The Pure Norwegian Flag Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCCDD EEEFF A GHGIJKJLMLMENONPQEQ ARESETUVUUEEE S UEEEUERUWUUX EEXIUEYIYNENE ERIZGZ RGNA2EB2RA2SEIEC2D2U D2EEIEEEC2EEEEEE2F2E F2SEN UGG2 G NENEH2EUEGEEE E I2NEEI2NJ2K2J2UURUNE NENL2NL2 ESE| I | A |
| Tri colored flag and pure | B |
| Thou art our hard fought cause secure | B |
| Thor's hammer mark of might | C |
| Thou bearest blue in Christian white | C |
| And all our hearts' red blood | D |
| To thee streams its full flood | D |
| - | |
| Thou liftest us high when life's sternest | E |
| Exultant thou oceanward turnest | E |
| Thy colors of freedom are earnest | E |
| That spirit and body shall never know dearth | F |
| Fare forth o'er the earth | F |
| - | |
| II | A |
| 'The pure flag is but pure folly ' | - |
| You 'wise' men maintain for true | G |
| But the flag is the truth poetic | H |
| The folly is found in you | G |
| In poetry upward soaring | I |
| The nation's immortal soul | J |
| With hands invisible carries | K |
| The flag toward the future goal | J |
| That soul's every toil and trial | L |
| That soul's every triumph sublime | M |
| Are sounding in songs immortal | L |
| To their music the flag beats time | M |
| We bear it along surrounded | E |
| By mem'ry's melodious choir | N |
| By mild and whispering voices | O |
| By will and stormy desire | N |
| It gives not to others guidance | P |
| Can not a Swedish word say | Q |
| It never can flaunt allurement | E |
| Clear the foreign colors away | Q |
| - | |
| III | A |
| The sins and deceits of our nation | R |
| Possess in the flag no right | E |
| The flag is the high ideal | S |
| In honor's immortal light | E |
| The best of our past achievements | T |
| The best of our present prayers | U |
| It takes in its folds from the fathers | V |
| And bears to the sons and heirs | U |
| Bears it all pure and artless | U |
| By tokens that tempt us unmarred | E |
| Is for our will's young manhood | E |
| Leader as well as guard | E |
| - | |
| IV | - |
| They say 'As by rings of betrothal | S |
| We are by the flag affied ' | - |
| But Norway is | U |
| not | E |
| betroth d | E |
| She | E |
| is | U |
| no one's promised bride | E |
| She shares her abode with no one | R |
| Her bed and her board to none yields | U |
| Her will is her worthy bridegroom | W |
| Herself rules her sea her fields | U |
| Our brother to eastward honors | U |
| This independence of youth | X |
| - | |
| He | E |
| knows well that by it only | E |
| Our wreath can be won in truth | X |
| When we from the flag are taking | I |
| His colors | U |
| he | E |
| knows 't is no whim | Y |
| But merely because we are holding | I |
| Our honor higher than him | Y |
| And none who himself has honor | N |
| Will seek him a different friend | E |
| Our life we can for him offer | N |
| But naught of our flag can lend | E |
| - | |
| V | E |
| TO SWEDEN | R |
| Respectful I seek a hearing | I |
| With trust in your temper sane | Z |
| And plead now our cause before you | G |
| In words that are calm and plain | Z |
| - | |
| If Sweden | R |
| you | G |
| were the smaller | N |
| Were young your freedom's renown | A2 |
| Had | E |
| your | B2 |
| flag a mark of union | R |
| That pressed you still farther down | A2 |
| By saying that you as little | S |
| Were set at the greater's board | E |
| For this is the mark's real meaning | I |
| By no one on earth ignored | E |
| Yes if it were you and your freedom | C2 |
| Not hallowed by age but young | D2 |
| And a century's want and weakness | U |
| Still heavy in memory hung | D2 |
| The soul of your nation harrowed | E |
| By old injustice and need | E |
| By luckless labor and longing | I |
| And did you its meaning heed | E |
| Yes if it were you whose duty | E |
| To teach your people were tried | E |
| To honor their new born freedom | C2 |
| To find in their flag their guide | E |
| Would longer you suffer it sundered | E |
| Leave foreign a single field | E |
| Would you not claim it unplundered | E |
| Your independence to shield | E |
| Would not to yourself you say then | E2 |
| 'If one has high lineage long | F2 |
| If greater his colors' glory | E |
| The more alluring his song | F2 |
| Oh tempt not him who from trouble | S |
| Is rising with new found might | E |
| With pure marks direct him rather | N |
| To honor's exalted height ' | - |
| - | |
| Thus | U |
| you | G |
| would speak elder hero | G2 |
| If | - |
| you | G |
| in | - |
| our | N |
| home abode | E |
| Your wont is the way of honor | N |
| You fare on the forward road | E |
| From eighteen hundred and fourteen | H2 |
| And down to the latest day | E |
| So oft for our independence | U |
| We stood like the stag at bay | E |
| Brave men have risen among you | G |
| And scorning the strife that swelled | E |
| Have talked for our cause high minded | E |
| Like Torgny to them of eld | E |
| - | |
| VI | - |
| ANSWER TO THE AGED RIDDERSTAD | E |
| - | |
| You say it is 'knightly duty ' | - |
| The fight for the flag to share | I2 |
| I hold you full high in honor | N |
| But | E |
| that | E |
| is our own affair | I2 |
| For just because we encounter | N |
| The storm blasts of slander stark | J2 |
| It's 'knightly duty' to free now | K2 |
| The flag from the marring mark | J2 |
| The 'parity' that mark preaches | U |
| Flies false over all the seas | U |
| A pan Scandinavian Sweden | R |
| Can never our nation please | U |
| From 'knightly duty' the smaller | N |
| Must say I am not a part | E |
| The mark of my freedom and honor | N |
| Is whole for my mind and heart | E |
| From 'knightly duty' the greater | N |
| Must say A falsehood's fair sign | L2 |
| Can give me no special honor | N |
| No longer shall it be mine | L2 |
| For both it is 'knightly duty ' | - |
| With flags that are pure to be | E |
| A warring world's bright example | S |
| Of peoples at peace proud and free | E |
Bjarnstjerne Bjarnson
(1)
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About The Pure Norwegian Flag
The Pure Norwegian Flag is a poem by Bjarnstjerne Bjarnson. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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