The Bride Of War Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCCBCDDEE FGHIJJKLLKMM NNNNNODOOD NNPPN QQRRQ SSTTS SSNUNUVVNNSSW WXXYYZZA2A2B2B2YY SNSC2C2ND2ZZD2D2D2D2 E2D2E2F2D2D2G2 D2D2H2I2I2SH2SH2SJ2J 2 NSNSN D2 D2 NN D2D2D2SSSSS G2 S J2K2K2J2J2NNSSSSNN SS G2D2SD2G2D2D2SD2NNJ2 J2SJ2SJ2L2L2 M2M2N2J2N2J2 J2 SSJ2SJ2SSSSO2O2YJ2J2 YYArnold's March to Canada | A |
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I | - |
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The trumpet with a giant sound | B |
Its harsh war summons wildly sings | C |
And bursting forth like mountain springs | C |
Poured from the hillside camping ground | B |
Each swift battalion shouting flings | C |
Its force in line where you may see | D |
The men broad shouldered heavily | D |
Sway to the swing of the march their heads | E |
Dark like the stones in river beds | E |
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Lightly the autumn breezes | F |
Play with the shining dust cloud | G |
Rising to the sunset rays | H |
From feet of the moving column | I |
Soft as you listen comes | J |
The echo of iterant drums | J |
Brought by the breezes light | K |
From the files that follow the road | L |
A moment their guns have glowed | L |
Sun smitten then out of sight | K |
They suddenly sink | M |
Like men who touch a new grave's brink | M |
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II | - |
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So it was the march began | N |
The march of Morgan's riflemen | N |
Who like iron held the van | N |
In unhappy Arnold's plan | N |
To win Wolfe's daring fame again | N |
With them by her husband's side | O |
Jemima Warner nobly free | D |
Moved more fair than when a bride | O |
One year since she strove to hide | O |
The blush it was a joy to see | D |
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III | - |
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O distant terrible forests of Maine | N |
With huge trees numberless as the rain | N |
That falls on your lonely lakes | P |
It falls and sings through the years but wakes | P |
No answering echo of joy or pain | N |
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Your tangled wilderness was tracked | Q |
With struggle and sorrow and vengeful act | Q |
'Gainst Puritan pagan and priest | R |
Where wolf and panther and serpent ceased | R |
Man added the horrors your dark maze lacked | Q |
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The land was scarred with deeds not good | S |
Like the fretting of worms on withered wood | S |
What if its venomous spell | T |
Breathed into Arnold a prompting of Hell | T |
With slow empoisoning force indued | S |
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IV | - |
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As through that dreary realm he went | S |
Followed a shape of dark portent | S |
Pard like of furtive eye with brain | N |
To treason narrowing Aaron Burr | U |
Moved loyal seeming in the train | N |
Led by the arch conspirator | U |
And craven Enos closed the rear | V |
Whose honor's flame died out in fear | V |
Not sooner does the dry bough burn | N |
And into fruitless ashes turn | N |
Than he with whispered false command | S |
Drew back the hundreds in his hand | S |
Fled like a shade and all forsook | W |
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Wherever Arnold bent his look | W |
Danger and doubt around him hung | X |
And pale Disaster shrouded flung | X |
Black omens in his track as though | Y |
The fingers of a future woe | Y |
Already clutched his life to wring | Z |
Some expiation for the thing | Z |
That he was yet to do A chill | A2 |
Struck helpless many a steadfast will | A2 |
Within the ranks the very air | B2 |
Rang with a thunder toned despair | B2 |
The hills seemed wandering to and fro | Y |
Like lost guides blinded by the snow | Y |
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V | - |
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Yet faithful still 'mid woe and doubt | S |
One woman's loyal heart whose pain | N |
Filled it with pure celestial light | S |
Shone starry constant like the North | C2 |
Or that still radiance beaming forth | C2 |
From sacred lights in some lone fane | N |
But he whose ring Jemima wore | D2 |
By want and weariness all unstrung | Z |
Though strong and honest of heart and young | Z |
Shrank at the blast that pierced so frore | D2 |
Like a huge invisible bird of prey | D2 |
Furious launched from Labrador | D2 |
And the granite cliffs of Saguenay | D2 |
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Along the bleak Dead River's banks | E2 |
They forced amain their frozen way | D2 |
But ever from the thinning ranks | E2 |
Shapes of ice would reel and fall | F2 |
Human shapes whose dying prayer | D2 |
Floated a mute white mist in air | D2 |
