The Pilgrim's Fathers Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCC DDEEFFGGGHHIIJKLLK JKGGCCMMNNOPQQRRRSTU UVVV UUMMWWUU XXYYZA2B2 UUC2HH D2D2UURRE2 F2IIF2G2UUHHG2UH2H2U I2 I2J2J2K2K2UUG2G2L2UU L2L2UU J2J2UUM2M2UUN2N2L2L2 G2G2UUO2O2P2P2 Q2L2UUL2Q2R2S2UUU FFUG2G2UM2M2T2T2U2U2 UU H2H2U C2UU UM2M2DDDUUUUUUT2T2 UUO

ONE righteous word for Law the common willA
One living truth of Faith God regnant stillA
One primal test of Freedom all combinedB
One sacred Revolution change of mindB
One trust unfailing for the night and needC
The tyrant flower shall cast the freedom seedC
-
So held they firm the Fathers aye to beD
From Home to Holland Holland to the seaD
Pilgrims for manhood in their little shipE
Hope in each heart and prayer on every lipE
They could not live by king made codes and creedsF
They chose the path where every footstep bleedsF
Protesting not rebelling scorned and bannedG
Through pains and prisons harried from the landG
Through double exile till at last they standG
Apart from all unique unworldly trueH
Selected grain to sow the earth anewH
A winnowed part a saving remnant theyI
Dreamers who work adventurers who prayI
What vision led them Can we test their prayersJ
Who knows they saw no empire in the WestK
The later Puritans sought land and goldL
And all the treasures that the Spaniard toldL
What line divides the Pilgrims from the restK
-
We know them by the exile that was theirsJ
Their justice faith and fortitude attestK
And those long years in Holland when their bandG
Sought humble living in a stranger's landG
They saw their England covered with a weedC
Of flaunting lordship both in court and creedC
With helpless hands they watched the error growM
Pride on the top and impotence belowM
Indulgent nobles privileged and strongN
A haughty crew to whom all rights belongN
The bishops arrogant the courts impureO
The rich conspirators against the poorP
The peasant scorned the artisan despisedQ
The all supporting workers lowest prizedQ
They marked those evils deepen year by yearR
The pensions grow the freeholds disappearR
Till England meant but monarch prelate peerR
At last the Conquest Now they know the wordS
The Saxon tenant and the Norman lordT
No longer Merrie England now it meantU
The payers and the takers of the rentU
And rent exacted not from lands aloneV
All rights and hopes must centre in the throneV
Law tithes for prayer their souls were not their ownV
-
Then o'er the brim the bitter waters welledU
The mind protested and the soul rebelledU
And yet how deep the bowl how slight the flowM
A few brave exiles from their country goM
A few strong souls whose rich affections clingW
Though cursed by clerics hunted by the kingW
Their last sad vision on the Grimsby strandU
Their wives and children kneeling on the sandU
-
Then twelve slow years in Holland changing yearsX
Strange ways of life strange voices in their earsX
The growing children learning foreign speechY
And growing too within the heart of eachY
A thought of further exile of a homeZ
In some far land a home for life and deathA2
By their hands built in equity and faithB2
-
And then the preparation the heart beatU
Of wayfarers who may not rest their feetU
Their Pastor's blessing the farewells of someC2
'Who stayed in Leyden Then the sea's wide blueH
'They sailed ' writ one ' and as they sailed they knewH
That they were Pilgrims '-
-
On the wintry mainD2
Grod flings their lives as farmers scatter grainD2
His breath propels the winged seed afloatU
His tempests swerve to spare the fragile boatU
Before His prompting terrors disappearR
He points the way while patient seamen steerR
Till port is reached nor North nor South but HEREE2
-
Here where the shore was rugged as the wavesF2
'Where frozen nature dumb and leafless layI
And no rich meadows bade the Pilgrims stayI
'Was spread the symbol of the life that savesF2
To conquer first the outer things to makeG2
Their own advantage unallied unboundU
Their blood the mortar building from the groundU
Their cares the statutes making all anewH
To learn to trust the many not the fewH
To bend the mind to discipline to breakG2
