Mahone's Brigade.[1] - A Metrical Address Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBBB BBBB CBCB BBBB DBDB BBBB ABAB EBEB FBFB ABAB GBGB BBBB ABAB ABAB BBBB GBGB HBHB ABAB ABAB BBBB BBBB ABAB IBIB B B B B F GBGB IBIB BBBB F JKJKBB LBLBBB GBGBBB MAMABB F FGFGBB GAGABB GFGFBB AAAABB BGBGBB NBOBBB BABABB AAAABB ABABBB BLBLBB| In pace decus in bello praesidium Tacitus | A |
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| I | - |
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| Your arms are stacked your splendid colors furled | B |
| Your drums are still aside your trumpets laid | B |
| But your dumb muskets once spoke to the world | B |
| And the world listened to Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Like waving plume upon Bellona's crest | B |
| Or comet in red majesty arrayed | B |
| Or Persia's flame transported to the West | B |
| Shall shine the glory of Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Not once in all those years so dark and grim | C |
| Your columns from the path of duty strayed | B |
| No craven act made your escutcheon dim | C |
| 'Twas burnished with your blood Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Not once on post on march in camp or field | B |
| Was your brave leader's trust in you betrayed | B |
| And never yet has old Virginia's shield | B |
| Suffered dishonor through Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Who has forgotten at the deadly Mine | D |
| How our great Captain of great Captains bade | B |
| Your General to retake the captured line | D |
| How it was done you know Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Who has forgotten how th' undying dead | B |
| And you yourselves won that for which Lee prayed | B |
| Who has forgotten how th' Immortal said | B |
| That heroes swept that field Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| From the far right beneath the stars and bars | A |
| You marched amain to Bushrod Johnson's aid | B |
| And when you charged an arrow shot by Mars | A |
| Went forward in your rush Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| In front stood death Such task as yours before | E |
| By mortal man has rarely been essayed | B |
| There you defeated Burnside's boasted corps | E |
| And did an army's work Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| And those who led you field or line or staff | F |
| Showed they were fit for more than mere parade | B |
| Their motto Victory or an epitaph | F |
| And well they did their part Mahone's Brigade | B |
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| II | - |
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| Were mine the gift to coin my heart of hearts | A |
| In living words fit tribute should be paid | B |
| To all the heroes whose enacted parts | A |
| Gave fame immortal to Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| But he who bore the musket is the man | G |
| Whose figure should for future time be made | B |
| Cleft from a rock by some new Thorwaldsen | G |
| The Private Soldier of Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| His was that sense of duty only felt | B |
| By souls heroic In the modest shade | B |
| He lived or fell but his Fame's Starry Belt | B |
| His Fame's own Galaxy Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| And in that Belt all luminous with stars | A |
| Unnamed and woven in a wondrous braid | B |
| A blaze of glory in the sky of Mars | A |
| Your orbs are thickly set Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| The Private Soldier is the man who comes | A |
| From mart or plain or grange or sylvan glade | B |
| To answer calls of trumpets and of drums | A |
| So came the Soldier of Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| His messmate hunger comrades heat and cold | B |
| His decorations death or wounds conveyed | B |
| To the brave patriot in ways manifold | B |
| But yet he flinched not in Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| When needing bread Fate gave him but a stone | G |
| Ragged he answered when the trumpet brayed | B |
| Barefoot he marched or died without a groan | G |
| True to his battle flag Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Could some Supreme Intelligence proclaim | H |
| Arise from all the pomp of rank and grade | B |
| War's truest heroes oft we'd hear some name | H |
| Unmentioned by the world Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| And yet they have a name enriched with thanks | A |
| And tears and homage which shall never fade | B |
| Their name is simply this Men of the Ranks | A |
| The Knights without their spurs Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| And though unbelted and without their spurs | A |
| To them is due Fame's splendid accolade | B |
| And theirs the story which to day still stirs | A |
| The pulses of your heart Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Men of the Ranks step proudly to the front | B |
| 'Twas yours unknown through sheeted flame to wade | B |
| In the red battle's fierce and deadly brunt | B |
| Yours be full laurels in Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| - | |
| III | - |
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| For those who fell be yours the sacred trust | B |
| To see forgetfulness shall not invade | B |
| The spots made holy by their noble dust | B |
| Green keep them in your hearts Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Oh keep them green with patriotic tears | A |
| Forget not now war's fever is allayed | B |
| Those valiant men who in the vanished years | A |
| Kept step with you in ranks Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Each circling year in the sweet month of May | I |
| Your countrywomen matron and fair maid | B |
| Still pay their tribute to the Soldier's clay | I |
| And strew his grave with flow'rs Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Join in the task with retrospective eye | - |
