANCEG

Alan Seeger



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