The bonds of old convention and forgetU
The claims and barriers of class to faceH2
A desert land a strange and hostile raceH2
And conquer both to friendship by the debtU
That Nature pays to justice love and toilI2
-
Here on this rock and on this sterile soilI2
Began the kingdom not of kings but menJ2
Began the making of the world againJ2
Here centuries sank and from the hither brinkK2
A new world reached and raised an old world linkK2
When English hands by wider vision taughtU
Threw down the feudal bars the Normans broughtU
And here revived in spite of sword and stakeG2
Their ancient freedom of the WapentakeG2
Here struck the seed the Pilgrims' roofless townL2
Where equal rights and equal bonds were setU
Where all the people equal franchised metU
Where doom was writ of privilege and crownL2
Where human breath blew all the idols downL2
Where crests were nought where vulture flags were furledU
And common men began to own the worldU
-
All praise to others of the vanguard thenJ2
To Spain to France to Baltimore and PennJ2
To Jesuit Quaker Puritan and PriestU
Their toil be crowned their honors be increasedU
We slight no true devotion steal no fameM2
From other shrines to gild the Pilgrims' nameM2
As time selects we judge their treasures heapedU
Their deep foundations laid their harvests reapedU
Their primal mode of liberty their rulesN2
Of civil right their churches courts and schoolsN2
Their freedom's very secret here laid downL2
The spring of government is the little townL2
They knew that streams must follow to a springG2
And no stream flows from township to a kingG2
Give praise to others early come or lateU
For love and labor on our ship of stateU
But this must stand above all fame and zealO2
The Pilgrim Fathers laid the ribs and keelO2
On their strong lines we base our social healthP2
The man the home the town the commonwealthP2
-
Unconscious builders Yea the conscious failQ2
Design is impotent if Nature frownL2
No deathless pile has grown from intellectU
Immortal things have God for architectU
And men are but the granite He lays downL2
Unconscious Yea They thought it might availQ2
To build a gloomy creed about their livesR2
To shut out all dissent but naught survivesS2
Of their poor structure and we know to dayU
Their mission was less pastoral than layU
More Nation seed than Gospel seed were theyU
-
The Faith was theirs the time had other needsF
The salt they bore must sweeten worldly deedsF
There was a meaning in the very windU
That blew them here so few so poor so strongG2
To grapple concrete work not abstract wrongG2
Their saintly Robinson was left behindU
To teach by gentle memory to shameM2
The bigot spirit and the word of flameM2
To write dear mercy in the Pilgrims' lawT2
To lead to that wide faith his soul foresawT2
That no rejected race in darkness delvesU2
There are no Gentiles but they make themselvesU2
That men are one of blood and one of spiritU
That one is as the whole and all inheritU
-
On all the story of a life or raceH2
The blessing of a good man leaves its traceH2
Their Pastor's word at Leyden here sufficedU
'But follow me as I have followed Christ '-
And 'I believe there is more truth to come '-
O gentle soul what future age shall sumC2
The sweet incentive of thy tender wordU
Thy sigh to hear of conquest by the swordU
'How happy to convert and not to slay '-
When valiant Standish killed the chief at bayU
To such as thee the Fathers owe their fameM2
The Nation owes a temple to thy nameM2
Thy teaching made the Pilgrims kindly freeD
All that the later Puritans should beD
Thy pious instinct marks their destinyD
Thy love won more than force or arts adroitU
It writ and kept the deed with MassasoitU
It earned the welcome Samoset expressedU
It lived again in Eliot's loving breastU
It filled the Compact which the Pilgrims signedU
Immortal scroll the first where men combinedU
From one deep lake of common blood to drawT2
All rulers rights and potencies of lawT2
-
When waves of ages have their motive spentU
Thy sermon preaches in this MonumentU
Where Virtue CourO

John Boyle O'reilly



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