Gettysburg: A Battle Ode Poem Rhyme Scheme

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George Parsons Lathrop

Gettysburg: A Battle Ode Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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I	A
	-
Victors living with laureled brow	B
And you that sleep beneath the sward	C
Your song was poured from cannon throats	D
It rang in deep tongued bugle notes	D
Your triumph came you won your crown	E
The grandeur of a world's renown	E
But in our later lays	F
Full freighted with your praise	F
Fair memory harbors those whose lives laid down	E
In gallant faith and generous heat	G
Gained only sharp defeat	G
All are at peace who once so fiercely warred	G
Brother and brother now we chant a common chord	G
	-
II	A
	-
For if we say God wills	H
Shall we then idly deny Him	I
Care of each host in the fight	G
His thunder was here in the hills	H
When the guns were loud in July	A
And the flash of the musketry's light	G
Was sped by a ray from God's eye	A
In its good and its evil the scheme	J
Was framed with omnipotent hand	G
Though the battle of men was a dream	J
That they could but half understand	G
Can the purpose of God pass by him	I
Nay it was sure and was wrought	G
Under inscrutable powers	K
Bravely the two armies fought	G
And left the land that was greater than they still theirs and ours	K
	-
III	A
	-
Lucid pure and calm and blameless	L
Dawned on Gettysburg the day	G
That should make the spot once fameless	L
Known to nations far away	G
Birds were caroling and farmers	L
Gladdened o'er their garnered hay	G
When the clank of gathering armors	L
Broke the morning's peaceful sway	G
And the living lines of foemen	E
Drawn o'er pasture brook and hill	M
Formed in figures weird of omen	E
That should work with mystic will	M
Measures of a direful magic	N
Shattering maiming and should fill	M
Glades and gorges with a tragic	N
Madness of desire to kill	M
Skirmishers flung lightly forward	G
Moved like scythemen skilled to sweep	O
Westward o'er the field and nor'ward	G
Death's first harvest there to reap	O
You would say the soft white smoke puffs	L
Were but languid clouds asleep	O
Here on meadows there on oak bluffs	L
Fallen foam of Heaven's blue deep	O
Yet that blossom white outbreaking	N
Smoke wove soon a martyr's shroud	G
Reynolds fell with soul unquaking	N
Ardent eyed and open browed	G
Noble men in humbler raiment	G
Fell where shot their graves had plowed	G
Dying not for paltry payment	G
Proud of home of honor proud	G
	-
IV	-
	-
Mute Seminary there	P
Filled once with resonant hymn and prayer	P
How your meek walls and windows shuddered then	E
Though Doubleday stemmed the flood	G
McPherson's Wood and Willoughby's Run	E
Saw ere the set of sun	E
The light of the gospel of blood	G
And on the morrow again	E
Loud the unholy psalm of battle	Q
Burst from the tortured Devil's Den	E
In cries of men and musketry rattle	Q
Mixed with the helpless bellow of cattle	Q
Torn by artillery down in the glen	E
While hurtling through the branches	L
Of the orchard by the road	G
Where Sickles and Birney were walled with steel	R
Shot fiery avalanches	L
That shivered hope and made the sturdiest reel	R
Yet peach bloom bright as April saw	L
Blushed there anew in blood that flowed	G
O'er faces white with death dealt awe	S
And ruddy flowers of warfare grew	T
Though withering winds as of the desert blew	T
Far at the right while Ewell and Early	U
Plunging at Slocum and Wadsworth and Greene	E
Thundered in onslaught consummate and surly	U
Till trembling nightfall crept between	E
And whispered of rest from the heat of the whelming strife	-
But unto those forsaken of life	-
What has the night to say	G
Silent beneath the moony sky	N
Crushed in a costly dew they lie	N
Deaf to plaint or paean they	G
Freed from Earth's dull tyranny	U
	-
V	U
	-
Wordless the night wind funereal plumes of the tree tops swaying	N
Writhing and nodding anon at the beck of the unseen breeze	L
Yet its voice ever a murmur resumes as of multitudes praying	N
Liturgies lost in a moan like the mourning of far away seas	L
