The Portsmouth Memorial Poem. - The Future Historian Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDD EEFFGGHHII JJKKLLMMNNOO PPQQRRSS TTUUVVEWRRFF NNOOXXYYZZA2A2B2B2XX C2C2D2D2E2E2F2F2BBG2 G2| Oh the women of Old Portsmouth in their patience were sublime | A |
| As in working and in praying they abided GOD's own time | A |
| Marble saints in a stately Minster in some land across the sea | B |
| In a flood of Winter moonlight were not half so pure to me | B |
| And your men in Grey were faithful they were counted with the best | C |
| And where they fought no shadow fell on Old Virginia's crest | C |
| Rags in cold bare feet in marches never turned your children back | D |
| In retreat they loved the rearguard in advance they loved attack | D |
| - | |
| Oh my brothers I see figures which all flit athwart my brain | E |
| Like the torches lit by lightning in some tempest driven rain | E |
| And above the rushing vision in my soul I hear the cry | F |
| Those who fell for Home and Duty left us names that cannot die | F |
| First before the sleeping warriors comes a gentle woman's face | G |
| Every mark Time made upon it seemed to add a Christian grace | G |
| Sister of the soldier's widow mother of his orphan child | H |
| To us she seemed indeed as one on whom her GOD had smiled | H |
| Passed from our sight sustained by CHRIST she went upon her way | I |
| And be you sure as I am that her soul is here to day | I |
| - | |
| Other names now blaze upon me and they shine out one by one | J |
| As the rays dart out a glitter from a shield hung in the sun | J |
| Fiske and White and brave Vermillion fell on Malvern's deadly slope | K |
| When the cause that they defended was a glow with life and hope | K |
| Gallant Butt and two Neimeyers you may boast in mood of pride | L |
| Types were they of valiant soldiers and like soldiers true they died | L |
| And Grimes at bloody Sharpsburg went down prone upon the field | M |
| And Hodges under Pickett took his last sleep on his shield | M |
| And Cowley and Forrest and Wilson and Cocke on your Window still blaze | N |
| And their names enrich its blazon in the evening's golden haze | N |
| Dunderdale and Beaton and Bennett and Bingley and Armistead and Gayle | O |
| And Williams the brave Color Sergeant and Owens are men to bewail | O |
| - | |
| Last not least there comes the Seaman valiant Cooke my cherished friend | P |
| Who was faithful to Virginia from beginning to the end | P |
| Had the theatre been given he had played a Nelson's part | Q |
| Or in Anson's place had written his prodigious log and chart | Q |
| Carolina may GOD bless her gave that true man to the State | R |
| With a heart for any fortune and a soul for any fate | R |
| Seaman of the blue salt water On our narrow streams you taught | S |
| Highest lessons of devotion in the battles that you fought | S |
| - | |
| Other names crowd fast upon me as stars thicken on the view | T |
| When the night comes down upon us but I fix my gaze on two | T |
| As the midland oak of England is chief tree of all her trees | U |
| As the peak of Teneriffa is chief peak of all the seas | U |
| So our mighty Lee and Stonewall greater names no era boasts | V |
| Shall exalt their Shades forever o'er the grand Confederate Hosts | V |
| 'Twas not glory that they fought for through those weary years of pain | E |
| Though the glory fell upon them as it ne'er may fall again | W |
| That sentiment inspired them which lifts men to make them great | R |
| Love of hearthstone friends and neighbors and devotion to the State | R |
| Not as rebels but as warriors they sent forth their famous cry | F |
| Not as traitors but as freemen they went forth to do or die | F |
| - | |
| Then give the dead your tears oh friends upon this day of days | N |
| And let a solemn joy resound in all your words of praise | N |
| For honor still has claims on man and duty still can call | O |
| Above the sordid cares of life the market and the stall | O |
| Yes honor still has claims on man Thank GOD that this is so | X |
| And there are heights of life where still all spotless lies the snow | X |
| Oh better than lands and vast estates or titles high and long | Y |
| The spirit of those whose deeds are fit to consecrate in Song | Y |
| When Regulus to Carthage went and went back to keep his word | Z |
| His great action preached a homily which all mankind has heard | Z |
| It gave to the sacred cause of truth an impulse which still lives | A2 |
| And left the world the moral which a grand example gives | A2 |
| Here within a nutshell's compass the high argument appears | B2 |
| Which the man who dies for duty in his dying moment cheers | B2 |
| And 'tis thus the Human Epic acted out by all below | X |
| Takes a fuller pulse and cadence in its long resounding flow | X |
| - | |
| In the future some historian shall come forth both strong and wise | C2 |
| With a love of the Republic and the truth before his eyes | C2 |
| He will show the subtle causes of the war between the States | D2 |
| He will go back in his studies far beyond our modern dates | D2 |
| He will trace out hostile ideas as the miner does the lodes | E2 |
| He will show the different habits born of different social codes | E2 |
| He will show the Union riven and the picture will deplore | F2 |
| He will show it re united and made stronger than before | F2 |
| Slow and patient fair and truthful must the coming teacher be | B |
| To show how the knife was sharpened that was ground to prune the tree | B |
| He will hold the Scales of Justice he will measure praise and blame | G2 |
| And the South will stand the verdict and will stand it without shame | G2 |
James Barron Hope
(1)
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