Through Liberty To Light Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAB AC DDBB EEFFGH IIJJAA KKLLMM AAAAANN AAOAPPB QQAAR SSTTU AAVVW AAAXAY AAZZAMFixed is my Faith the lingering dawn despite | A |
That still we move through Liberty to Light | A |
The Human Tragedy | B |
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When God out of chaos primeval divided the day from the night | A |
And moved on the face of the waters ordaining | C |
Let there be Light '' | - |
And commanded the creatures that perish to people wave wood and wind | D |
Then fashioned Man after His image and gave him the godlike mind | D |
He said I the Lord now make you lord of the earth and the air and sea | B |
And I lend you My will to work My will and now behold you are free | B |
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Free to be strong or feeble free to be false or true | E |
To withhold you from evil doing or what I shall ban to do | E |
Free to be crooked and craven or fearless and frank and brave | F |
To love as yourself your brother or make him your bond and slave | F |
To hallow the world with freedom or fetter your fellow men | G |
But as you shall do at the Judgment Day My | H |
Justice will judge you then '' | - |
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Then the sons of men multiplied gladly and proud of the boon of birth | I |
They teemed over main and mountain to the uttermost bounds of earth | I |
They built up cities and Empires Common wealth Throne and State | J |
And some were pillared on force and fraud and some upon fear and hate | J |
For the strong cared but to enjoy their strength the mighty to use their might | A |
And the vanquished were lashed to the victor's car wherever his sword could smite | A |
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But out of the mist of the Northern Sea a blended race arose | K |
Whose blood was warmed by the wind and the wave and braced by the Winter snows | K |
A race with the wisdom of long linked years yet the hopeful heart of youth | L |
Who hated the lie and the liar and dared both to speak and hear the truth | L |
Who loved the Light for the Light's own sake and as none but who love it can | M |
Kept the Torch of Liberty still aflame and passed it from man to man | M |
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And they circled the sea and they girded the earth and they spread round the rounded world | A |
And the sound of their clarions never ceased and never their flag was furled | A |
And wherever those shrilled or this was seen men sprang to their feet and cried | A |
Now the Tyrant shall quake on his throne for fear and the lash no more be plied | A |
For the winds of Justice propel their sails and | A |
Liberty steers their keel | N |
And none but the lawless shall tremble now and none but the haughty kneel | N |
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At home in their white cliffed green grassed | A |
Isle where the woods and the waters meet | A |
The King is honoured upon his throne and the | O |
Judge revered in his seat | A |
And each man's own is his own to keep and safe from the robber's clutch | P |
And the lowliest hearth hath sacred rights nor sceptre nor sword dare touch | P |
And as it doth on the Northern strand so it doth in the Southern sea | B |
And it says as God said to Man at birth And now behold you are free ''' | - |
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But apart in the Southern sea there dwelt a race though of Northern strain | Q |
With narrow foreheads and narrower hearts who cherished the thong and chain | Q |
So long as these left their own limbs free to do as their brute wills list | A |
To fetter and flog the sons of Ham and to tether the stranger's wrist | A |
Boasting Rather than not be free to make these hew for us delve and drudge | R |
Let the hellhounds of War be all unleashed and the battle bolts be judge '' | - |
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Then the Land of the Northern mist waxed wroth and said Now their hour has come | S |
Too long to their deeds have mine ears been deaf too long my voice been dumb | S |
I will wrench the rod from their boorish grasp their lash will I snatch and seize | T |
Till low on their knees they grovel down and for mercy clasp my knees | T |
They have called on the sword they shall bide by the sword and mine will I never sheathe | U |
Till to dwellers in darkness it bring the Light and Freedom to all who breathe '' | - |
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Then manly to tender kissed farewell but never a tear was shed | A |
And over the wave and along with the wind to the Southern zone they sped | A |
The roughly nurtured the gently bred all bound on the self same track | V |
To storm the steeps and defiles of death but never to turn them back | V |
And their sons that on Austral or Western shores exult in their sires' renown | W |
Shouted Barrel and blade we'll come to you and gallop the despots down '' | - |
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Shame shame on you Gaul and Teuton that seeing this noble deed | A |
You have hardened your hearts for envy and been false to your vaunted Creed | A |
Should juggle with truth should welcome the lie should garble and gird for spite | A |
Pray Heaven to favour the tyrants' cause pray | X |
Heaven to hinder the Light | A |
Hark hark to the greeting of free born men from the Land of the Setting Sun | Y |
God prosper you dear old England It is rightly and nobly done '' | - |
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Wherever our sails have quivered wherever our keels have ploughed | A |
We have carried the Flag of Freedom unfurled it from mast and shroud | A |
It hath weathered the storm of battle it guardeth the paths of peace | Z |
And will watch over Right both day and night till the day and the night shall cease | Z |
And while there's a chain to shatter and while there's a wrong to right | A |
Its watchword shall be God's gift to man | M |
Through Liberty on to Light '' | - |
Alfred Austin
(1)
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