The Spartan Boy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEE FFEEGGEEHHEEIIJJKKLL EEEEMMNNEEKKOOPQRRNN SSMMIIWhen I the memory repeat | A |
Of the heroic actions great | B |
Which in contempt of pain and death | C |
Were done by men who drew their breath | C |
In ages past I find no deed | D |
That can in fortitude exceed | D |
The noble boy in Sparta bred | E |
Who in the temple ministered | E |
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By the sacrifice he stands | F |
The lighted incense in his hands | F |
Through the smoking censer's lid | E |
Dropped a burning coal which slid | E |
Into his sleeve and pass d in | G |
Between the folds even to the skin | G |
Dire was the pain which then he proved | E |
But not for this his sleeve he moved | E |
Or would the scorching ember shake | H |
Out from the folds lest it should make | H |
Any confusion or excite | E |
Disturbance at the sacred rite | E |
But close he kept the burning coal | I |
Till it eat itself a hole | I |
In his flesh The standers by | J |
Saw no sign and heard no cry | J |
Of his pangs had no discerning | K |
Till they smelled the flesh a burning | K |
All this he did in noble scorn | L |
And for he was a Spartan born | L |
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Young student who this story readest | E |
And with the same thy thoughts now feedest | E |
Thy weaker nerves might thee forbid | E |
To do the thing the Spartan did | E |
Thy feebler heart could not sustain | M |
Such dire extremity of pain | M |
But in this story thou mayst see | N |
What may useful prove to thee | N |
By his example thou wilt find | E |
That to the ingenuous mind | E |
Shame can greater anguish bring | K |
Than the body's suffering | K |
That pain is not the worst of ills | O |
Not when it the body kills | O |
That in fair religion's cause | P |
For thy country or the laws | Q |
When occasion due shall offer | R |
'Tis reproachful not to suffer | R |
If thou shouldst a soldier be | N |
And a wound should trouble thee | N |
If without the soldier's fame | S |
Thou to chance shouldst owe a maim | S |
Do not for a little pain | M |
On thy manhood bring a stain | M |
But to keep thy spirits whole | I |
Think on the Spartan and the coal | I |
Charles Lamb
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