Prologue. Government House, March 1879. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDD EEFFGGEEHHIJ EEKKLMEEEEEENNEEOO PPEEEEQQRRSSTTUU VVWW| A moment's pause before we play our parts | A |
| To speak the thought that reigns within your hearts | A |
| Now from the Future's hours and unknown days | B |
| Affection turns and with the Past delays | B |
| For countless voices in our mighty land | C |
| Speak the fond praises of a vanished hand | C |
| And shall to mightier ages yet proclaim | D |
| The happy memories linked with Dufferin's name | D |
| - | |
| Missed here is he to whom each class and creed | E |
| Among our people lately bade God speed | E |
| Missed when each Winter sees the skater wheel | F |
| In ringing circle on the flashing steel | F |
| Missed in the Spring the Summer and the Fall | G |
| In many a hut as in the Council Hall | G |
| Where'er his wanderings on Duty's hest | E |
| Evoked his glowing speech his genial jest | E |
| We mourn his absence though we joy that now | H |
| Old England's honours cluster round his brow | H |
| And that he left us but to serve again | I |
| Our Queen and Empire on the Neva's plain | J |
| - | |
| Amidst the honoured roll of those whose fate | E |
| It was to crown our fair Canadian State | E |
| And bind in one bright diadem alone | K |
| Each glorious Province each resplendent stone | K |
| His name shall last and his example give | L |
| To all her sons a lesson how to live | M |
| How every task if met with heart as bold | E |
| Proves the hard rock is seamed with precious gold | E |
| And Labour when with Mirth and Love allied | E |
| Finds friends far stronger than in Force and Pride | E |
| And Sympathy and Kindness can be made | E |
| The potent weapons by which men are swayed | E |
| He proved a nation's trust can well be won | N |
| By loyal work and constant duty done | N |
| The wit that winged the wisdom of his word | E |
| Set forth our glories till all Europe heard | E |
| How wide the room our Western World can spare | O |
| For all who nobly toil and bravely dare | O |
| - | |
| And while the statesman we revere we know | P |
| In him the friend is gone to whom we owe | P |
| So much of gaiety so much which made | E |
| Life's duller round to seem in joy repaid | E |
| These little festivals by him made bright | E |
| With grateful thoughts of him renewed to night | E |
| Remind no less of her who deigned to grace | Q |
| This mimic world and fill therein her place | Q |
| With the sweet dignity and gracious mien | R |
| The race of Hamilton has often seen | R |
| But never shown upon the wider stage | S |
| Where the great cast is writ on History's page | S |
| More purely nobly than by her whose voice | T |
| Here moved to tears or made the heart rejoice | T |
| And who in act and word at home or far | U |
| Shone with calm beauty like the Northern Star | U |
| - | |
| Green as the Shamrock of their native Isle | V |
| Their memory lives and babes unborn shall smile | V |
| And share in happiness the pride that blends | W |
| Our country's name with her beloved friends | W |
John Campbell
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Prologue. Government House, March 1879. poem by John Campbell
Best Poems of John Campbell