The Passing Of 'boss' Shepherd Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDDEEFF GGHHHIIJJKLMMNNMOM PQ AACCRRGGSSTT UUVVAAWWCC XXYYZZA2A2LK| The sullen church bell's intermittent moan | A |
| The dirge's melancholy monotone | A |
| The measured march the drooping flags attest | B |
| A great man's progress to his place of rest | B |
| Along broad avenues himself decreed | C |
| To serve his fellow men's disputed need | C |
| Past parks he raped away from robbers' thrift | D |
| And gave to poverty wherein to lift | D |
| Its voice to curse the giver and the gift | D |
| Past noble structures that he reared for men | E |
| To meet in and revile him tongue and pen | E |
| Draws the long retinue of death to show | F |
| The fit credentials of a proper woe | F |
| - | |
| 'Boss' Shepherd you are dead Your hand no more | G |
| Throws largess to the mobs that ramp and roar | G |
| For blood of benefactors who disdain | H |
| Their purity of purpose to explain | H |
| Their righteous motive and their scorn of gain | H |
| Your period of dream 'twas but a breath | I |
| Is closed in the indifference of death | I |
| Sealed in your silences to you alike | J |
| If hands are lifted to applaud or strike | J |
| No more to your dull inattentive ear | K |
| Praise of to day than curse of yesteryear | L |
| From the same lips the honied phrases fall | M |
| That still are bitter from cascades of gall | M |
| We note the shame you in your depth of dark | N |
| The red writ testimony cannot mark | N |
| On every honest cheek your senses all | M |
| Locked incommunicado in your pall | O |
| Know not who sit and blush who stand and bawl | M |
| - | |
| 'Seven Grecian cities claim great Homer dead | P |
| Through which the living Homer begged his | Q |
| bread ' | - |
| So sang as if the thought had been his own | A |
| An unknown bard improving on a known | A |
| 'Neglected genius ' that is sad indeed | C |
| But malice better would ignore than heed | C |
| And Shepherd's soul we rightly may suspect | R |
| Prayed often for the mercy of neglect | R |
| When hardly did he dare to leave his door | G |
| Without a guard behind him and before | G |
| To save him from the gentlemen that now | S |
| In cheap and easy reparation bow | S |
| Their corrigible heads above his corse | T |
| To counterfeit a grief that's half remorse | T |
| - | |
| The pageant passes and the exile sleeps | U |
| And well his tongue the solemn secret keeps | U |
| Of the great peace he found afar until | V |
| Death's writ of extradition to fulfill | V |
| They brought him helpless from that friendly zone | A |
| To be a show and pastime in his own | A |
| A final opportunity to those | W |
| Who fling with equal aim the stone and rose | W |
| That at the living till his soul is freed | C |
| This at the body to conceal the deed | C |
| - | |
| Lone on his hill he's lying to await | X |
| What added honors may befit his state | X |
| The monument the statue or the arch | Y |
| Where knaves may come to weep and dupes to march | Y |
| Builded by clowns to brutalize the scenes | Z |
| His genius beautified To get the means | Z |
| His newly good traducers all are dunned | A2 |
| For contributions to the conscience fund | A2 |
| If each subscribe and pay one cent 'twill rear | L |
| A structure taller than their tallest ear | K |
Ambrose Bierce
(1)
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The Passing Of 'boss' Shepherd is a poem by Ambrose Bierce. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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