May then those spirits set free a celestial council obeying	N
Move in this rustling whisper here thro' the dark shaken trees	L
Souls that are voices alone to us now yet linger returning	N
Thrilled with a sweet reconcilement and fervid with speechless desire	V
Sundered in warfare immortal they meet now with wonder and yearning	N
Dwelling together united a rapt invisible choir	V
Hearken They wail for the living whose passion of battle yet burning	N
Sears and enfolds them in coils and consumes like a serpent of fire	V
	-
VI	N
	-
Men of New Hampshire Pennsylvanians	L
Maine men firm as the rock's rough ledge	W
Swift Mississippians lithe Carolinians	L
Bursting over the battle's edge	W
Bold Indiana men gallant Virginians	L
Jersey and Georgia legions clashing	N
Pick of Connecticut quick Vermonters	L
Louisianians madly dashing	N
And swooping still to fresh encounters	L
New York myriads whirlwind led	G
All your furious forces meeting	N
Torn entangled and shifting place	L
Blend like wings of eagles beating	N
Airy abysses in angry embrace	L
Here in the midmost struggle combining	N
Flags immingled and weapons crossed	G
Still in union your States troop shining	N
Never a star from the lustre is lost	G
	-
VII	N
	-
Once more the sun deploys his rays	L
Third in the trilogy of battle days	L
The awful Friday comes	L
A day of dread	G
That should have moved with slow averted head	G
And muffled feet	G
Knowing what streams of pure blood shed	G
What broken hearts and wounded lives must meet	G
Its pitiless tread	G
At dawn like monster mastiffs baying	N
Federal cannon with a din affraying	N
Roused the old Stonewall brigade	G
That eagerly and undismayed	G
Charged amain to be repelled	G
After four hours' bitter fighting	N
Forth and back with bayonets biting	N
Where in after years the wood	G
Flayed and bullet riddled stood	G
A presence ghostly grim and stark	N
With trees all withered wasted gray	G
The place of combat night and day	G
Like marshaled skeletons to mark	N
Anon a lull the troops are spelled	G
No sound of guns or drums	L
Disturbs the air	P
Only the insect chorus faintly hums	L
Chirping around the patient sleepless dead	G
Scattered or fallen in heaps all wildly spread	G
Forgotten fragments left in hurried flight	G
Forms that a few hours since were human creatures	L
Now blasted of their features	L
Or stamped with blank despair	P
Or with dumb faces smiling as for gladness	L
Though stricken by utter blight	G
Of motionless inert and hopeless sadness	L
Fear you the naked horrors of a war	X
Then cherish peace and take up arms no more	X
For if you fight you must	G
Behold your brothers' dust	G
Unpityingly ground down	E
And mixed with blood and powder	V
To write the annals of renown	E
That make a nation prouder	V
	-
VIII	N
	-
All is quiet till one o'clock	N
Then the hundred and fifty guns	L
Metal loaded with metal in tons	L
Massed by Lee send out their shock	N
And with a movement magnificent	G
Pickett the golden haired leader	V
Thousands and thousands flings onward as if he sent	G
Merely a meek interceder	V
Steadily sure his division advances	L
Gay as the light on its weapons that dances	L
Agonized screams of the shell	Y
The doom that it carries foretell	Y
Rifle balls whistle like sea birds singing	N
Limbs are severed and souls set winging	N
Yet Pickett's warriors never waver	V
Show me in all the world anything braver	V
Than the bold sweep of his fearless battalions	L
Three half miles over ground unsheltered	G
Up to the cannon where regiments weltered	G
Prone in the batteries' blast that raked	G
Swaths of men and flame tongued drank	N
Their blood with eager thirst unslaked	G
Armistead Kemper and Pettigrew	V
Rush on the Union men rank against rank	N
Planting their battle flags high on the crest	G
Pause not the soldiers nor dream they of rest	G
Till they fall with their enemy's guns at the breast	G
And the shriek in their ears of the wounded artillery stallions	L
So Pickett charged a man indued	G
With knightly power to lead a multitude	G
