Three Dead Friends Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFDEF GHGIJKLJKL MNMOPQRPQR STSTUPMUPM GJGJVWXWWX YZYZWWA2WWA2 WB2WB2WC2D2WC2D2 E2F2E2E2IWWIWW

Always suddenly they are goneA
The friends we trusted and held secureB
Suddenly we are gazing onC
Not a smiling face but the marble pureB
Dead mask of a face that nevermoreD
To a smile of ours will make replyE
The lips close locked as the eyelids areF
Gone swift as the flash of the molten oreD
A meteor pours through a midnight skyE
Leaving it blind of a single starF
-
Tell us O Death Remorseless MightG
What is this old unescapable ireH
You wreak on us from the birth of lightG
Till the world be charred to a core of fireI
We do no evil thing to youJ
We seek to evade you that is allK
That is your will you will not be knownL
Of men What then would you have us doJ
Cringe and wait till your vengeance fallK
And your graves be fed and the trumpet blownL
-
You desire no friends but we O weM
Need them so as we falter hereN
Fumbling through each new vacancyM
As each is stricken that we hold dearO
One you struck but a year agoP
And one not a month ago and oneQ
God's vast pity and one lies nowR
Where the widow wails in her nameless woeP
And the soldiers pace with the sword and gunQ
Where the comrade sleeps with the laureled browR
-
And what did the first that wayward soulS
Clothed of sorrow yet nude of sinT
And with all hearts bowed in the strange controlS
Of the heavenly voice of his violinT
Why it was music the way he stoodU
So grand was the poise of the head and soP
Full was the figure of majestyM
One heard with the eyes as a deaf man wouldU
And with all sense brimmed to the overflowP
With tears of anguish and ecstasyM
-
And what did the girl with the great warm lightG
Of genius sunning her eyes of blueJ
With her heart so pure and her soul so whiteG
What O Death did she do to youJ
Through field and wood as a child she strayedV
As Nature the dear sweet mother ledW
While from her canvas mirrored backX
Glimmered the stream through the evergladeW
Where the grapevine trailed from the trees to wedW
Its likeness of emerald blue and blackX
-
And what did he who the last of theseY
Faced you with never a fear O DeathZ
Did you hate him that he loved the breezeY
And the morning dews and the rose's breathZ
Did you hate him that he answered notW
Your hate again but turned insteadW
His only hate on his country's wrongsA2
Well you possess him dead but whatW
Of the good he wrought With laureled headW
He bides with us in his deeds and songsA2
-
Laureled first that he bravely foughtW
And forged a way to our flag's releaseB2
Laureled next for the harp he taughtW
To wake glad songs in the days of peaceB2
Songs of the woodland haunts he heldW
As close in his love as they held their bloomC2
In their inmost bosoms of leaf and vineD2
Songs that echoed and pulsed and welledW
Through the town's pent streets and the sick child's roomC2
Pure as a shower in soft sunshineD2
-
Claim them Death yet their fame enduresE2
What friend next will you rend from usF2
In that cold pitiless way of yoursE2
And leave us a grief more dolorousE2
Speak to us tell us O Dreadful PowerI
Are we to have not a lone friend leftW
Since frozen sodden or green the sodW
In every second of every hourI
Some one Death you have left thus bereftW
Half inaudibly shrieks to GodW

James Whitcomb Riley



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