A Meditation Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDD EFGFHI JKLKMM NOHOMPNP QBRBSOT PUVUWW XRYTZZ A2B2C2D2B2E2E2 F2RG2RH2SE2 I2J2I2I2E2I2SI2| How often in the years that close | A |
| When truce had stilled the sieging gun | B |
| The soldiers mounting on their works | C |
| With mutual curious glance have run | B |
| From face to face along the fronting show | D |
| And kinsman spied or friend even in a foe | D |
| - | |
| What thoughts conflicting then were shared | E |
| While sacred tenderness perforce | F |
| Welled from the heart and wet the eye | G |
| And something of a strange remorse | F |
| Rebelled against the sanctioned sin of blood | H |
| And Christian wars of natural brotherhood | I |
| - | |
| Then stirred the god within the breast | J |
| The witness that is man's at birth | K |
| A deep misgiving undermined | L |
| Each plea and subterfuge of earth | K |
| They felt in that rapt pause with warning rife | M |
| Horror and anguish for the civil strife | M |
| - | |
| Of North or South they reeked not then | N |
| Warm passion cursed the cause of war | O |
| Can Africa pay back this blood | H |
| Spilt on Potomac's shore | O |
| Yet doubts as pangs were vain the strife | M |
| to stay | P |
| And hands that fain had clasped again | N |
| could slay | P |
| - | |
| How frequent in the camp was seen | Q |
| The herald from the hostile one | B |
| A guest and frank companion there | R |
| When the proud formal talk was done | B |
| The pipe of peace was smoked even 'mid the | S |
| war | O |
| And fields in Mexico again fought o'er | T |
| - | |
| In Western battle long they lay | P |
| So near opposed in trench or pit | U |
| That foeman unto foeman called | V |
| As men who screened in tavern sit | U |
| You bravely fight each to the other said | W |
| Toss us a biscuit o'er the wall it sped | W |
| - | |
| And pale on those same slopes a boy | X |
| A stormer bled in noon day glare | R |
| No aid the Blue coats then could bring | Y |
| He cried to them who nearest were | T |
| And out there came 'mid howling shot and shell | Z |
| A daring foe who him befriended well | Z |
| - | |
| Mark the great Captains on both sides | A2 |
| The soldiers with the broad renown | B2 |
| They all were messmates on the Hudson's | C2 |
| marge | D2 |
| Beneath one roof they laid them down | B2 |
| And free from hate in many an after pass | E2 |
| Strove as in school boy rivalry of the class | E2 |
| - | |
| A darker side there is but doubt | F2 |
| In Nature's charity hovers there | R |
| If men for new agreement yearn | G2 |
| Then old upbraiding best forbear | R |
| The South's the sinner Well so let it be | H2 |
| But shall the North sin worse and stand the | S |
| Pharisee | E2 |
| - | |
| O now that brave men yield the sword | I2 |
| Mine be the manful soldier view | J2 |
| By how much more they boldly warred | I2 |
| By so much more is mercy due | I2 |
| When Vicksburg fell and the moody files | E2 |
| marched out | I2 |
| Silent the victors stood scorning to raise a | S |
| shout | I2 |
Herman Melville
(1)
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