Custer Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Custer Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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BOOK FIRST	A
	-
I	-
	-
ALL valor died not on the plains of Troy	B
Awake my Muse awake be thine the joy	B
To sing of deeds as dauntless and as brave	C
As e'er lent luster to a warrior's grave	C
Sing of that noble soldier nobler man	D
Dear to the heart of each American	E
Sound forth his praise from sea to listening sea	F
Greece her Achilles claimed immortal Custer we	F
	-
II	-
	-
Intrepid are earth's heroes now as when	G
The gods came down to measure strength with men	G
Let danger threaten or let duty call	H
And self surrenders to the needs of all	H
Incurs vast perils or to save those dear	I
Embraces death without one sigh or tear	J
Life's martyrs still the endless drama play	K
Though no great Homer lives to chant their worth to day	K
	-
III	-
	-
And if he chanted who would list his songs	L
So hurried now the world's gold seeking throngs	L
And yet shall silence mantle mighty deeds	M
Awake dear Muse and sing though no ear heeds	M
Extol the triumphs and bemoan the end	N
Of that true hero lover son and friend	N
Whose faithful heart in his last choice was shown	O
Death with the comrades dear refusing flight alone	O
	-
IV	C
	-
He who was born for battle and for strife	C
Like some caged eagle frets in peaceful life	C
So Custer fretted when detained afar	P
From scenes of stirring action and of war	Q
And as the captive eagle in delight	R
When freedom offers plumes himself for flight	R
And soars away to thunder clouds on high	C
With palpitating wings and wild exultant cry	C
	-
V	C
	-
So lion hearted Custer sprang to arms	S
And gloried in the conflict's loud alarms	S
But one dark shadow marred his bounding joy	B
And then the soldier vanished and the boy	B
The tender son clung close with sobbing breath	T
To her from whom each parting was new death	T
That mother who like goddesses of old	U
Gave to the mighty Mars three warriors brave and bold	U
	-
VI	C
	-
Yet who unlike those martial dames of yore	Q
Grew pale and shuddered at the sight of gore	Q
A fragile being born to grace the hearth	V
Untroubled by the conflicts of the earth	W
Some gentle dove who reared young eaglets might	R
In watching those bold birdlings take their flight	R
Feel what that mother felt who saw her sons	X
Rush from her loving arms to face death dealing guns	X
	-
VII	C
	-
But ere thy lyre is strung to martial strains	Y
Of wars which sent our hero o'er the plains	Y
To add the cypress to his laureled brow	Z
Be brave my Muse and darker truths avow	Z
Let Justice ask a preface to thy songs	L
Before the Indian's crimes declare his wrongs	L
Before effects wherein all horrors blend	N
Declare the shameful cause precursor of the end	N
	-
VIII	Z
	-
When first this soil the great Columbus trod	A2
He was less like the image of his God	A2
Than those ingenuous souls unspoiled by art	B2
Who lived so near to Mother Nature's heart	B2
Those simple children of the wood and wave	Z
As frank as trusting and as true as brave	Z
Savage they were when on some hostile raid	C2
For where is he so high whom war does not degrade	C2
	-
IX	L
	-
But dark deceit and falsehood's shameless shame	D2
They had not learned until the white man came	D2
He taught them too the lurking devil's joy	B
In liquid lies that lure but to destroy	B
With wily words as false as they were sweet	E2
He spread his snares for unsuspecting feet	E2
Paid truth with guile and trampled in the dust	F2
Their gentle childlike faith and unaffected trust	F2
	-
X	L
	-
And for the sport of idle kings and knaves	L
Of Nature's greater noblemen made slaves	L
Alas the hour when the wronged Indian knows	L
His seeming benefactors are but foes	L
His kinsmen kidnapped and his lands possessed	G2
The demon woke in that untutored breast	G2
Four hundred years have rolled upon their way	K
The ruthless demon rules the red man to this day	K
	-
XI	L
	-
If in the morning of success that grand	H2
Invincible discoverer of our land	H2
Had made no lodge or wigwam desolate	I2
