The Better Thing Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCCDD EFEFGGHH DIDIJJKK| It is better to die for the flag | A |
| For its red and its white and its blue | B |
| Than to hang back and shirk and to lag | A |
| And let the flag sink out of view | B |
| It is better to give up this life | C |
| In the heat and the thick of the strife | C |
| Than to live out your days 'neath a sky | D |
| Where Old Glory shall never more fly | D |
| - | |
| The peace that we long for will be | E |
| Far worse than the war that we dread | F |
| If never again we're to see | E |
| The blue and the white and the red | F |
| Wind tossed and sun kissed in the skies | G |
| If ever the Stars and Stripes dies | G |
| Or loses its lustre and pride | H |
| We shall wish in our souls we had died | H |
| - | |
| It is better by far that we die | D |
| Than that flag shall pass out of the world | I |
| If ever it ceases to fly | D |
| If ever it's hauled down and furled | I |
| Dishonor shall stamp us with shame | J |
| And freedom be naught but a name | J |
| And the few years of dearly bought breath | K |
| Will be filled with worse horrors than death | K |
Edgar Albert Guest
(1)
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