An Ode To Ethiopia Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Edward Smyth Jones

An Ode To Ethiopia Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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TO THE ASPIRING NEGRO YOUTH	A
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After years of patient study and historical research I have made the following deductions of parts played by the Ethiopian in the annals of history under the caption An Ode to Ethiopia It is true that questions will rise regarding the racial identity of some of my characters in view of historical statements which place them with the Caucasian race yet I firmly believe were impartial history written my claims would be justified However Time the great Arbiter will finally decide the equity of my claims	B
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I	-
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Thou Sovran Queen of Afric's sunny strands	C
I smite my lyre to sing thy praise unsung	D
In strains far sweeter than seraphic bands	C
A lay deep in my bosom's core is sprung	D
Fair Queen although my years as yet be young	D
Deep thoughts and musings of thy history old	E
Where odes and fiery epics long have hung	D
Live centuries in my immortal soul	F
And strike sweet Lydian measures on my harp of gold	E
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II	-
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Therefore my song floats softly up to thee	G
Full soft as those sweet zephyrs of the spring	H
Of which it was and is and still must be	G
The sweetest of aeolian strains that ring	H
I breathe it on the soft sea winds which bring	H
Their cooling treasures from the rolling deep	I
They 'fresh my brow and make my sad heart sing	H
And ever lure my drowsy eyes from sleep	I
And bid thy vesper chorist strictest vigil keep	I
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III	-
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Of all the nations that have trod the earth	J
In civil states or in the forest wild	K
Thou wast the first of real enlightened birth	J
Born in fair Egypt on the spreading Nile	L
In valleys fertile sunny climates mild	K
Thou sternly taught the chosen Hebrew race	M
Madonna sheltered with her Holy Child	K
Who came to plead man's all unworthy case	M
And drained His sacred heart earth's vilest sin efface	M
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IV	-
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Long ere the Grecian oped his classic lids	N
Or mould' true beauty with artistic hands	C
Thou reared upon thy plains the lofty pyramids	N
With sphinx and obelisks 'decked thy burning sands	C
Aye Queen thou then wast hailed in all the lands	C
Long ere vain Babel 'fused the human tongue	D
In dialects rude of wild barbaric bands	C
Thou soared to Wisdom's realm her sceptre wrung	D
And reigned the wisest queen the nations all among	D
	-
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V	-
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Thou first taught man the mystic sciences probe	O
To scan earth's apex median and base	M
Thou too inscribed the belt around the globe	O
And made deep tracings on its hoary face	M
Well fixed each angle arc and line in place	M
Then soared thou far into the milky way	P
Far in the bright celestial span of space	M
Where orbs and planets all their homage pay	P
Unto the sun the ever reigning King of Day	P
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VI	-
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Once in great splendor did thy Pharaohs rule	Q
In Egypt with her glory flown of yore	R
They laid foundations of the mundane school	Q
And taught the art of governmental lore	R
And then from thy great military store	R
Thou sent the gallant Hannibal to war	R
Taught Romans tactics never known before	R
And filled their hearts with ever cowering awe	S
And bowed their haughty heads to thy majestic law	T
	-
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VII	-
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But in this age is writ another story	-
Then pen of arrogant vain Caucasian sage	U
Has thee full robbed of thy immortal glory	-
And smeared thy name on History's sacred page	U
Forsooth the Book once closed for many an age	U
Is opened by thy sons though fraught with pain	V
The curtain's drawn they rise upon the stage	U
And their valiant deeds and blood shall wash the stain	V
As clean as April showers wash the dusty plain	V
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VIII	-
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I sing now of thy heroes of today	P
Thy sturdy warriors and thy gallant knights	W
Who charge into the thickest of the fray	P
And die for country and their free born rights	W
For orphans widows and their little mites	W
Thus Attucks brave without a moment's pause	X
While reeled the Nation in her darkest plights	X
Full bared his breast in Freedom's holy cause	X
First fell and tore the code of Tyranny's cruel laws	X
	-
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IX	X
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Now if my lay is yet not sweet enough	-
I'll bid a gentler subtler strain awake	Y
And sing of fights with Jackson on the Gulf	-
And Perry's hard fought battle on the Lake	Y
Of fights in fen and moor and hoary brake	Y
