Burial-song For Sumner Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCDCADAA EFFBGGBGBBHHIIBBHEE JJKJKBBLMHHHNGGGGOOG GGPPCCGGG QQRSSTURHRHHHDDC HHGG VWVWBBXXYGGZ GXBGBBBBGA2GA2GGB2HB 2 C2GVGD2D2EEGHHC2 BBHHHGHGBGBBG BBE2F2F2E2GE2BKBKHGH HNow the last wreath of snow | A |
That melts in mist exhales | B |
White aspiration and our deep voiced gales | B |
In chorus chant the measured march of spring | C |
Whom griefs of life and death | D |
Are burdening | C |
Slow slow | A |
With half held breath | D |
Tread slow O mourners that all men may know | A |
What hero here lies low | A |
- | |
O music sweep | E |
From some deep cave and bear | F |
To us that gasp in this so meagre air | F |
Sweet ministerings | B |
And consolations of contorted sound | G |
With agonies profound | G |
Of nobly warring and enduring chords | B |
That lie close bound | G |
Unstirred as yet 'neath thy wide wakening wings | B |
So that our hearts break not in broken words | B |
O music that hast power | H |
This darkness to devour | H |
In vivid light that from the dusk of grief | I |
Canst cause to grow divergent flower and leaf | I |
And from death's darkest roots | B |
Bring forth the fairest fruits | B |
Come thou to quicken this hour | H |
Of loss and keep | E |
Thy spell on all that none may dare to weep | E |
- | |
For he whom now we mourn | J |
As if from giants born | J |
Was strong in limb and strong in brain | K |
And nobly with a giant scorn | J |
Withstood the direst pain | K |
That healing science knows | B |
When by the dastard blows | B |
Of his brute enemy | L |
Laid low he sought to rise again | M |
Through help of knife and fire | H |
The awful enginery | H |
Wherewith men dare aspire | H |
To wrest from Death his victims Yea | N |
Though he who healed him shrank and throbbed | G |
With horror of the wound | G |
Brave Sumner gave no sound | G |
Nor flinched nor sobbed | G |
But as though within the man | O |
Instant premonition ran | O |
Of his high fate | G |
Imperishable sculptured state | G |
Enthroned in death to hold | G |
He stood a statued form | P |
Of veiled and voiceless storm | P |
Inwardly quivering | C |
Like the swift smitten string | C |
Of unheard music yet | G |
As massively and firmly set | G |
As if he had been marble or wrought gold | G |
- | |
Built in so brave a shape | Q |
How could he hope escape | Q |
The blundering people's wrath | R |
Who seeing him strong | S |
Supposed it right to cast on him their wrong | S |
Since he could bear it all | T |
Lo now the sombre pall | U |
Sweeps their dull errors from the path | R |
And leaves it free | H |
For him whose hushed heart no reproaches hath | R |
Unto his grave to fare | H |
In shrouded majesty | H |
His triumph fills the air | H |
Behold the streets are bordered with vain breath | D |
Of those who reverent watch the train of death | D |
But he has done with breathing | C |
- | |
Wise Death still choosing near and far | H |
Thou couldst not strike a higher star | H |
From out our heaven and yet its light | G |
In falling glorifies the night | G |
- | |
Leader in life his lips though dumb | V |
Still rule us by their restfulness their smile | W |
Of far off meanings and the people come | V |
In tributary hosts for many a mile | W |
Drawn by an eloquence | B |
More solemn and intense | B |
Than that wherewith he shook | X |
The Senate while his look | X |
Of sober lightning cleft the knotty growth | Y |
Of error that within the riven root | G |
Uplifted lit with peace truth's buds might shoot | G |
And blow sweet breath o'er all however loth | Z |
- | |
Unspeaking though his eyes forget | G |
The light that late forsook | X |
Their chambers there doth rise | B |
Mysteriously yet | G |
A radiance thence that glows | B |
On brows of them the great and wise | B |
Poets and men of prophecies | B |
Who with looks of strange repose | B |
Calm exalted here have met | G |
Him to follow to his grave | A2 |
Well they know he's crossed their bound | G |
Yet with baffled longing brave | A2 |
Seek with him the depths to sound | G |
That gulf our lonely life around | G |
Oh on these mortal faces frail | B2 |
What immortality | H |
Falls from the death light pale | B2 |
- | |
Ev'n thus the path unto thy tomb | C2 |
Sumner all our brave and good | G |
Still shall pace through time to come | V |
For in distant Auburn wood | G |
Seeing the glimmer of thy stone | D2 |
They a shaft shall deem it thrown | D2 |
From a dawn beyond the deep | E |
And so haste with thee to keep | E |
Angelic brotherhood | G |
O herald gone before | H |
For these throw wide the door | H |
Make room make room | C2 |
- | |
Now music cease | B |
And bitter brazen trumpets hold your peace | B |
Now while the dumb white air | H |
Draws from our still despair | H |
A purer prayer | H |
Then must the sod | G |
Fulfill its humble share | H |
Meek folded o'er his breast | G |
Here where he lies amongst the waiting trees | B |
They shall break bud when warm winds from the west | G |
And southern breezes come to touch the place | B |
Made precious by this grace | B |
Of memory dear to God | G |
- | |
We leave him where the granite Lion lies | B |
And gazes toward the East with woman's eyes | B |
That read the riddle of the undying sun | E2 |
Bearing within her breast the stony germ | F2 |
Of continents but lasting no less firm | F2 |
The memory of those marvels done | E2 |
The battles fought the words that wrought | G |
To free a race and chasten one | E2 |
We leave him where the river slowly winds | B |
A broken chain | K |
The river that so late its hero finds | B |
Without a stain | K |
Whose name so long expectantly it bore | H |
And echoing now a people's thought | G |
The Charles shall murmur by this reedy shore | H |
His fame forevermore | H |
George Parsons Lathrop
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