Custer: Book Second Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDEFF A FFGGHHFF A IIJJKKLL H FFFFFFHH H FFMMNNFF H FFOOPQHH H FFRRFFF H STUVWWFF Q FFFFFFXX Q QQQQTTYY Q ZZA2A2HHF Q QQHHFFHH Q B2B2FFZZC2C2 H FFD2D2E2E2QQ H F2F2FFG2G2ZH2 H FFI2I2HHQQ H J2J2FFFFQQ H K2K2QQQQUV Q FFL2M2N2N2M2M2 Q FFFFE2E2FF Q QQQQFFO2O2 Q QM2I | A |
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Oh for the power to call to aid of mine | B |
Own humble Muse the famed and sacred nine | B |
Then might she fitly sing and only then | C |
Of those intrepid and unflinching men | C |
Who knew no homes save ever moving tents | D |
And who 'twixt fierce unfriendly elements | E |
And wild barbarians warred Yet unfraid | F |
Since love impels thy strains sing sing my modest maid | F |
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II | A |
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Relate how Custer in midwinter sought | F |
Far Washita's cold shores tell why he fought | F |
With savage nomads fortressed in deep snows | G |
Woman thou source of half the sad world's woes | G |
And all its joys what sanguinary strife | H |
Has vexed the earth and made contention rife | H |
Because of thee For hidden in man's heart | F |
Ay in his very soul of his true self a part | F |
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III | A |
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The natural impulse and the wish belongs | I |
To win thy favor and redress thy wrongs | I |
Alas for woman and for man alas | J |
If that dread hour should ever come to pass | J |
When through her new born passion for control | K |
She drives that beauteous impulse from his soul | K |
What were her vaunted independence worth | L |
If to obtain she sells her sweetest rights of birth | L |
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IV | H |
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God formed fair woman for her true estate | F |
Man's tender comrade and his equal mate | F |
Not his competitor in toil and trade | F |
While coarser man with greater strength was made | F |
To fight her battles and her rights protect | F |
Ay to protect the rights of earth's elect | F |
The virgin maiden and the spotless wife | H |
From immemorial time has man laid down his life | H |
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V | H |
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And now brave Custer's valiant army pressed | F |
Across the dangerous desert of the West | F |
To rescue fair white captives from the hands | M |
Of brutal Cheyenne and Comanche bands | M |
On Washita's bleak banks Nine hundred strong | N |
It moved its slow determined way along | N |
Past frontier homes left dark and desolate | F |
By the wild Indians' fierce and unrelenting hate | F |
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VI | H |
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Past forts where ranchmen strong of heart and bold | F |
Wept now like orphaned children as they told | F |
With quivering muscles and with anguished breath | O |
Of captured wives whose fate was worse than death | O |
Past naked bodies whose disfiguring wounds | P |
Spoke of the hellish hate of human hounds | Q |
Past bleaching skeleton and rifled grave | H |
On pressed th' avenging host to rescue and to save | H |
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VII | H |
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Uncertain Nature like a fickle friend | F |
Worse than the foe on whom we may depend | F |
Turned on these dauntless souls a brow of wrath | R |
And hurled her icy jav'lins in their path | R |
With treacherous quicksands and with storms that blight | F |
Entrapped their footsteps and confused their sight | F |
'Yet on ' urged Custer 'on at any cost | F |
No hour is there to waste no moment to be lost ' | - |
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VIII | H |
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Determined silent on they rode and on | S |
Like fabled Centaurs men and steeds seemed one | T |
No bugle echoed and no voice spoke near | U |
Lest on some lurking Indian's list'ning ear | V |
The sound might fall Through swift descending snow | W |
The stealthy guides crept tracing out the foe | W |
No fire was lighted and no halt was made | F |
From haggard gray lipped dawn till night lent friendly shade | F |
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IX | Q |
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Then by the shelt'ring river's bank at last | F |
The weary warriors paused for their repast | F |
A couch of ice and falling shows for spread | F |
Made many a suffering soldier's chilling bed | F |
They slept to dream of glory and delight | F |
While the pale fingers of the pitying night | F |
Wove ghostly winding sheets for that doomed score | X |
Who ere another eve should sleep to wake no more | X |
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X | Q |
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But those who slept not saw with startled eyes | Q |
Far off athwart dim unprotecting skies | Q |
Ascending slowly with majestic grace | Q |
A lustrous rocket rising out of space | Q |
'Behold the signal of the foe ' cried one | T |
The field is lost before the strife's begun | T |
Yet no for see yon rays spread near and far | Y |
It is the day's first smile the radiant morning star | Y |
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XI | Q |
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The long hours counting till the daylight broke | Z |
In whispered words the restless warriors spoke | Z |
They talked of battles but they thought of home | A2 |
