The Lincoln-child Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABACCBADEAAEAADE FAGFAAG EHGIEHGI EJKFEJKFLLLL AFAFAMMA NCNCOOAAAFFAFAFPQPQ ARARDSDSNNEEEETUTUNV ANVAWALWXAXAALYAYAA EEEEZA2ZA2 AA2A2IIAAAALLB2CB2B2 CGANGNBB| Clearing in the forest | A |
| In the wild Kentucky forest | A |
| And the stars wintry stars strewn above | B |
| O Night that is the starriest | A |
| Since Earth began to roll | C |
| For a Soul | C |
| Is born out of Love | B |
| Mother love father love love of Eternal God | A |
| Stars have pushed aside to let him through | D |
| Through heaven's sun sown deeps | E |
| One sparkling ray of God | A |
| Strikes the clod | A |
| And while an angel host through wood and clearing sweeps | E |
| Born in the wild | A |
| The Child | A |
| Naked ruddy new | D |
| Wakes with the piteous human cry and at the mother heart sleeps | E |
| - | |
| To the mother wild berries and honey | F |
| To the father awe without end | A |
| To the child a swaddling of flannel | G |
| And a dawn rolls sharp and sunny | F |
| And the skies of winter bend | A |
| To see the first sweet word penned | A |
| In the godliest human annal | G |
| - | |
| Frail Mother of the Wilderness | E |
| How strange the world shines in | H |
| And the cabin becomes chapel | G |
| And the baby lies secure | I |
| Sweet Mother of the Wilderness | E |
| New worlds for you begin | H |
| You have tasted of the apple | G |
| That giveth wisdom sure | I |
| - | |
| Soon in the wide wilderness | E |
| On a branch blown over a creek | J |
| Up a trail of the wild coon | K |
| In a lair of the wild bee | F |
| The rugged boy by danger's stress | E |
| Learnt the speech the wild things speak | J |
| Learnt the Earth's eternal tune | K |
| Of strife engendered harmony | F |
| Went to school where Life itself was master | L |
| Went to church where Earth was minister | L |
| And in Danger and Disaster | L |
| Felt his future manhood stir | L |
| - | |
| All about him lay the land | A |
| Eastern cities Western prairie | F |
| Wild immeasurable grand | A |
| But he was lost where blossomy boughs make airy | F |
| Bowers in the forest and the sand | A |
| Makes brook water a clear mirror that gives back | M |
| Green branches and trunks black | M |
| And clouds across the heavens lightly fanned | A |
| - | |
| Yet all the Future dreams eager to waken | N |
| Within that woodland soul | C |
| And the bough of boy has only to be shaken | N |
| That the fruit drop whereby this Earth shall roll | C |
| A little nearer God than ever before | O |
| Little recks he of war | O |
| Of national millions waiting on his word | A |
| Dreams still the Event unstirred | A |
| In the heart of the boy the little babe of the wild | A |
| But the years hurry and the tide of the sea | F |
| Of Time flows fast and ebbs and he even he | F |
| Must leave the wilderness the wood haunts wild | A |
| Soon shall the cyclone of Humanity | F |
| Tearing through Earth suck up this little child | A |
| And whirl him to the top where he shall be | F |
| Riding the storm column in the lightning stroke | P |
| Calm at the peak while down below worlds rage | Q |
| And Earth goes out in blood and battle smoke | P |
| And leaves him with the sun an epoch and an age | Q |
| - | |
| And lo as he grew ugly gaunt | A |
| And gnarled his way into a man | R |
| What wisdom came to feed his want | A |
| What worlds came near to let him scan | R |
| And as he fathomed through and through | D |
| Our dark and sorry human scheme | S |
| He knew what Shakespeare never knew | D |
| What Dante never dared to dream | S |
| That Men are one | N |
| Beneath the sun | N |
| And before God are equal souls | E |
| This truth was his | E |
| And this it is | E |
| That round him such a glory rolls | E |
| For not alone he knew it as a truth | T |
| He made it of his blood and of his brain | U |
| He crowned it on the day when piteous Booth | T |
| Sent a whole land to weeping with world pain | U |
| When a black cloud blotted the sun | N |
| And men stopped in the streets to sob | V |
| To think Old Abe was dead | A |
| Dead and the day's work still undone | N |
| Dead and war's ruining heart athrob | V |
| And earth with fields of carnage freshly spread | A |
| Millions died fighting | W |
| But in this man we mourned | A |
| Those millions and one other | L |
| And the States to day uniting | W |
| North and South | X |
| East and West | A |
| Speak with a people's mouth | X |
| A rhapsody of rest | A |
| To him our beloved best | A |
| Our big gaunt homely brother | L |
| Our huge Atlantic coast storm in a shawl | Y |
| Our cyclone in a smile our President | A |
| Who knew and loved us all | Y |
| With love more eloquent | A |
| Than his own words with Love that in real deeds was spent | A |
| - | |
| Oh to pour love through deeds | E |
| To be as Lincoln was | E |
| That all the land might fill its daily needs | E |
| Glorified by a human Cause | E |
| Then were America a vast World Torch | Z |
| Flaming a faith across the dying Earth | A2 |
| Proclaiming from the Atlantic's rocky porch | Z |
| That a New World was struggling at the birth | A2 |
| - | |
| O living God O Thou who living art | A |
| And real and near draw as at that babe's birth | A2 |
| Into our souls and sanctify our Earth | A2 |
| Let down Thy strength that we endure | I |
| Mighty and pure | I |
| As mothers and fathers of our own Lincoln child | A |
| Make us more wise more true more strong more mild | A |
| That we may day by day | A |
| Rear this wild blossom through its soft petals of clay | A |
| That hour by hour | L |
| We may endow it with more human power | L |
| Than is our own | B2 |
| That it may reach the goal | C |
| Our Lincoln long has shown | B2 |
| O Child flesh of our flesh bone of our bone | B2 |
| Soul torn from out our Soul | C |
| May you be great and pure and beautiful | G |
| A Soul to search this world | A |
| To be a father brother comrade son | N |
| A toiler powerful | G |
| A man whose toil is done | N |
| One with God's Law above | B |
| Work wrought through Love | B |
James Oppenheim
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< Where Love Once Was Poem
Next Poem
About The Lincoln-child
The Lincoln-child is a poem by James Oppenheim. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about The Lincoln-child poem by James Oppenheim
Best Poems of James Oppenheim