On Lookout Mountain and the rolling main	V
Through searing blasts of bleak December's flake	Y
And drenching torrents of fair April's rain	V
Their valiant deeds are springing ever up amain	V
	-
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X	X
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They fought the Union from State's Rights to free	-
At Vicksburg Wagner and Port Hudson lent	Z
Their aid their deeds at Pillow and Olustee	Z
Rose surge on surge like ocean billows rent	Z
The praises of the gallant Ninth and Tenth	A2
Will ever rise and soft float to the sky	-
They bagged Old Bull in Rocky Mountain tent	Z
Then stormed the Spanish block housed Hills on high	-
And bade the tyrant Spaniard's heaving heart to die	-
	-
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XI	-
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High time my Haitian islet must be free	-
Great Touissant thus his declaration tacks	X
Then drives proud Frenchmen into the yawning sea	-
The bravest whites by bravest of the blacks	X
Brave Maceo pursues the Spanish packs	X
And Aguinaldo in the mountain wilds	X
Pours shot and shell into the tyrants' backs	X
They save her throne and Freedom on them smiles	X
True heroes and the Fathers of their sunlit Isles	X
	-
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XII	X
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Thy sons have triumphed in the Halls of State	Z
Hamilton and Douglas were the first to gain	V
With lightning eye and tongue of thunder great	Z
The civic lead of thy illustrious train	V
Next Bruce and Revels senatorial twain	V
John Lynch and Small emit a brilliant light	Z
And Langston Pinchback Cheatham all remain	V
With Dancy Vernon Anderson and White	Z
Liang Williams Lyons Terrell stand for Civic Right	Z
	-
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XIII	X
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In science's realm with Banneker we start	Z
Then read on Medicae's emblazoned wall	B2
Dan Williams here first stitched the human heart	Z
Close by the names of Curtis Boyd and Hall	B2
But others list'd and heard Invention's call	B2
In all its sweetness of the days of yore	R
And Woods the greatest foreman of them all	B2
Shouts on his voyage with Black and Baltimore	R
We come we come good Dame thy region to explore	R
	-
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XIV	-
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I too said 'Monia Lewis can make a man	V
Then mould' his form with most artistic ease	X
But all aeolian strains Blind Tom could scan	V
And play as softly as the South Sea breeze	X
Upon his major and his minor keys	X
Good Douglas gently wakes the violin's song	C2
And White leads home the zephyrs from the seas	X
While Coleridge Taylor with an art more strong	C2
Full finds the key note of Dame Nature's vesper song	C2
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XV	-
	-
If shady nooks in Poesy's realm they choose	X
Or barks to drift the smooth prosaic stream	D2
There Phillis held communion with the Muse	X
And Chesnutt woke the Colonel from his dream	D2
Max Barber Thompson Knox and Fortune beam	D2
Great Braithwaite scales the classic mountain heights	X
And Cooper like a beacon light will gleam	D2
While Dunbar sun like sheds his holy lights	X
In dazzling splendor on his solar satellites	X
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XVI	-
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These brilliant names shall never fade away	P
Emblazoned in the sacred Hall of Fame	E2
They shall remain till dawns that direful Day	P
The valid seal beneath thy sacred name	E2
Deft Tanner artist ever blazing flame	E2
With Pickens Bruce and Locke of classic dell	F2
Old Truth and Harper Yates and Ruffin came	E2
And Walker Terrell Williams known so well	F2
Long ere Marie had taught the hoary world to spell	F2
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XVII	-
	-
The learned Scarborough writes the classic Greek	G2
Dean Miller thinks in calculations cold	Z
While Cogman writes the annals of the meek	G2
DuBois reveals the secrets of the Soul	F
But all shall read in letters gilded gold	Z
Who teaches head and heart and hands has won	V
The priceless boon the guerdon of the goal	F
The portion due thy most illustrious son	V
Tuskegee's seer and sage the noble Washington	V
	-
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XVIII	-
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Thy songs inspire and cheer the human soul	F
Still plodding forth in search of Beulah's vale	H2
Lead wondering lambs into the Master's fold	Z
When Flora Burgeon's notes far float the gale	H2
Though Patti Brown we loud applaud and hail	H2
And Hackley's voice is heard in every land	Z
Black Patti is the queenly nightingale	H2
That leads the chorus as they singing stand	Z
As Miriam stood to sing thee to the Promised Land	Z
	-
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XIX	X
	-
I see the Prophet's mandate to the land	Z
In golden letters glit'ring in the sky	-
Fair Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hand	Z
Her sons shall sway the earth long ere they die	-
As swift as lightnings with the storm clouds fly	-
To light the path celestial feet have trod	Z
So be thy soaring to the realms on high	-
When mortal feet no more shall tread this sod	Z
And thy holy spirit wings its homeward flight to God	Z