For hearts are faithful though the feet may roam | A2 |
Brave Hamilton all eager for the strife | H |
Mused o'er that two fold mystery death and life | H |
'And when I die ' quoth he 'mine be the part | F |
To fall upon the field a bullet in my heart ' | - |
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XII | Q |
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At break of dawn the scouts crept in to say | Q |
The foe was camped a rifle shot away | Q |
The baying of a dog an infant's cry | H |
Pierced through the air sleep fled from every eye | H |
To horse to arms the dead demand the dead | F |
Let the grand charge upon the lodge be led | F |
Let the Mosaic law life for a life | H |
Pay the long standing debt of blood War to the knife | H |
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XIII | Q |
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So spake each heart in that unholy rage | B2 |
Which fires the brain when war the thoughts engage | B2 |
War hideous war appealing to the worst | F |
In complex man and waking that wild thirst | F |
For human blood which blood alone can slake | Z |
Yet for their country's safety and the sake | Z |
Of tortured captives moaning in alarm | C2 |
The Indian must be made to fear the law's strong arm | C2 |
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XIV | H |
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A noble vengeance burned in Custer's breast | F |
But as he led his army to the crest | F |
Above the wigwams ready for the charge | D2 |
He felt the heart within him swelling large | D2 |
With human pity as an infant's wail | E2 |
Shrilled once again above the wintry gale | E2 |
Then hosts of murdered children seemed to rise | Q |
And shame his halting thought with sad accusing eyes | Q |
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XV | H |
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And urge him on to action Stern of brow | F2 |
The just avenger and the General now | F2 |
He gives the silent signal to the band | F |
Which all impatient waits for his command | F |
Cold lips to colder metal press the air | G2 |
Echoes those merry strains which mean despair | G2 |
For sleeping chieftain and for toiling squaw | Z |
But joy to those stern hearts which glory in the law | H2 |
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XVI | H |
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Of murder paying murder's awful debt | F |
And now four squadrons in one charge are met | F |
From east and west from north and south they come | I2 |
At call of bugle and at roll of drum | I2 |
Their rifles rain hot hail upon the foe | H |
Who flee from danger in death's jaws to go | H |
The Indians fight like maddened bulls at bay | Q |
And dying shriek and groan wound the young ear of day | Q |
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XVII | H |
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A pallid captive and a white browed boy | J2 |
Add to the tumult piercing cries of joy | J2 |
As forth they fly with high hope animate | F |
A hideous squaw pursues them with her hate | F |
Her knife descends with sickening force and sound | F |
Their bloody entrails stain the snow clad ground | F |
She shouts with glee then yells with rage and falls | Q |
Dead by her victims' side pierced by avenging balls | Q |
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XVIII | H |
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Now war runs riot carnage reigns supreme | K2 |
All thoughts of mercy fade from Custer's scheme | K2 |
Inhuman methods for inhuman foes | Q |
Who feed on horrors and exult in woes | Q |
To conquer and subdue alone remains | Q |
In dealing with the red man on the plains | Q |
The breast that knows no conscience yields to fear | U |
Strike let the Indian meet his master now and here | V |
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XIX | Q |
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With thoughts like these was Custer's mind engaged | F |
The gentlest are the sternest when enraged | F |
All felt the swift contagion of his ire | L2 |
For he was one who could arouse and fire | M2 |
The coldest heart so ardent was his own | N2 |
His fearless eye his calm intrepid tone | N2 |
Bespoke the leader strong with conscious power | M2 |
Whom following friends will bless while foes will curse and cower | M2 |
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XX | Q |
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Again they charge and now among the killed | F |
Lies Hamilton his wish so soon fulfilled | F |
Brave Elliott pursues across the field | F |
The flying foe his own young life to yield | F |
But like the leaves in some autumnal gale | E2 |
The red men fall in Washita's wild vale | E2 |
Each painted face and black befeathered head | F |
Still more repulsive seems with death's grim pallor wed | F |
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XXI | Q |
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New forces gather on surrounding knolls | Q |
And fierce and fiercer war's red river rolls | Q |
With bright hued pennants flying from each lance | Q |
The gayly costumed Kiowas advance | Q |
And bold Comanches Bedouins of the land | F |
Infuse fresh spirit in the Cheyenne band | F |
While from the ambush of some dark ravine | O2 |
Flash arrows aimed by hands unerring and unseen | O2 |
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XXIII | Q |
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The hours advance the storm clouds roll away | Q |
Still furiou | M2 |
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
(1)
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