Abraham Lincoln, From The Ode Recited At The Harvard Commemoration Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCDDBEEFGGF HIIHJJJKEEKLMMLLNOIN GGNPPQQPRSRRRSTQUVQV VCNNCCNWXWXYDYDZEZA2| Life may be given in many ways | A |
| And loyalty to Truth be sealed | B |
| As bravely in the closet as the field | B |
| So bountiful is Fate | C |
| But then to stand beside her | D |
| When craven churls deride her | D |
| To front a lie in arms and not to yield | B |
| This shows methinks God's plan | E |
| And measure of a stalwart man | E |
| Limbed like the old heroic breeds | F |
| Who stands self poised on manhood's solid earth | G |
| Not forced to frame excuses for his birth | G |
| Fed from within with all the strength he needs | F |
| - | |
| Such was he our Martyr Chief | H |
| Whom late the Nation he had led | I |
| With ashes on her head | I |
| Wept with the passion of an angry grief | H |
| Forgive me if from present things I turn | J |
| To speak what in my heart will beat and burn | J |
| And hang my wreath on his world honored urn | J |
| Nature they say doth dote | K |
| And cannot make a man | E |
| Save on some worn out plan | E |
| Repeating us by rote | K |
| For him her Old World moulds aside she threw | L |
| And choosing sweet clay from the breast | M |
| Of the unexhausted West | M |
| With stuff untainted shaped a hero new | L |
| Wise steadfast in the strength of God and true | L |
| How beautiful to see | N |
| Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed | O |
| Who loved his charge but never loved to lead | I |
| One whose meek flock the people joyed to be | N |
| Not lured by any cheat of birth | G |
| But by his clear grained human worth | G |
| And brave old wisdom of sincerity | N |
| They knew that outward grace is dust | P |
| They could not choose but trust | P |
| In that sure footed mind's unfaltering skill | Q |
| And supple tempered will | Q |
| That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust | P |
| His was no lonely mountain peak of mind | R |
| Thrusting to thin air o'er our cloudy bars | S |
| A sea mark now now lost in vapors blind | R |
| Broad prairie rather genial level lined | R |
| Fruitful and friendly for all human kind | R |
| Yet also nigh to heaven and loved of loftiest stars | S |
| Nothing of Europe here | T |
| Or then of Europe fronting mornward still | Q |
| Ere any names of Serf and Peer | U |
| Could Nature's equal scheme deface | V |
| And thwart her genial will | Q |
| Here was a type of the true elder race | V |
| And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face | V |
| I praise him not it were too late | C |
| And some innative weakness there must be | N |
| In him who condescends to victory | N |
| Such as the Present gives and cannot wait | C |
| Safe in himself as in a fate | C |
| So always firmly he | N |
| He knew to bide his time | W |
| And can his fame abide | X |
| Still patient in his simple faith sublime | W |
| Till the wise years decide | X |
| Great captains with their guns and drums | Y |
| Disturb our judgment for the hour | D |
| But at last silence comes | Y |
| These all are gone and standing like a tower | D |
| Our children shall behold his fame | Z |
| The kindly earnest brave foreseeing man | E |
| Sagacious patient dreading praise not blame | Z |
| New birth of our new soil the first American | A2 |
James Russell Lowell
(1)
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About Abraham Lincoln, From The Ode Recited At The Harvard Commemoration
Abraham Lincoln, From The Ode Recited At The Harvard Commemoration is a poem by James Russell Lowell. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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