Ensign Epps, The Color-bearer Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCCA DEEDFGH IIFJJKKF LMLMNNOO PAPBBA| ENSIGN EPPS at the battle of Flanders | A |
| Sowed a seed of glory and duty | B |
| That flowers and flames in height and beauty | B |
| Like a crimson lily with heart of gold | C |
| To day when the wars of Ghent are old | C |
| And buried as deep as their dead commanders | A |
| - | |
| Ensign Epps was the color bearer | D |
| No matter on which side Philip or Earl | E |
| Their cause was the shell his deed was the pearl | E |
| Scarce more than a lad he had been a sharer | D |
| That day in the wildest work of the field | F |
| He was wounded and spent and the fight was lost | G |
| His comrades were slain or a scattered host | H |
| - | |
| But stainless and scatheless out of the strife | I |
| He had carried his colors safer than life | I |
| By the river's brink without weapon or shield | F |
| He faced the victors The thick heart mist | J |
| He dashed from his eyes and the silk he kissed | J |
| Ere he held it aloft in the setting sun | K |
| As proudly as if the fight were won | K |
| And he smiled when they ordered him to yield | F |
| - | |
| Ensign Epps with his broken blade | L |
| Cut the silk from the gilded staff | M |
| Which he poised like a spear till the charge was made | L |
| And hurled at the leader with a laugh | M |
| Then round his breast like the scarf of his love | N |
| He tied the colors his heart above | N |
| And plunged in his armor into the tide | O |
| And there in his dress of honor died | O |
| - | |
| Where are the lessons your kinglings teach | P |
| And what is text of your proud commanders | A |
| Out of the centuries heroes reach | P |
| With the scroll of a deed with the word of a story | B |
| Of one man's truth and of all men's glory | B |
| Like Ensign Epps at the battle of Flanders | A |
John Boyle O'reilly
(1)
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About Ensign Epps, The Color-bearer
Ensign Epps, The Color-bearer is a poem by John Boyle O'reilly. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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