The Camp Fire Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCD EDEDFGFG HIHIJEJE KDKDLGLG MD DNONO EGEGPQPR STSTLOLO UVUWOWO XXXXXYXYWhen night hung low and dew fell damp | A |
There fell athwart the shadows | B |
The gleaming watchfires of the camp | A |
Like glow worms on the meadows | B |
The sentinel his measured beat | C |
With measured tread was keeping | D |
While like bronze statues at his feet | C |
Lay tired soldiers sleeping | D |
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On some worn faces of the men | E |
There crept a homesick yearning | D |
Which made it almost seem again | E |
The child look was returning | D |
While on full many a youthful brow | F |
Till now to care a stranger | G |
The premature grave lines told how | F |
They had grown old through danger | G |
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One in his slumber laughed with joy | H |
The laughing echoes mocked him | I |
He thought beside his baby boy | H |
He sat and gaily rocked him | I |
O pitying angels Thou wert kind | J |
To end this brief elysian | E |
He found what he no more could find | J |
Save in a dreamer's vision | E |
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The clear note of a mocking bird | K |
That star of sound came falling | D |
Down thro' the night one wakeful heard | K |
And answered to the calling | D |
And then upon the ear there broke | L |
That sweet pathetic measure | G |
That song that wakes as then it woke | L |
Such mingled pain and pleasure | G |
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One voice at first and then the sound | M |
Pulsed like a great bell's swinging | D |
'Tenting to night on the old camp ground ' | - |
The whole roused camp was singing | D |
The sense of warfare's discontent | N |
Gave place to warfare's glory | O |
Right merrily the swift hours went | N |
With song and jest and story | O |
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They sang the song of Old John Brown | E |
Whose march goes on forever | G |
It made them thirsty for renown | E |
It fired them with endeavor | G |
So much of that great heart lives still | P |
So much of that great spirit | Q |
His very name shoots like a thrill | P |
Through all men when they hear it | R |
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They found in tales of march and fight | S |
New courage as they listened | T |
And while they watched the weird camp light | S |
And while the still stars glistened | T |
Like some stern comrade's voice there broke | L |
And swept from hill to valley | O |
'Til all the sleeping echoes woke | L |
The bugle's call to rally | O |
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'To arms to arms the foe is near ' | - |
Ah brave hearts were ye equal | U |
To hearing through without one fear | V |
The whole tale's bloody sequel | U |
The laurel wreath the victor's cry | W |
These are not all of glory | O |
The gaping wound the glazing eye | W |
They too are in the story | O |
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And when again their tents were spread | X |
And by campfires they slumbered | X |
The missing faces of the dead | X |
The living ones outnumbered | X |
And yet their memories animate | X |
The hearts that still survive them | Y |
And holy seems the task and great | X |
For one hour to revive them | Y |
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
(1)
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