Wendell Phillips Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABC DEFF GGHHIIJJKK LLMMNN OOPPQQNN RRKKSS AAAAAATT| WHAT shall we mourn For the prostrate tree that sheltered the young green wood | A |
| For the fallen cliff that fronted the sea and guarded the fields from the flood | B |
| For the eagle that died in the tempest afar from its eyrie's brood | C |
| - | |
| Nay not for these shall we weep for the silver cord must be worn | D |
| And the golden fillet shrink back at last and the dust to its earth return | E |
| And tears are never for those who die with their face to the duty done | F |
| But we mourn for the fledglings left on the waste and the fields where the wild waves run | F |
| - | |
| From the midst of the flock he defended the brave one has gone to his rest | G |
| And the tears of the poor he befriended their wealth of affliction attest | G |
| From the midst of the people is stricken a symbol they daily saw | H |
| Set over against the law books of a Higher than Human Law | H |
| For his life was a ceaseless protest and his voice was a prophet's cry | I |
| To be true to the Truth and faithful though the world were arrayed for the Lie | I |
| From the hearing of those who hated a threatening voice has past | J |
| But the lives of those who believe and die are not blown like a leaf on the blast | J |
| A sower of infinite seed was he a woodman that hewed toward the light | K |
| Who dared to be traitor to Union when Union was traitor to Right | K |
| - | |
| ' Fanatic ' the insects hissed till he taught them to understand | L |
| That the highest crime may be written in the highest law of the land | L |
| 'Disturber' and 'Dreamer' the Philistines cried when he preached an ideal creed | M |
| Till they learned that the men who have changed the world with the world have disagreed | M |
| That the remnant is right when the masses are led like sheep to the pen | N |
| For the instinct of equity slumbers till roused by instinctive men | N |
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| It is not enough to win rights from a king and write them down in a book | O |
| New men new lights and the fathers' code the sons may never brook | O |
| What is liberty now were license then their freedom oar yoke would be | P |
| And each new decade must have new men to determine its liberty | P |
| Mankind is a marching army with a broadening front the while | Q |
| Shall it crowd its bulk on the farm paths or clear to the outward file | Q |
| Its pioneers are the dreamers who fear neither tongue nor pen | N |
| Of the human spiders whose silk is wove from the lives of toiling men | N |
| - | |
| Come brothers here to the burial But weep not rather rejoice | R |
| For his fearless life and his fearless death for his true unequalled voice | R |
| Like a silver trumpet sounding the note of human right | K |
| For his brave heart always ready to enter the weak one's fight | K |
| For his soul unmoved by the mob's wild shout or the social sneer's disgrace | S |
| For his freeborn spirit that drew no line between class or creed or race | S |
| - | |
| Come workers here was a teacher and the lesson he taught was good | A |
| There are no classes or races but one human brotherhood | A |
| There are no creeds to be outlawed no colors of skin debarred | A |
| Mankind is one in its rights and wrongs one right one hope one guard | A |
| By his life he taught by his death we learn the great reformer's creed | A |
| The right to be free and the hope to be just and the guard against selfish greed | A |
| And richest of all are the unseen wreaths on his coffin lid laid down | T |
| By the toil stained hands of workmen their sob their kiss and their crown | T |
John Boyle O'reilly
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