Anniversary Poem Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABACBDEDDFGHGGHIJKKJ LMLNMOPQOPRSRRSTUTTV WXWWXYZA2YZB2XC2B2XD 2E2D2D2E2XJXXJF2G2F2 F2G2H2I2J2H2I2K2L2K2 M2L2N2LN2N2LO2P2O2O2 P2Q2R2LQ2R2GRGGRD2S2 D2D2S2DT2DDT2U2V2WWV 2

ONCE more dear friends you meet beneathA
A clouded skyB
Not yet the sword has found its sheathA
And on the sweet spring airs the breathC
Of war floats byB
Yet trouble springs not from the groundD
Nor pain from chanceE
The Eternal order circles roundD
And wave and storm find mete and boundD
In ProvidenceF
Full long our feet the flowery waysG
Of peace have trodH
Content with creed and garb and phraseG
A harder path in earlier daysG
Led up to GodH
Too cheaply truths once purchased dearI
Are made our ownJ
Too long the world has smiled to hearK
Our boast of full corn in the earK
By others sownJ
To see us stir the martyr firesL
Of long agoM
And wrap our satisfied desiresL
In the singed mantles that our siresN
Have dropped belowM
But now the cross our worthies boreO
On us is laidP
Profession's quiet sleep is o'erQ
And in the scale of truth once moreO
Our faith is weighedP
The cry of innocent blood at lastR
Is calling downS
An answer in the whirlwind blastR
The thunder and the shadow castR
From Heaven's dark frownS
The land is red with judgments WhoT
Stands guiltless forthU
Have we been faithful as we knewT
To God and to our brother trueT
To Heaven and EarthV
How faint through din of merchandiseW
And count of gainX
Have seemed to us the captive's criesW
How far away the tears and sighsW
Of souls in painX
This day the fearful reckoning comesY
To each and allZ
We hear amidst our peaceful homesA2
The summons of the conscript drumsY
The bugle's callZ
Our path is plain the war net drawsB2
Round us in vainX
While faithful to the Higher CauseC2
We keep our fealty to the lawsB2
Through patient painX
The levelled gun the battle brandD2
We may not takeE2
But calmly loyal we can standD2
And suffer with our suffering landD2
For conscience' sakeE2
Why ask for ease where all is painX
Shall we aloneJ
Be left to add our gain to gainX
When over Armageddon's plainX
The trump is blownJ
To suffer well is well to serveF2
Safe in our LordG2
The rigid lines of law shall curveF2
To spare us from our heads shall swerveF2
Its smiting swordG2
And light is mingled with the gloomH2
And joy with griefI2
Divinest compensations comeJ2
Through thorns of judgment mercies bloomH2
In sweet reliefI2
Thanks for our privilege to blessK2
By word and deedL2
The widow in her keen distressK2
The childless and the fatherlessM2
The hearts that bleedL2
For fields of duty opening wideN2
Where all our powersL
Are tasked the eager steps to guideN2
Of millions on a path untriedN2
The slave is oursL
Ours by traditions dear and oldO2
Which make the raceP2
Our wards to cherish and upholdO2
And cast their freedom in the mouldO2
Of Christian graceP2
And we may tread the sick bed floorsQ2
Where strong men pineR2
And down the groaning corridorsL
Pour freely from our liberal storesQ2
The oil and wineR2
Who murmurs that in these dark daysG
His lot is castR
God's hand within the shadow laysG
The stones whereon His gates of praiseG
Shall rise at lastR
Turn and o'erturn O outstretched HandD2
Nor stint nor stayS2
The years have never dropped their sandD2
On mortal issue vast and grandD2
As ours to dayS2
Already on the sable groundD
Of man's despairT2
Is Freedom's glorious picture foundD
With all its dusky hands unboundD
Upraised in prayerT2
Oh small shall seem all sacrificeU2
And pain and lossV2
When God shall wipe the weeping eyesW
For suffering give the victor's prizeW
The crown for crossV2

John Greenleaf Whittier



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