The Cry Of The People Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD DEFEG BHEDBI DDJD BBB JDKL DDMNBLF BCCJBK DOKMDPF QEHI JBQR| Fire Fire Fire the cry rang out on the night air | A |
| The roving winds caught it up and the very heavens resounded | B |
| Louder and louder still by voices grown hoarse with terror | C |
| The cry went up and out and a nation stood still to listen | D |
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| 'Come for the love of God and help us fight the demon | D |
| Come and help us to chain the fiend that is making us homeless | E |
| His hot and scorching breath has melted our hard earned fortunes | F |
| And not contented with this he is snatching our loved ones from us | E |
| The air is thick with the stream that pours in clouds from his nostrils | G |
| Come for the love of God and help us to fetter or slay him ' | - |
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| The ear of the Nation heard the heart of the Nation responded | B |
| The smith left anvil and forge and hastened to render assistance | H |
| The clergyman went from the pulpit the lawyer went from his office | E |
| The houses of trade were closed and a Nation was in commotion | D |
| For the hungry tongue of Fire was lapping the skirts of the city | B |
| The royal Queen of the West and her people were crying in anguish | I |
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| Nobly and well they worked till they chained and fettered the demon | D |
| Bound him hand and foot and hindered his work of destruction | D |
| Over the land on wires over the mighty cable | J |
| Flashed the terrible truth 'Ruin and destitution | D |
| Reigns where but yesterday there was lavish wealth and plenty ' | - |
| And up from the South came aid and aid came down from the Northland | B |
| And it came from East and West wholesome food for the hungry | B |
| Shelter for houseless heads and clothes to cover the naked | B |
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| Hark there's a sound abroad like the cry of a suffering people | J |
| Loud and louder it swells and echoes from ocean to ocean | D |
| The raving winds catch it up and from throats that are hoarse with crying | K |
| The wail goes up and out but is answered only by echoes | L |
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| 'Come for the love of God and help us to fetter the demon | D |
| That is taking the bread from our mouths and the mouths of our helpless children | D |
| He is walking abroad in the land and all things perish before him | M |
| Homesteads crumble away and fortunes vanish like snow wreaths | N |
| And not contented with this he is slaying our best and our fairest | B |
| Stealing the brains of the wise and bringing the young to the gallows | L |
| He is making the home forlorn and crowding the jails and the prisons | F |
| He moves the hand of the thief he drives the assassin's dagger ' | - |
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| The ear of the Nation is deaf the heart of the Nation is hardened | B |
| The smith at his anvil and forge sings in the midst of his labor | C |
| The clergyman stands in his pulpit and prays for the soul of the sinner | C |
| But says no word of the fiend who wrecked and ruined the mortal | J |
| The lawyer smokes his cigar or sips his glass of Burgundy | B |
| The merchant day after day thinks only of buying and selling | K |
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| And up and down through the land night and day walks the demon | D |
| Poverty sorrow and shame follow the print of his footsteps | O |
| The cry of the people goes up a cry of anguish and pleading | K |
| But only a few respond a few too feeble to chain him | M |
| The multitude stands aloof or aids the fiend of destruction | D |
| While he tramples under his hoofs hundreds and thousands of victims | P |
| And the multitude's ear is deaf to the wail of the beggared orphans | F |
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| Shame oh shame to the Nation that leaves the demon of Traffic | Q |
| Free to roam through the land and pillage and rob the helpless | E |
| Shame to the multitude that will not render assistance | H |
| But leaves a few to do what many can only accomplish | I |
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| Arouse ye listless hosts and answer the suffering people | J |
| Spring to the aid of the million as ye sprang to the aid of the thousand | B |
| As you fettered the demon Fire fetter the demon Traffic | Q |
| Who slays his tens of thousands where the other slew only hundreds | R |
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
(1)
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