And bring to fame the scarred surviving few	V
	-
IX	L
	-
In vain the mighty endeavor	V
In vain the immortal valor	V
In vain the insurgent life outpoured	G
Faltered the column spent with shot and sword	G
Its bright hope blanched with sudden pallor	V
While Hancock's trefoil bloomed in triple fame	Z
He chose the field he saved the second day	G
And honoring here his glorious name	Z
Again his phalanx held victorious sway	G
Meade's line stood firm and volley on volley roared	G
Triumphant Union soon to be restored	G
Strong to defy all foes and fears forever	V
The Ridge was wreathed with angry fire	V
As flames rise round a martyr's stake	N
For many a hero on that pyre	V
Was offered for our dear land's sake	N
What time in heaven the gray clouds flew	V
To mingle with the deathless blue	V
While here below the blue and gray	G
Melted minglingly away	G
Mirroring heaven to make another day	G
And we who are Americans we pray	G
The splendor of strength that Gettysburg knew	V
May light the long generations with glorious ray	G
And keep us undyingly true	V
	-
X	L
	-
Dear are the dead we weep for	V
Dear are the strong hearts broken	E
Proudly their memory we keep for	V
Our help and hope a token	E
Of sacred thought too deep for	V
Words that leave it unspoken	E
All that we know of fairest	G
All that we have of meetest	G
Here we lay down for the rarest	G
Doers whose souls rose fleetest	G
And in their homes of air rest	G
Ranked with the truest and sweetest	G
Days with fiery hearted bold advances	L
Nights in dim and shadowy swift retreat	G
Rains that rush with bright embattled lances	L
Thunder booming round your stirless feet	G
Winds that set the orchard with sweet fancies	L
All abloom or ripple the ripening wheat	G
Moonlight starlight on your mute graves falling	N
Dew distilled as tears unbidden flow	A2
Dust of drought in drifts and layers crawling	N
Lulling dreams of softly whispering snow	A2
Happy birds from leafy coverts calling	N
These go on yet none of these you know	A2
Hearing not our human voices	L
Speaking to you all in vain	E
Nor the psalm of a land that rejoices	L
Ringing from churches and cities and foundries a mighty refrain	E
But we and the sun and the birds and the breezes that blow	A2
When tempests are striving and lightnings of heaven are spent	G
With one consent	G
Make unto them	B2
Who died for us eternal requiem	C2
	-
XI	L
	-
Lovely to look on O South	D2
No longer stately scornful	Q
But beautiful still in pride	G
Our hearts go out to you as toward a bride	G
Garmented soft in white	G
Haughty and yet how love imbuing and tender	V
You stand before us with your gently mournful	Q
Memory haunted eyes and flower like mouth	D2
Where clinging thoughts as bees a cluster	V
Murmur through the leafy gloom	E2
Musical in monotone	E
Whisper sadly Yet a lustre	V
As of glowing gold gray light	G
Shines upon the orient bloom	E2
Sweet with orange blossoms thrown	E
Round the jasmine starred deep night	G
Crowning with dark hair your brow	V
Ruthless once we came to slay	G
And you met us then with hate	G
Rough was the wooing of war we won you	V
Won you at last though late	G
Dear South to day	G
As our country's altar made us	L
One forever so we vow	V
Unto yours our love to render	V
Strength with strength we here endow	V
And we make your honor ours	L
Happiness and hope shall sun you	V
All the wiles that half betrayed us	L
Vanish from us like spent showers	L
	-
XII	L
	-
Two hostile bullets in mid air	V
Together shocked	G
And swift were locked	G
Forever in a firm embrace	L
Then let us men have so much grace	L
To take the bullets' place	L
And learn that we are held	G
By laws that weld	G
Our hearts together	V
As once we battled hand to hand	G
So hand in hand to day we stand	G
Sworn to each other	V
Brother and brother	V
In storm and mist or calm translucent weather	V
And Gettysburg's guns with their death giving roar	V
Echoed from ocean to ocean shall pour	V
Quickening life to the nation's core	V
Filling our minds again	E
With the spirit of those who wrought in the	F2
Field of the Flower of Men	E