Champagne (1914-15) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB BCBC DEFE AGAG ABAB AHAH BBBB IAIA JAJA KLKL EMEM GNGN BOBO APAP AAAA ABAB EAEA E| In the glad revels in the happy fetes | A |
| When cheeks are flushed and glasses gilt and pearled | B |
| With the sweet wine of France that concentrates | A |
| The sunshine and the beauty of the world | B |
| - | |
| Drink sometimes you whose footsteps yet may tread | B |
| The undisturbed delightful paths of Earth | C |
| To those whose blood in pious duty shed | B |
| Hallows the soil where that same wine had birth | C |
| - | |
| Here by devoted comrades laid away | D |
| Along our lines they slumber where they fell | E |
| Beside the crater at the Ferme d'Alger | F |
| And up the bloody slopes of La Pompelle | E |
| - | |
| And round the city whose cathedral towers | A |
| The enemies of Beauty dared profane | G |
| And in the mat of multicolored flowers | A |
| That clothe the sunny chalk fields of Champagne | G |
| - | |
| Under the little crosses where they rise | A |
| The soldier rests Now round him undismayed | B |
| The cannon thunders and at night he lies | A |
| At peace beneath the eternal fusillade | B |
| - | |
| That other generations might possess | A |
| From shame and menace free in years to come | H |
| A richer heritage of happiness | A |
| He marched to that heroic martyrdom | H |
| - | |
| Esteeming less the forfeit that he paid | B |
| Than undishonored that his flag might float | B |
| Over the towers of liberty he made | B |
| His breast the bulwark and his blood the moat | B |
| - | |
| Obscurely sacrificed his nameless tomb | I |
| Bare of the sculptor's art the poet's lines | A |
| Summer shall flush with poppy fields in bloom | I |
| And Autumn yellow with maturing vines | A |
| - | |
| There the grape pickers at their harvesting | J |
| Shall lightly tread and load their wicker trays | A |
| Blessing his memory as they toil and sing | J |
| In the slant sunshine of October days | A |
| - | |
| I love to think that if my blood should be | K |
| So privileged to sink where his has sunk | L |
| I shall not pass from Earth entirely | K |
| But when the banquet rings when healths are drunk | L |
| - | |
| And faces that the joys of living fill | E |
| Glow radiant with laughter and good cheer | M |
| In beaming cups some spark of me shall still | E |
| Brim toward the lips that once I held so dear | M |
| - | |
| So shall one coveting no higher plane | G |
| Than nature clothes in color and flesh and tone | N |
| Even from the grave put upward to attain | G |
| The dreams youth cherished and missed and might have known | N |
| - | |
| And that strong need that strove unsatisfied | B |
| Toward earthly beauty in all forms it wore | O |
| Not death itself shall utterly divide | B |
| From the beloved shapes it thirsted for | O |
| - | |
| Alas how many an adept for whose arms | A |
| Life held delicious offerings perished here | P |
| How many in the prime of all that charms | A |
| Crowned with all gifts that conquer and endear | P |
| - | |
| Honor them not so much with tears and flowers | A |
| But you with whom the sweet fulfilment lies | A |
| Where in the anguish of atrocious hours | A |
| Turned their last thoughts and closed their dying eyes | A |
| - | |
| Rather when music on bright gatherings lays | A |
| Its tender spell and joy is uppermost | B |
| Be mindful of the men they were and raise | A |
| Your glasses to them in one silent toast | B |
| - | |
| Drink to them amorous of dear Earth as well | E |
| They asked no tribute lovelier than this | A |
| And in the wine that ripened where they fell | E |
| Oh frame your lips as though it were a kiss | A |
| - | |
| - | |
| Champagne France July | E |
Alan Seeger
(1)
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