To carry trophies to the proud and great	J2
If on our history's page there were no blot	K2
Left by the cruel rapine of Cabot	I2
Of Verrazin and Hudson dare we claim	D2
The Indian of the plains to day had been same	D2
	-
XII	L
	-
For in this brief existence not alone	O
Do our lives gather what our hands have sown	O
But we reap too what others long ago	L2
Sowed careless of the harvests that might grow	L2
Thus hour by hour the humblest human souls	L
Inscribe in cipher on unending scrolls	L
The history of nations yet to be	L
Incite fierce bloody wars to rage from sea to sea	L
	-
XIII	L
	-
Or pave the way to peace There is no past	M2
So deathless are events results so vast	M2
And he who strives to make one act or hour	N2
Stand separate and alone needs first the power	N2
To look upon the breaking wave and say	L
'These drops were bosomed by a cloud to day	L
And those from far mid ocean's crest were sent '	-
So future present past in one wide sea are blent	L
	-
	-
BOOK SECOND	L
	-
I	C
	-
Oh for the power to call to aid of mine	O2
Own humble Muse the famed and sacred nine	O2
Then might she fitly sing and only then	G
Of those intrepid and unflinching men	G
Who knew no homes save ever moving tents	L
And who 'twixt fierce unfriendly elements	L
And wild barbarians warred Yet unfraid	L
Since love impels thy strains sing sing my modest maid	L
	-
II	C
	-
Relate how Custer in midwinter sought	L
Far Washita's cold shores tell why he fought	L
With savage nomads fortressed in deep snows	L
Woman thou source of half the sad world's woes	L
And all its joys what sanguinary strife	Z
Has vexed the earth and made contention rife	Z
Because of thee For hidden in man's heart	L
Ay in his very soul of his true self a part	L
	-
III	C
	-
The natural impulse and the wish belongs	L
To win thy favor and redress thy wrongs	L
Alas for woman and for man alas	L
If that dread hour should ever come to pass	L
When through her new born passion for control	P2
She drives that beauteous impulse from his soul	P2
What were her vaunted independence worth	W
If to obtain she sells her sweetest rights of birth	W
	-
IV	Z
	-
God formed fair woman for her true estate	L
Man's tender comrade and his equal mate	L
Not his competitor in toil and trade	L
While coarser man with greater strength was made	L
To fight her battles and her rights protect	L
Ay to protect the rights of earth's elect	L
The virgin maiden and the spotless wife	Z
From immemorial time has man laid down his life	Z
	-
V	Z
	-
And now brave Custer's valiant army pressed	L
Across the dangerous desert of the West	L
To rescue fair white captives from the hands	L
Of brutal Cheyenne and Comanche bands	L
On Washita's bleak banks Nine hundred strong	Q2
It moved its slow determined way along	Q2
Past frontier homes left dark and desolate	L
By the wild Indians' fierce and unrelenting hate	L
	-
VI	Z
	-
Past forts where ranchmen strong of heart and bold	L
Wept now like orphaned children as they told	L
With quivering muscles and with anguished breath	T
Of captured wives whose fate was worse than death	T
Past naked bodies whose disfiguring wounds	L
Spoke of the hellish hate of human hounds	L
Past bleaching skeleton and rifled grave	Z
On pressed th' avenging host to rescue and to save	Z
	-
VII	Z
	-
Uncertain Nature like a fickle friend	L
Worse than the foe on whom we may depend	L
Turned on these dauntless souls a brow of wrath	R2
And hurled her icy jav'lins in their path	R2
With treacherous quicksands and with storms that blight	L
Entrapped their footsteps and confused their sight	L
'Yet on ' urged Custer 'on at any cost	L
No hour is there to waste no moment to be lost '	-
	-
VIII	Z
	-
Determined silent on they rode and on	S2
Like fabled Centaurs men and steeds seemed one	E
No bugle echoed and no voice spoke near	I
Lest on some lurking Indian's list'ning ear	T2
The sound might fall Through swift descending snow	L2
The stealthy guides crept tracing out the foe	L2
No fire was lighted and no halt was made	L
From haggard gray lipped dawn till night lent friendly shade	L
	-
IX	L
	-
Then by th	U2