Amy Wentworth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BBAAAACCDDEFGGHIJJAA KKLMNNOOPPAAIQAARSTT AAUUSSVVWWXX GGIIAAYYYCCZZAAA2B2A AAAC2C2D2D2KAK PDE2D F2C2AC2 G2H2I2H2 J2RK2R L2M2N2M2 O2P2Q2P2 R2D2J2D2 GS2J2S2 T2U2J2U2 RLM2L AV2J2V2 W2J2X2J2 AD2AD2 AYK2Y AJ2XJ2 Y2CJ2C J2AJ2A GZ2A3Z2TO WILLIAM BRADFORD | A |
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As they who watch by sick beds find relief | B |
Unwittingly from the great stress of grief | B |
And anxious care in fantasies outwrought | A |
From the hearth's embers flickering low or caught | A |
From whispering wind or tread of passing feet | A |
Or vagrant memory calling up some sweet | A |
Snatch of old song or romance whence or why | C |
They scarcely know or ask so thou and I | C |
Nursed in the faith that Truth alone is strong | D |
In the endurance which outwearies Wrong | D |
With meek persistence baffling brutal force | E |
And trusting God against the universe | F |
We doomed to watch a strife we may not share | G |
With other weapons than the patriot's prayer | G |
Yet owning with full hearts and moistened eyes | H |
The awful beauty of self sacrifice | I |
And wrung by keenest sympathy for all | J |
Who give their loved ones for the living wall | J |
'Twixt law and treason in this evil day | A |
May haply find through automatic play | A |
Of pen and pencil solace to our pain | K |
And hearten others with the strength we gain | K |
I know it has been said our times require | L |
No play of art nor dalliance with the lyre | M |
No weak essay with Fancy's chloroform | N |
To calm the hot mad pulses of the storm | N |
But the stern war blast rather such as sets | O |
The battle's teeth of serried bayonets | O |
And pictures grim as Vernet's Yet with these | P |
Some softer tints may blend and milder keys | P |
Relieve the storm stunned ear Let us keep sweet | A |
If so we may our hearts even while we eat | A |
The bitter harvest of our own device | I |
And half a century's moral cowardice | Q |
As Nurnberg sang while Wittenberg defied | A |
And Kranach painted by his Luther's side | A |
And through the war march of the Puritan | R |
The silver stream of Marvell's music ran | S |
So let the household melodies be sung | T |
The pleasant pictures on the wall be hung | T |
So let us hold against the hosts of night | A |
And slavery all our vantage ground of light | A |
Let Treason boast its savagery and shake | U |
From its flag folds its symbol rattlesnake | U |
Nurse its fine arts lay human skins in tan | S |
And carve its pipe bowls from the bones of man | S |
And make the tale of Fijian banquets dull | V |
By drinking whiskey from a loyal skull | V |
But let us guard till this sad war shall cease | W |
God grant it soon the graceful arts of peace | W |
No foes are conquered who the victors teach | X |
Their vandal manners and barbaric speech | X |
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And while with hearts of thankfulness we bear | G |
Of the great common burden our full share | G |
Let none upbraid us that the waves entice | I |
Thy sea dipped pencil or some quaint device | I |
Rhythmic and sweet beguiles my pen away | A |
From the sharp strifes and sorrows of to day | A |
Thus while the east wind keen from Labrador | Y |
Sings it the leafless elms and from the shore | Y |
Of the great sea comes the monotonous roar | Y |
Of the long breaking surf and all the sky | C |
Is gray with cloud home bound and dull I try | C |
To time a simple legend to the sounds | Z |
Of winds in the woods and waves on pebbled bounds | Z |
A song for oars to chime with such as might | A |
Be sung by tired sea painters who at night | A |
Look from their hemlock camps by quiet cove | A2 |
Or beach moon lighted on the waves they love | B2 |
So hast thou looked when level sunset lay | A |
On the calm bosom of some Eastern bay | A |
And all the spray moist rocks and waves that rolled | A |
Up the white sand slopes flashed with ruddy gold | A |
Something it has a flavor of the sea | C2 |
And the sea's freedom which reminds of thee | C2 |
Its faded picture dimly smiling down | D2 |
From the blurred fresco of the ancient town | D2 |
I have not touched with warmer tints in vain | K |
If in this dark sad year it steals one thought | A |
from pain | K |
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Her fingers shame the ivory keys | P |
They dance so light along | D |
The bloom upon her parted lips | E2 |
Is sweeter than the song | D |
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O perfumed suitor spare thy smiles | F2 |
Her thoughts are not of thee | C2 |
She better loves the salted wind | A |
The voices of the sea | C2 |
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Her heart is like an outbound ship | G2 |
That at its anchor swings | H2 |
The murmur of the stranded shell | I2 |
Is in the song she sings | H2 |
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She sings and smiling hears her praise | J2 |
But dreams the while of one | R |
Who watches from his sea blown deck | K2 |
The icebergs in the sun | R |
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She questions all the winds that blow | L2 |
And every fog wreath dim | M2 |
And bids the sea birds flying north | N2 |
Bear messages to him | M2 |
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She speeds them with the thanks of men | O2 |
He perilled life to save | P2 |
And grateful prayers like holy oil | Q2 |
To smooth for him the wave | P2 |
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Brown Viking of the fishing smack | R2 |
Fair toast of all the town | D2 |
The skipper's jerkin ill beseems | J2 |
The lady's silken gown | D2 |
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But ne'er shall Amy Wentworth wear | G |
For him the blush of shame | S2 |
Who dares to set his manly gifts | J2 |
Against her ancient name | S2 |
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The stream is brightest at its spring | T2 |
And blood is not like wine | U2 |
Nor honored less than he who heirs | J2 |
Is he who founds a line | U2 |
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Full lightly shall the prize be won | R |
If love be Fortune's spur | L |
And never maiden stoops to him | M2 |
Who lifts himself to her | L |
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Her home is brave in Jaffrey Street | A |
With stately stairways worn | V2 |
By feet of old Colonial knights | J2 |
And ladies gentle born | V2 |
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Still green about its ample porch | W2 |
The English ivy twines | J2 |
Trained back to show in English oak | X2 |
The herald's carven signs | J2 |
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And on her from the wainscot old | A |
Ancestral faces frown | D2 |
And this has worn the soldier's sword | A |
And that the judge's gown | D2 |
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But strong of will and proud as they | A |
She walks the gallery floor | Y |
As if she trod her sailor's deck | K2 |
By stormy Labrador | Y |
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The sweetbrier blooms on Kittery side | A |
And green are Elliot's bowers | J2 |
Her garden is the pebbled beach | X |
The mosses are her flowers | J2 |
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She looks across the harbor bar | Y2 |
To see the white gulls fly | C |
His greeting from the Northern sea | J2 |
Is in their clanging cry | C |
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She hums a song and dreams that he | J2 |
As in its romance old | A |
Shall homeward ride with silken sails | J2 |
And masts of beaten gold | A |
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Oh rank is good and gold is fair | G |
And high and low mate ill | Z2 |
But love has never known a law | A3 |
Beyond its own sweet will | Z2 |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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