Arms And The Man. - Heroes And Statesmen Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEE GHGH EIEI EEEE IJIJ EKEK LMNM OPOP MEME QOQO RERE MSMS MMMM MRMR MTMT EMEM RERE MPMP UMUMOf their great names I may record but few | A |
He who beholds the Ocean white with sails | B |
And copies each confuses all the view | A |
He paints too much and fails | B |
- | |
His picture shows no high emphatic light | C |
Its shadows in full mass refuse to fall | D |
And as its broken details meet the light | C |
Men turn it to the wall | D |
- | |
Of those great names but few may pass my lips | E |
For he who speaks of Salamis then sees | F |
Not men who there commanded Grecian ships | E |
But grand Themistocles | E |
- | |
Yet some I mark and these discreetly take | G |
To grace my verse through duty and design | H |
As one notes barks that leave the broadest wake | G |
Upon the stormy Brine | H |
- | |
These rise before me and there Mason stands | E |
The Constitution maker firm and bold | I |
Like Bernal Diaz planting with kind hands | E |
Fair trees to blaze in gold | I |
- | |
Amid the lofty group sedate I see | E |
Great Franklin muse where Truth had locked her stores | E |
Holding within his steady hand the key | E |
That opened many doors | E |
- | |
And Trumbull strong as hammered steel of old | I |
Stands boldly out in clear and high relief | J |
A blade unbending worth a hilt of gold | I |
He never failed his Chief | J |
- | |
Then Robert Morris glides into my Verse | E |
Turning the very stones at need to bread | K |
Filling the young Republic's slender purse | E |
When Credit's self seemed dead | K |
- | |
Tylers I see sprung from the sturdy Wat | L |
A strong armed rebel of an ancient date | M |
With Falkland Carys come to draw the lot | N |
Cast in the helm of Fate | M |
- | |
And Marshall in his ermine white as snow | O |
Wise learned and profound Fame loves to draw | P |
His noble function on the Bench to show | O |
That Reason is the Law | P |
- | |
His sword unbuckled and his brows unbent | M |
The gallant Hamilton again appears | E |
And in fair Freedom's mighty Parliament | M |
He marches with the Peers | E |
- | |
Henry is there beneath his civic crown | Q |
He speaks in words that thunder as they flow | O |
And as he speaks his thunder tones bring down | Q |
An avalanche below | O |
- | |
Nor does John Adams in the picture lag | R |
He was as bold as resolute and free | E |
As is the eagle on a misty crag | R |
Above a stormy sea | E |
- | |
And 'mid his fellows in those days of need | M |
Impassioned Jefferson burns like a sun | S |
The New World's Prophet of the New World's Creed | M |
Prophet and Priest in one | S |
- | |
These two together stood in our great past | M |
When Independence flamed across the land | M |
On Independence Day these two at last | M |
Departed hand in hand | M |
- | |
And they are taken by a patriot's mind | M |
As kindred types of our great Saxon stock | R |
And that same thinker hopes some day to find | M |
Both statues in one block | R |
- | |
But here I number splendid names too fast | M |
Heroes and Sages throng behind this group | T |
And thick they come as came in Homer's past | M |
A Goddess and her troop | T |
- | |
And as that troop 'mid frays and fell alarms | E |
Swept all a glitter on their mission bent | M |
And bore from Vulcan the resplendent arms | E |
To great Achilles sent | M |
- | |
So came the names that light my pious Song | R |
Came bearing Union forged in high debates | E |
A sun illuminated Shield and strong | R |
To guard these mighty States | E |
- | |
The Shield sent to the son of Peleus glowed | M |
With hammered wonders all without a flaw | P |
The Shield of Union in its splendor showed | M |
The Compromise of Law | P |
- | |
And as the Epic lifts a form sublime | U |
For all the Ages on its plinth of gold | M |
So does our Story challenging all time | U |
Its crowning shape uphold | M |
James Barron Hope
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation