Abraham Davenport Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDCCCEF GHIJKH LMCNCCCAOPQRST CUC VFCWCNXYCCZCCCA2 B2CEC2FD2E2F2G2H2I2J 2 CK2L2CG M2KM2KN2TI2I2 LO2LO2XXWW P2 P2Q2R2S2BH2In the old days a custom laid aside | A |
With breeches and cocked hats the people sent | B |
Their wisest men to make the public laws | C |
And so from a brown homestead where the Sound | D |
Drinks the small tribute of the Mianas | C |
Waved over by the woods of Rippowams | C |
And hallowed by pure lives and tranquil deaths | C |
Stamford sent up to the councils of the State | E |
Wisdom and grace in Abraham Davenport | F |
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'T was on a May day of the far old year | G |
Seventeen hundred eighty that there fell | H |
Over the bloom and sweet life of the Spring | I |
Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon | J |
A horror of great darkness like the night | K |
In day of which the Norland sagas tell | H |
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The Twilight of the Gods The low hung sky | L |
Was black with ominous clouds save where its rim | M |
Was fringed with a dull glow like that which climbs | C |
The crater's sides from the red hell below | N |
Birds ceased to sing and all the barn yard fowls | C |
Roosted the cattle at the pasture bars | C |
Lowed and looked homeward bats on leathern wings | C |
Flitted abroad the sounds of labor died | A |
Men prayed and women wept all ears grew sharp | O |
To hear the doom blast of the trumpet shatter | P |
The black sky that the dreadful face of Christ | Q |
Might look from the rent clouds not as he looked | R |
A loving guest at Bethany but stern | S |
As Justice and inexorable Law | T |
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Meanwhile in the old State House dim as ghosts | C |
Sat the lawgivers of Connecticut | U |
Trembling beneath their legislative robes | C |
'It is the Lord's Great Day Let us adjourn ' | - |
Some said and then as if with one accord | V |
All eyes were turned to Abraham Davenport | F |
He rose slow cleaving with his steady voice | C |
The intolerable hush 'This well may be | W |
The Day of Judgment which the world awaits | C |
But be it so or not I only know | N |
My present duty and my Lord's command | X |
To occupy till He come So at the post | Y |
Where He hath set me in His providence | C |
I choose for one to meet Him face to face | C |
No faithless servant frightened from my task | Z |
But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls | C |
And therefore with all reverence I would say | C |
Let God do His work we will see to ours | C |
Bring in the candles ' And they brought them in | A2 |
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Then by the flaring lights the Speaker read | B2 |
Albeit with husky voice and shaking hands | C |
An act to amend an act to regulate | E |
The shad and alewive fisheries Whereupon | C2 |
Wisely and well spake Abraham Davenport | F |
Straight to the question with no figures of speech | D2 |
Save the ten Arab signs yet not without | E2 |
The shrewd dry humor natural to the man | F2 |
His awe struck colleagues listening all the while | G2 |
Between the pauses of his argument | H2 |
To hear the thunder of the wrath of God | I2 |
Break from the hollow trumpet of the cloud | J2 |
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And there he stands in memory to this day | C |
Erect self poised a rugged face half seen | K2 |
Against the background of unnatural dark | L2 |
A witness to the ages as they pass | C |
That simple duty hath no place for fear | G |
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He ceased just then the ocean seemed | M2 |
To lift a half faced moon in sight | K |
And shore ward o'er the waters gleamed | M2 |
From crest to crest a line of light | K |
Such as of old with solemn awe | N2 |
The fishers by Gennesaret saw | T |
When dry shod o'er it walked the Son of God | I2 |
Tracking the waves with light where'er his sandals trod | I2 |
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Silently for a space each eye | L |
Upon that sudden glory turned | O2 |
Cool from the land the breeze blew by | L |
The tent ropes flapped the long beach churned | O2 |
Its waves to foam on either hand | X |
Stretched far as sight the hills of sand | X |
With bays of marsh and capes of bush and tree | W |
The wood's black shore line loomed beyond the meadowy sea | W |
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The lady rose to leave 'One song | P2 |
Or hymn ' they urged 'before we part ' | - |
And she with lips to which belong | P2 |
Sweet intuitions of all art | Q2 |
Gave to the winds of night a strain | R2 |
Which they who heard would hear again | S2 |
And to her voice the solemn ocean lent | B |
Touching its harp of sand a deep accompaniment | H2 |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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