A Hero Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCC DEDEFF GHGHII JKLKMM NKNKOP QKQKRR SESETT UEUEVV WXWEGG YKZKA2A2 M| Like many another I have crossed | A |
| Oftener than once the broad Atlantic | B |
| And feeling qualms when tempest tossed | A |
| Have shuddered at the waves gigantic | B |
| Fearing that really nevermore | C |
| I'd find myself again ashore | C |
| - | |
| Then when upset and scarce awake | D |
| In moments of perturbed reflection | E |
| My wandering thoughts would slowly take | D |
| Time and again the same direction | E |
| I'd think of that adventurous man | F |
| Who crossed the sea first of my clan | F |
| - | |
| 'Tis not for me to hope to find | G |
| Upon my family tree's broad branches | H |
| Ancestors wholly to my mind | G |
| I know that I am taking chances | H |
| In digging them up from the past | I |
| To deck this hardy tree at last | I |
| - | |
| Indeed I would not waste my breath | J |
| And even less my ink and paper | K |
| To prove from Queen Elizabeth | L |
| Is my descent some cut this caper | K |
| Nor in King Alfred root my tree | M |
| Here's jocund genealogy | M |
| - | |
| A Governor or two of course | N |
| Or even a Colonial preacher | K |
| I'd not despise nor yet perforce | N |
| A good Selectman stern of feature | K |
| Provided they came early here | O |
| Such ancestors to me are dear | P |
| - | |
| Yet of them all the man I hold | Q |
| A mighty hero none seems greater | K |
| Is he that honest man and bold | Q |
| Whether Psalm singer or bear baiter | K |
| First of my name to reach the strand | R |
| Of this almost unpeopled land | R |
| - | |
| He may have been of high estate | S |
| He may have been a simple yeoman | E |
| Undaunted by an adverse fate | S |
| Brave was he as the bravest Roman | E |
| At naught he quailed his heart was stout | T |
| When he for the New World set out | T |
| - | |
| Compared with mine a little skiff | U |
| His boat was on the untracked ocean | E |
| Comforts were scarce and breezes stiff | U |
| No luxuries though I've a notion | E |
| Billows were just as high as now | V |
| While Danger sat upon the prow | V |
| - | |
| Just where would be his landing place | W |
| He hardly knew when waves he tossed on | X |
| While my woes at sea efface | W |
| By merely murmuring Home is Boston | E |
| Yet he had left his all behind | G |
| In the new world his all to find | G |
| - | |
| R E E D E I E A | Y |
| Just how we spell it need not matter | K |
| The name we honor here today | Z |
| Each clan may claim with equal clatter | K |
| British euphonious clear and short | A2 |
| Rede me a name of better sort | A2 |
| - | |
| Read at a meeting of a Genealogical Society | M |
Helen Leah Reed
(1)
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About A Hero
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