Custer: Book Second Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Custer: Book Second Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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I	A
	-
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
	-
II	A
	-
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
	-
III	A
	-
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
	-
IV	H
	-
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
	-
V	H
	-
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
	-
VI	H
	-
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
	-
VII	H
	-
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 '	-
	-
VIII	H
	-
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
	-
IX	Q
	-
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
	-
X	Q
	-
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
	-
XI	Q
	-
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 '	-
	-
XII	Q
	-
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
	-
XIII	Q
	-
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
	-
XIV	H
	-
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
	-
XV	H
	-
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
	-
XVI	H
	-
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
	-
XVII	H
	-
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
	-
XVIII	H
	-
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
	-
XIX	Q
	-
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
	-
XX	Q
	-
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
	-
XXI	Q
	-
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
	-
XXIII	Q
	-
The hours advance the storm clouds roll away	Q
Still furiou	M2