John Burns Of Gettysburg Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Have you heard the story that gossips tell	A
Of Burns of Gettysburg No Ah well	A
Brief is the glory that hero earns	B
Briefer the story of poor John Burns	B
He was the fellow who won renown	C
The only man who didn't back down	C
When the rebels rode through his native town	C
But held his own in the fight next day	D
When all his townsfolk ran away	D
That was in July sixty three	E
The very day that General Lee	E
Flower of Southern chivalry	E
Baffled and beaten backward reeled	F
From a stubborn Meade and a barren field	F
	-
I might tell how but the day before	G
John Burns stood at his cottage door	G
Looking down the village street	H
Where in the shade of his peaceful vine	I
He heard the low of his gathered kine	I
And felt their breath with incense sweet	H
Or I might say when the sunset burned	J
The old farm gable he thought it turned	J
The milk that fell like a babbling flood	K
Into the milk pail red as blood	K
Or how he fancied the hum of bees	L
Were bullets buzzing among the trees	L
But all such fanciful thoughts as these	L
Were strange to a practical man like Burns	B
Who minded only his own concerns	B
Troubled no more by fancies fine	I
Than one of his calm eyed long tailed kine	I
Quite old fashioned and matter of fact	M
Slow to argue but quick to act	M
That was the reason as some folk say	D
He fought so well on that terrible day	D
	-
And it was terrible On the right	N
Raged for hours the heady fight	N
Thundered the battery's double bass	O
Difficult music for men to face	P
While on the left where now the graves	Q
Undulate like the living waves	Q
That all that day unceasing swept	R
Up to the pits the rebels kept	R
Round shot ploughed the upland glades	S
Sown with bullets reaped with blades	S
Shattered fences here and there	T
Tossed their splinters in the air	T
The very trees were stripped and bare	T
The barns that once held yellow grain	I
Were heaped with harvests of the slain	I
The cattle bellowed on the plain	I
The turkeys screamed with might and main	I
And brooding barn fowl left their rest	U
With strange shells bursting in each nest	U
	-
Just where the tide of battle turns	B
Erect and lonely stood old John Burns	B
How do you think the man was dressed	U
He wore an ancient long buff vest	U
Yellow as saffron but his best	U
And buttoned over his manly breast	U
Was a bright blue coat with a rolling collar	V
And large gilt buttons size of a dollar	V
With tails that the country folk called swaller	V
He wore a broad brimmed bell crowned hat	W
White as the locks on which it sat	W
Never had such a sight been seen	I
For forty years on the village green	I
Since old John Burns was a country beau	X
And went to the quiltings long ago	X
	-
Close at his elbows all that day	D
Veterans of the Peninsula	Y
Sunburnt and bearded charged away	D
And striplings downy of lip and chin	I
Clerks that the Home Guard mustered in	I
Glanced as they passed at the hat he wore	V
Then at the rifle his right hand bore	V
And hailed him from out their youthful lore	V
With scraps of a slangy repertoire	V
How are you White Hat Put her through	V
Your head's level and Bully for you	V
Called him Daddy begged he'd disclose	Z
The name of the tailor who made his clothes	A2
And what was the value he set on those	Z
While Burns unmindful of jeer and scoff	B2
Stood there picking the rebels off	B2
With his long brown rifle and bell crown hat	W
And the swallow tails they were laughing at	W
	-
'Twas but a moment for that respect	C2
Which clothes all courage their voices checked	C2
And something the wildest could understand	D2
Spake in the old man's strong right hand	D2
And his corded throat and the lurking frown	I
Of his eyebrows under his old bell crown	I
Until as they gazed there crept an awe	E2
Through the ranks in whispers and some men saw	F2
In the antique vestments and long white hair	V
The Past of the Nation in battle there	V
And some of the soldiers since declare	V
That the gleam of his old white hat afar	V
Like the crested plume of the brave Navarre	V
That day was their oriflamme of war	V
	-
So raged the battle You know the rest	U
How the rebels beaten and backward pressed	U
Broke at the final charge and ran	I
At which John Burns a practical man	I
Shouldered his rifle unbent his brows	G2
And then went back to his bees and cows	G2
	-
That is the story of old John Burns	B
This is the moral the reader learns	B
In fighting the battle the question's whether	V
You'll show a hat that's white or a feather	V

Bret Harte

John Burns Of Gettysburg Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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