The Frenzy In The Wake Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABC CDCEFGHG IJKJLMNM OMPMQCRC STSTUVWX Y Z X X| A | |
| Sherman's advance through the Carolinas | B |
| February | C |
| - | |
| - | |
| So strong to suffer shall we be | C |
| Weak to contend and break | D |
| The sinews of the Oppressor's knee | C |
| That grinds upon the neck | E |
| O the garments rolled in blood | F |
| Scorch in cities wrapped in flame | G |
| And the African the imp | H |
| He gibbers imputing shame | G |
| - | |
| Shall Time avenging every woe | I |
| To us that joy allot | J |
| Which Israel thrilled when Sisera's brow | K |
| Showed gaunt and showed the clot | J |
| Curse on their foreheads cheeks and eyes | L |
| The Northern faces true | M |
| To the flag we hate the flag whose stars | N |
| Like planets strike us through | M |
| - | |
| From frozen Maine they come | O |
| Far Minnesota too | M |
| They come to a sun whose rays disown | P |
| May it wither them as the dew | M |
| The ghosts of our slain appeal | Q |
| Vain shall our victories be | C |
| But back from its ebb the flood recoils | R |
| Back in a whelming sea | C |
| - | |
| With burning woods our skies are brass | S |
| The pillars of dust are seen | T |
| The live long day their cavalry pass | S |
| No crossing the road between | T |
| We were sore deceived an awful host | U |
| They move like a roaring wind | V |
| Have we gamed and lost but even despair | W |
| Shall never our hate rescind | X |
| - | |
| The piece was written while yet the reports were coming North of Sherman's homeward advance from Savannah It is needless to point out its purely dramatic character | Y |
| - | |
| Though the sentiment ascribed in the beginning of the second stanza must in the present reading suggest the historic tragedy of the th of April nevertheless as intimated it was written prior to that event and without any distinct application in the writer's mind After consideration it is allowed to remain | Z |
| - | |
| Few need be reminded that by the less intelligent classes of the South Abraham Lincoln by nature the most kindly of men was regarded as a monster wantonly warring upon liberty He stood for the personification of tyrannic power Each Union soldier was called a Lincolnite | X |
| - | |
| Undoubtedly Sherman in the desolation he inflicted after leaving Atlanta acted not in contravention of orders and all in a military point of view if by military judged deemed to have been expedient and nothing can abate General Sherman's shining renown his claims to it rest on no single campaign Still there are those who can not but contrast some of the scenes enacted in Georgia and the Carolinas and also in the Shenandoah with a circumstance in a great Civil War of heathen antiquity Plutarch relates that in a military council held by Pompey and the chiefs of that party which stood for the Commonwealth it was decided that under no plea should any city be sacked that was subject to the people of Rome There was this difference however between the Roman civil conflict and the American one The war of Pompey and Caesar divided the Roman people promiscuously that of the North and South ran a frontier line between what for the time were distinct communities or nations In this circumstance possibly and some others may be found both the cause and the justification of some of the sweeping measures adopted | X |
Herman Melville
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