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 EIn 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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Champagne France July | E |
Alan Seeger
(1)
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