Marthy Virginia's Hand Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFEGEHIJI FKFKLMNMOMPQDQ ARSRCTUTVTWXVX YZA2A2SB2C2B2SB2SD2O D2 E2A2FA2F2A2FA2G2A2A2 A2FA2| There on the left said the colonel the battle | A |
| had shuddered and faded away | B |
| Wraith of a fiery enchantment that left only | C |
| ashes and blood sprinkled clay | B |
| Ride to the left and examine that ridge where | D |
| the enemy's sharpshooters stood | E |
| Lord how they picked off our men from the | F |
| treacherous vantage ground of the wood | E |
| But for their bullets I'll bet my batteries sent | G |
| them something as good | E |
| Go and explore and report to me then and tell | H |
| me how many we killed | I |
| Never a wink shall I sleep till I know our vengeance | J |
| was duly fulfilled | I |
| - | |
| Fiercely the orderly rode down the slope of the | F |
| corn field scarred and forlorn | K |
| Rutted by violent wheels and scathed by the | F |
| shot that had plowed it in scorn | K |
| Fiercely and burning with wrath for the sight | L |
| of his comrades crushed at a blow | M |
| Flung in broken shapes on the ground like | N |
| ruined memorials of woe | M |
| These were the men whom at daybreak he knew | O |
| but never again could know | M |
| Thence to the ridge where roots outthrust and | P |
| twisted branches of trees | Q |
| Clutched the hill like clawing lions firm their | D |
| prey to seize | Q |
| - | |
| What's your report and the grim colonel | A |
| smiled when the orderly came back at last | R |
| Strangely the soldier paused Well they were | S |
| punished And strange his face aghast | R |
| Yes our fire told on them knocked over fifty | C |
| laid out in line of parade | T |
| Brave fellows colonel to stay as they did But | U |
| one I 'most wish had n't stayed | T |
| Mortally wounded he'd torn off his knapsack | V |
| and then at the end he prayed | T |
| Easy to see by his hands that were clasped | W |
| and the dull dead fingers yet held | X |
| This little letter his wife's from the knapsack | V |
| A pity those woods were shelled | X |
| - | |
| Silent the orderly watching with tears in his eyes | Y |
| as his officer scanned | Z |
| Four short pages of writing What's this about | A2 |
| 'Marthy Virginia's hand' | A2 |
| Swift from his honeymoon he the dead soldier | S |
| had gone from his bride to the strife | B2 |
| Never they met again but she had written him | C2 |
| telling of that new life | B2 |
| Born in the daughter that bound her still closer | S |
| and closer to him as his wife | B2 |
| Laying her baby's hand down on the letter | S |
| around it she traced a rude line | D2 |
| If you would kiss the baby she wrote you | O |
| must kiss this outline of mine | D2 |
| - | |
| There was the shape of the hand on the page | E2 |
| with the small chubby fingers outspread | A2 |
| Marthy Virginia's hand for her pa so the | F |
| words on the little palm said | A2 |
| Never a wink slept the colonel that night for | F2 |
| the vengeance so blindly fulfilled | A2 |
| Never again woke the old battle glow when the | F |
| bullets their death note shrilled | A2 |
| Long ago ended the struggle in union of | G2 |
| brotherhood happily stilled | A2 |
| Yet from that field of Antietam in warning and | A2 |
| token of love's command | A2 |
| See there is lifted the hand of a baby Marthy | F |
| Virginia's hand | A2 |
George Parsons Lathrop
(1)
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