The crowding snow their pall | G2 |
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Spectre like Famine drew near | D2 |
Her doom word hummed in his ear | D2 |
Ah weak were woman's hands to reach | H2 |
And save him from the hellish charms | I2 |
And wizard motion of those arms | I2 |
Yet only noble womanhood | S |
The wife her dauntless part could teach | H2 |
She shared with him the last dry food | S |
And thronged with hopefulness her speech | H2 |
As when hard by her home the flood | S |
Of rushing Conestoga fills | J2 |
Its depth afresh from springtide rills | J2 |
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All all in vain | N |
For far behind the invading rout | S |
These two were left alone | N |
And in the waste their wildest shout | S |
Seemed but a smothered groan | N |
Like sheeted wanderers from the grave | - |
They moved and yet seemed not to stir | D2 |
As icy gorge and sere leaf'd grove | - |
Of withered oak and shrouded fir | D2 |
Were passed and onward still they strove | - |
While the loud wind's artillery clave | - |
The air and furious sleety rain | N |
Swung like a sword above the plain | N |
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VI | - |
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They crossed the hills they came to where | D2 |
Through an arid gloom the river Chaudiere | D2 |
Fled like a Maenad with outstreaming hair | D2 |
And there the soldier sank and died | S |
Death dumb he fell yet ere life sped | S |
Child like on her knee he laid his head | S |
She strove to pray but all words fled | S |
Save those their love had sanctified | S |
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And then her voice rose waveringly | G2 |
To the notes of a mother's lullaby | - |
But her song was only Ah must thou die | - |
And to her his eyes death still replied | S |
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VII | - |
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Dead leaves and stricken boughs | J2 |
She heaped o'er the fallen form | K2 |
Wolf nor hawk nor lawless storm | K2 |
Him from his rest should rouse | J2 |
But first with solemn vows | J2 |
Took rifle pouch and horn | N |
And the belt that he had worn | N |
Then onward pressing fast | S |
Through the forest rude and vast | S |
Hunger wasted fever parch'd | S |
Many bitter days she marched | S |
With bleeding feet that spurned the flinty pain | N |
One thought always throbbing through her brain | N |
They shall never say 'He was afraid ' | - |
They shall never cry 'The coward stayed ' | - |
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VIII | - |
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Now the wilderness is passed | S |
Now the first hut reached at last | S |
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Ho dwellers by the frontier trail | G2 |
Come forth and greet the bride of war | D2 |
From cabin and rough settlement | S |
They come to speed her on her way | D2 |
Maidens whose ruddy cheeks grow pale | G2 |
With pity never felt before | D2 |
Children that cluster at the door | D2 |
Mothers whose toil worn hands are lent | S |
To help or bid her longer stay | D2 |
But through them all she passes on | N |
Strangely martial fair and wan | N |
Nor waits to listen to their cheers | J2 |
That sound so faintly in her ears | J2 |
For now all scenes around her shift | S |
Like those before a racer's eyes | J2 |
When foremost sped and madly swift | S |
Quick stretching toward the goal he flies | J2 |
Yet feels his strength wane with his breath | L2 |
And purpose fail 'mid fears of death | L2 |
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Till like the flashing of a lamp | M2 |
Starts forth the sight of Arnold's camp | M2 |
The bivouac flame and sinuous gleam | N2 |
Of steel where crouched the army waits | J2 |
Ere long beyond the midnight stream | N2 |
To storm Quebec's ice mounded gates | J2 |
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IX | J2 |
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Then to the leader she was brought | S |
And spoke her simply loyal thought | S |
If 'mid the shame of after days | J2 |
The man who wronged his country's trust | S |
Yet now in worth outweighed all praise | J2 |
Remembered what this woman wrought | S |
It should have bowed him to the dust | S |
Humbly my soldier husband tried | S |
To do his part He served and died | S |
But honor did not die His name | O2 |
And honor bringing both I came | O2 |
And this his rifle here to show | Y |
While far away the tired heart sleeps | J2 |
To day his faith with you he keeps | J2 |
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Proudly the war bride ending so | Y |
Sank breathless in the dumb white snow | Y |
George Parsons Lathrop
(1)
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