The Wars And The Unknown Soldier Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHI FHJK JLMHMMG NOPHQ JFROJRRNSRFRHFFDJ ATGUJ RRCOFFD HRRVV FWRFTHJ TXRRFRFFDRFCJFR JTYZA2 JCCTGFTB2I | A |
Dry leaves soldier dry leaves dead leaves | B |
voices of leaves on the wind that bears them to | C |
destruction | D |
impassioned prayer impassioned hymn of delight | E |
of the gladly doomed to die Stridor of beasts | F |
stridor of men praises of lust and battle | G |
numberless as waves the waves singing | H |
to the wind that bears them down | I |
- | |
Under Osiris | F |
him of the Egyptian priests Osynmandyas the King | H |
easward into Asia we passed swarmed over Bactria | J |
three thousand years before Christ | K |
- | |
The history of war | J |
is the history of mankind | L |
So many dead | M |
look at them there in the dark look at them going | H |
the longest parade of all the parade of the dead | M |
between then and now seven thousand million dead | M |
dead on the filed of battle | G |
- | |
The people which is not ready | N |
to guard its gods and its household gods with the | O |
sword | P |
who knows but it will find itself with nothing | H |
save honour to defend | Q |
- | |
Consider soldier | J |
whatever name you go by doughboy dogface | F |
marine or tommy God's mercenary consider our lot | R |
in the days if the single combat You have been seen on the | O |
seashore | J |
In the offshore wind blown backward a wavecrest | R |
windwhipped and quivering borne helpless and | R |
briefly | N |
to fall underfoot of an oncoming seawall foam | S |
smothered | R |
once more to recede wind thwarted again thus | F |
deathward | R |
the battle lines whelmed and divided The darkling | H |
battalions | F |
locked arms in chaos the bravest the heroes | F |
kept in the forefront' and this line once broken | D |
our army was done for | J |
- | |
II | A |
In the new city of marble and bright stone | T |
the city named for a captain in the capital | G |
under the solemn echoing dome in the still tomb | U |
lies an unknown soldier | J |
- | |
In the brown city | R |
old and shabby by the muddy Thames in the gaunt | R |
avenue | C |
where Romans blessed with Latin the oyster and the | O |
primrose | F |
the stone shaft speaks of another Those who pass | F |
bare their heads in the rain pausing to listen | D |
- | |
Across grey water red poppies on cliffs and chalk | H |
Hidden under the arch in the city of light | R |
the city beloved of Abelard rests a third | R |
nameless as those but the fluttering flame | V |
substituting for a name | V |
- | |
Three unknown soldiers | F |
three let us say out of many On the proud arch | W |
names shine like stars the names of battles and | R |
victories | F |
but never the name of the man you the unknown | T |
Down there runs the river under dark walls of rock | H |
parapets of rock stone steps that green to the water | J |
- | |
There they fished up in the twilight another unknown | T |
the one they call | X |
L'Inconnue de la Seine | R |
drowned | R |
hands | F |
drowned hair drowned eyes masked like marble she | R |
listens | F |
to the drip drop secret of silence and the pale eyelids | F |
enclose and disclose what they know the illusion | D |
found like fire under Lethe Devotion here sainted | R |
the love here deathless The strong purpose turns | F |
from the daggered lamplight from the little light to | C |
the lesser | J |
from stone to stone stepping from the nex to the lasy | F |
heartbeat and footstep even to the sacred to the last | R |
- | |
Love devotion sacrifice death can we call her | J |
unknown | T |
who has not unknown to herself more Whose love | Y |
lives still | Z |
as if death itself were alive and divine | A2 |
- | |
And you the soldier | J |
you who are dead is it not so with you | C |
Love devotion sacrifice death can we call you | C |
unknown | T |
you who knew what you did The soldier is crystal | G |
crystal of man clear heart clear duty clear purpose | F |
No soldier can be unknown Only he is unknown | T |
who is unknown to himself | B2 |
Conrad Potter Aiken
(1)
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