Ideals Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCD DEDEFGHG IJIJKBKB LMLMKIKI| Better than land or gold or trade | A |
| Are a high ideal and a purpose true | B |
| Better than all of the wealth we've made | A |
| Is the work for others that now we do | B |
| For Rome grew rich and she turned to song | C |
| And danced to music and drank her wine | D |
| But she sapped the strength of her fibres strong | C |
| And a gilded shroud was her splendor fine | D |
| - | |
| The Rome of old with its wealth and wine | D |
| Was the handiwork of a sturdy race | E |
| They builded well and they made it fine | D |
| And they dreamed of it as their children's place | E |
| They thought the joys they had won to give | F |
| And which seemed so certain and fixed and sure | G |
| To the end of time in the world would live | H |
| And the Rome they'd fashioned would long endure | G |
| - | |
| They passed to their children the hoarded gold | I |
| Their marble halls and their fertile fields | J |
| But not the spirit of Rome of old | I |
| Nor the Roman courage that never yields | J |
| They left them the wealth that their hands had won | K |
| But they failed to leave them a purpose true | B |
| They left them thinking life's work all done | K |
| And Rome went down and was lost to view | B |
| - | |
| We must guard ourselves lest we follow Rome | L |
| We must leave our children the finer things | M |
| We must teach them love of the spot called home | L |
| And the lasting joy that a purpose brings | M |
| For vain are our Flag and our battles won | K |
| And vain are our lands and our stores of gold | I |
| If our children feel that life's work is done | K |
| We must give them a high ideal to hold | I |
Edgar Albert Guest
(1)
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