| Men's mem'ries should not perish 'neath the spade | B |
| Pay homage to the dead whose dying cry | - |
| Was for the Commonwealth Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Raise up O State a shaft to pierce the sky | - |
| To him the Private who was but afraid | B |
| To fail in his full duty not to die | - |
| And on its base engrave Mahone's Brigade | B |
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| - | |
| IV | F |
| - | |
| Now that the work of blood and tears is done | G |
| Whether of stern assault or sudden raid | B |
| Yours is a record second yet to none | G |
| None takes your right in line Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Now that we've lost as was fore doomed the day | I |
| Now that the good by ill has been outweighed | B |
| Let us plant olives on the rugged way | I |
| Once proudly trodden by Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| And when some far stretchen future folds the past | B |
| To us so recent in its purple shade | B |
| High up as if on some tall Admiral's mast | B |
| Shall fly your battle flags Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| - | |
| V | F |
| - | |
| Each battle flag shall float abroad and fling | J |
| A radiance round as from a new lit star | K |
| Or light the air about as when a King | J |
| Flashes in armor in his royal car | K |
| And Fame's own vestibule I see inlaid | B |
| With their proud images Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Your battle flags shall fly throughout all time | L |
| By History's self exultingly unfurled | B |
| And stately prose and loud resounding rhyme | L |
| Nobler than mine shall tell to all the world | B |
| How dauntless moved and how all undismayed | B |
| Through good and ill stood Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| O glorious flags No victory could stain | G |
| Your tattered folds with one unworthy deed | B |
| O glorious flags No country shall again | G |
| Fly nobler symbols in its hour of need | B |
| Success stained not nor could defeat degrade | B |
| Spotless they float to day Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Immortal flags upon Time's breezes flung | M |
| Seen by the mind in forests or in marts | A |
| Cherished in visions praised from tongue to tongue | M |
| Wrapped in the very fibres of your hearts | A |
| And gazing on them none may dare upbraid | B |
| Your Leader or your men Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| - | |
| VI | F |
| - | |
| That splendid Leader's name is yours and he | F |
| Flesh of your flesh himself bone of your bone | G |
| His simple name maketh a history | F |
| Which stands itself grand glorious and alone | G |
| Or 'tis a trophy splendidly arrayed | B |
| With all your battle flags Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| His name itself a history Yes and none | G |
| May halt me here In war and peace | A |
| It challenges the full rays of the sun | G |
| And when the passions of our day shall cease | A |
| 'Twill stand undying for all time displayed | B |
| Itself a battle flag Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| He rose successor of that mighty man | G |
| Who was the right arm of immortal Lee | F |
| Whose genius put defeat beneath a ban | G |
| Who swept the field as tempest sweeps the sea | F |
| Who fought full hard and yet full harder prayed | B |
| You knew that man full well Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| And here that great man's shadow claims a place | A |
| Within my mind I see his image rise | A |
| With Cromwell's will and Havelock's Christian grace | A |
| As daring as the Swede as Frederick wise | A |
| Swift as Napoleon ere his hopes decayed | B |
| You knew the hero well Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| And when he fell his fall shook all the land | B |
| As falling oak shakes mountain side and glen | G |
| But soon men saw his good sword in the hand | B |
| Of one himself born leader among men | G |
| Of him who led you through the fusilade | B |
| The storm of shot and shell Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Immortal Lee who triumphed o'er despair | N |
| Greater than all the heroes I have named | B |
| Whose life has made a Westminster where'er | O |
| His name is spoken he so wise and famed | B |
| Gave Jackson's duties unto him whose blade | B |
| Was lightning to your storms Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| Ere Jackson fell Mahone shone day by day | B |
| A burnished lance amid that crop of spears | A |
| None rose above him in that grand array | B |
| And Lee who stood Last of the Cavaliers | A |
| Knew he had found of War's stupendous trade | B |
| A Master at your head Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| O Countrymen I see the coming days | A |
| When he above all hinderances and lets | A |
| Shall stand in Epic form lit by the rays | A |
| Of Fame's eternal sun that never sets | A |
| The first great chapter of his life is made | B |
| And spoken in two words Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| O Countrymen I see historic brass | A |
| Leap from the furnace in a blazing tide | B |
| I see it through strange transformations pass | A |
| Into a form of energy and pride | B |
| Beneath our Capitol's majestic shade | B |
| In bronze I see Mahone Mahone's Brigade | B |
| - | |
| O Countrymen When dust has gone to dust | B |
| Still shall he live in story and in rhyme | L |
| Then History's self shall multiply his bust | B |
| And he defy the silent Conqueror Time | L |
| My song is sung My prophecy is made | B |
| The State will make it good Mahone's Brigade | B |
James Barron Hope
(1)
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About Mahone's Brigade.[1] - A Metrical Address
Mahone's Brigade.[1] - A Metrical Address is a poem by James Barron Hope. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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