Amy Wentworth - To William Bradford Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBBBCCDDEFGGHIJJBB KKLMNNOOPPBBIQBBRSTT BBUUSSVVWWXX GGIIBBYYYCCZZBBA2B2B BBBC2C2D2D2KK PDE2D F2C2BC2 G2H2I2H2 J2RK2R L2M2N2M2 O2P2Q2P2 R2D2J2D2 GS2J2S2 T2U2J2U2 RLM2L BV2J2V2 W2J2X2J2 BD2BD2 BYK2Y BJ2XJ2 Y2CJ2C J2BJ2B GZ2A3Z2As they who watch by sick beds find relief | A |
Unwittingly from the great stress of grief | A |
And anxious care in fantasies outwrought | B |
From the hearth's embers flickering low or caught | B |
From whispering wind or tread of passing feet | B |
Or vagrant memory calling up some sweet | B |
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 | B |
May haply find through automatic play | B |
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 | B |
If so we may our hearts even while we eat | B |
The bitter harvest of our own device | I |
And half a century's moral cowardice | Q |
As N rnberg sang while Wittenberg defied | B |
And Kranach painted by his Luther's side | B |
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 | B |
And slavery all our vantage ground of light | B |
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 |
- | |
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 | B |
From the sharp strifes and sorrows of to day | B |
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 | B |
Be sung by tired sea painters who at night | B |
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 | B |
On the calm bosom of some Eastern bay | B |
And all the spray moist rocks and waves that rolled | B |
Up the white sand slopes flashed with ruddy gold | B |
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 from pain | K |
- | |
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 |
- | |
O perfumed suitor spare thy smiles | F2 |
Her thoughts are not of thee | C2 |
She better loves the salted wind | B |
The voices of the sea | C2 |
- | |
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 |
- | |
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 |
- | |
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 |
- | |
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 |
- | |
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 |
- | |
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 |
- | |
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 |
- | |
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 |
- | |
Her home is brave in Jaffrey Street | B |
With stately stairways worn | V2 |
By feet of old Colonial knights | J2 |
And ladies gentle born | V2 |
- | |
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 |
- | |
And on her from the wainscot old | B |
Ancestral faces frown | D2 |
And this has worn the soldier's sword | B |
And that the judge's gown | D2 |
- | |
But strong of will and proud as they | B |
She walks the gallery floor | Y |
As if she trod her sailor's deck | K2 |
By stormy Labrador | Y |
- | |
The sweetbrier blooms on Kittery side | B |
And green are Elliot's bowers | J2 |
Her garden is the pebbled beach | X |
The mosses are her flowers | J2 |
- | |
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 |
- | |
She hums a song and dreams that he | J2 |
As in its romance old | B |
Shall homeward ride with silken sails | J2 |
And masts of beaten gold | B |
- | |
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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