Dauntless Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF EGEH IJIJ IKIE LMLM IKIK EEEE ENEO EEEE PEPE QRSR TKUK KVKV WKWK XYXY EEEE JZJZ A2B2A2B2 KEKE EC2EC2So he is dead A strange sad story clings | A |
About the memory of this mindless man | B |
A tale that strips war's tinsel off and brings | A |
Its horrors out as only history can | B |
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Within a peaceful town he dwelt in youth | C |
His sister's hero and his mother's pride | D |
The soul of honor the abode of truth | C |
Beloved and reverenced on every side | D |
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He had a sweetheart lovely as the day | E |
A gentle maid who knew not half his worth | F |
Who loved the sunshine and who shrank away | E |
From sorrow and forever followed mirth | F |
- | |
They were but young and hope's mirage upreared | E |
In their warm hearts its rosy palaces | G |
They deemed them real and longing only feared | E |
Life was too short for all the promised bliss | H |
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And then came war blood spattered cruel as hell | I |
And clamored with its iron voice for life | J |
Mother and sister and the wedding bell | I |
The hero left and hastened to the strife | J |
- | |
In vain he struck for liberty and fell | I |
A captive in his earliest affray | K |
Then threatening death fierce Haynau bade him tell | I |
Where and how strong the patriot forces lay | E |
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I will not tell he cried with eyes aflame | L |
Do what thou wilt with me I will not bring | M |
Doom to my land and soil my honored name | L |
From these sealed lips thou shalt no secret wring | M |
- | |
His captor only laughed He croweth well | I |
Go bring his mother and his sister here | K |
And they shall die if he refuse to tell | I |
The hero answered not but paled with fear | K |
- | |
The brutal soldiers to the brutish court | E |
Dragged the weak women and they stood o'er awed | E |
Each to the other clinging for support | E |
And praying in her misery to God | E |
- | |
The fell decree the shrinking creatures heard | E |
And long in vain essayed to make reply | N |
For their weak speech could find no fitting word | E |
To bear the burden of their agony | O |
- | |
Tears came at last The brutal Haynau smiled | E |
But all too soon Weeping the mother said | E |
Be not thy country's traitor oh my child | E |
Too old am I the loss of life to dread | E |
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Then spake the sister Brother mine be brave | P |
Life hath no charms if with dishonor bought | E |
Think not of us our bleeding country save | P |
Life is so short at best death matters naught | E |
- | |
The hero made no answer but he drove | Q |
His nails into his palms and choked for breath | R |
His captor bade the soldiery remove | S |
The noble women and they went to death | R |
- | |
He hath a sweetheart Haynau said again | T |
Go bring her hither and they brought her there | K |
Weeping with fear and wailing low with pain | U |
Amid the golden ringlets of her hair | K |
- | |
Then from the earth she sprang frenzied with fear | K |
Into her lover's arms and kissed his cheek | V |
And strok'd his hair and called him love and dear | K |
And prayed him for her sake to yield and speak | V |
- | |
He thrust her from him clasped her yielding form | W |
In his lithe arms again and then once more | K |
Repulsed her gently and the deadly storm | W |
That raged within him smote him to the floor | K |
- | |
Groping he rose and spoke None knew his voice | X |
It sounded as though coming from a tomb | Y |
Oh darling it must be I have no choice | X |
Thou would'st not have me seal my country's doom | Y |
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Haynau made sign Away with her he cried | E |
They seized their prey but life to her was sweet | E |
And bounding from the soldiers at her side | E |
Screaming she crouched and clasped her lover's feet | E |
- | |
Oh for the love you bear me save my life | J |
Tell what he asks and we will fly this place | Z |
Into some unknown land where all this strife | J |
Shall be forgotten in love's sweet embrace | Z |
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He made no answer save by bending low | A2 |
And kissing her damp brow They raised their prize | B2 |
And bore her to the door as pale as snow | A2 |
With all her soul outwelling from her eyes | B2 |
- | |
But here she turned calm in her death despair | K |
And in a voice that trembled with its hate | E |
My dying curse be on you everywhere | K |
False love she cried who send me to my fate | E |
- | |
There was a silence then a fusilade | E |
Of musketry a woman's scream and moan | C2 |
Then silence That was all and in the shade | E |
Of night the hero laughed Reason had flown | C2 |
Arthur Weir
(1)
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