The Countersign Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAACDCD EFEFAGAG HIHIJKJK LMLMNONO PQPQPAPA LRLRSTUT VMV WAWA XAXAYMYYAlas the weary hours pass slow | A |
The night is very dark and still | B |
And in the marshes far below | A |
I hear the bearded whippoorwill | A |
I scarce can see a yard ahead | C |
My ears are strained to catch each sound | D |
I hear the leaves about me shed | C |
And the spring's bubbling through the ground | D |
- | |
Along the beaten path I pace | E |
Where white rags mark my sentry's track | F |
In formless shrubs I seem to trace | E |
The foeman's form with bending back | F |
I think I see him crouching low | A |
I stop and list I stoop and peer | G |
Until the neighboring hillocks grow | A |
To groups of soldiers far and near | G |
- | |
With ready piece I wait and watch | H |
Until my eyes familiar grown | I |
Detect each harmless earthen notch | H |
And turn guerillas into stone | I |
And then amid the lonely gloom | J |
Beneath the tall old chestnut trees | K |
My silent marches I resume | J |
And think of other times than these | K |
- | |
Sweet visions through the silent night | L |
The deep bay windows fringed with vine | M |
The room within in softened light | L |
The tender milk white hand in mine | M |
The timid pressure and the pause | N |
That often overcame our speech | O |
That time when by mysterious laws | N |
We each felt all in all to each | O |
- | |
And then that bitter bitter day | P |
When came the final hour to part | Q |
When clad in soldier's honest gray | P |
I pressed her weeping to my heart | Q |
Too proud of me to bid me stay | P |
Too fond of me to let me go | A |
I had to tear myself away | P |
And left her stolid in my woe | A |
- | |
So rose the dream so passed the night | L |
When distant in the darksome glen | R |
Approaching up the sombre height | L |
I heard the solid march of men | R |
Till over stubble over sward | S |
And fields where lay the golden sheaf | T |
I saw the lantern of the guard | U |
Advancing with the night relief | T |
- | |
'Halt Who goes there ' My challenge cry | V |
It rings along the watchful line | M |
'Relief ' I hear a voice reply | V |
'Advance and give the countersign ' | - |
With bayonet at the charge I wait | W |
The corporal gives the mystic spell | A |
With arms aport I charge my mate | W |
Then onward pass and all is well | A |
- | |
But in the tent that night awake | X |
I ask if in the fray I fall | A |
Can I the mystic answer make | X |
When the angelic sentries call | A |
And pray that Heaven may so ordain | Y |
Where'er I go what fate be mine | M |
Whether in pleasure or in pain | Y |
I still may have the countersign | Y |
Anonymous Americas
(1)
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