Marthy Virginia's Hand Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBBCC DDEEEFF GGHHHIJI KKLLLMM KKKKKKK| There on the left said the colonel the battle had shuddered and faded away | A |
| Wraith of a fiery enchantment that left only ashes and blood sprinkled clay | A |
| Ride to the left and examine that ridge where the enemy's sharpshooters stood | B |
| Lord how they picked off our men from the treacherous vantage ground of the wood | B |
| But for their bullets I'll bet my batteries sent them something as good | B |
| Go and explore and report to me then and tell me how many we killed | C |
| Never a wink shall I sleep till I know our vengeance was duly fulfilled | C |
| - | |
| Fiercely the orderly rode down the slope of the corn field scarred and forlorn | D |
| Rutted by violent wheels and scathed by the shot that had plowed it in scorn | D |
| Fiercely and burning with wrath for the sight of his comrades crushed at a blow | E |
| Flung in broken shapes on the ground like ruined memorials of woe | E |
| These were the men whom at daybreak he knew but never again could know | E |
| Thence to the ridge where roots outthrust and twisted branches of trees | F |
| Clutched the hill like clawing lions firm their prey to seize | F |
| - | |
| What's your report and the grim colonel smiled when the orderly came back at last | G |
| Strangely the soldier paused Well they were punished And strange his face aghast | G |
| Yes our fire told on them knocked over fifty laid out in line of parade | H |
| Brave fellows colonel to stay as they did But one I 'most wish had n't stayed | H |
| Mortally wounded he'd torn off his knapsack and then at the end he prayed | H |
| Easy to see by his hands that were clasped and the dull dead fingers yet held | I |
| This little letter his wife's from the knapsack | J |
| A pity those woods were shelled | I |
| - | |
| Silent the orderly watching with tears in his eyes as his officer scanned | K |
| Four short pages of writing What's this about 'Marthy Virginia's hand' | K |
| Swift from his honeymoon he the dead soldier had gone from his bride to the strife | L |
| Never they met again but she had written him telling of that new life | L |
| Born in the daughter that bound her still closer and closer to him as his wife | L |
| Laying her baby's hand down on the letter around it she traced a rude line | M |
| If you would kiss the baby she wrote you must kiss this outline of mine | M |
| - | |
| There was the shape of the hand on the page with the small chubby fingers outspread | K |
| Marthy Virginia's hand for her pa so the words on the little palm said | K |
| Never a wink slept the colonel that night for the vengeance so blindly fulfilled | K |
| Never again woke the old battle glow when the bullets their death note shrilled | K |
| Long ago ended the struggle in union of brotherhood happily stilled | K |
| Yet from that field of Antietam in warning and token of love's command | K |
| See there is lifted the hand of a baby Marthy Virginia's hand | K |
George Parsons Lathrop
(1)
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