Anniversary Poem Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABACBDEDDFGHGGHIJKKJ LMLNMOPQOPRSRRSTUTTV WXWWXYZA2YZB2XC2B2XD 2E2D2D2E2XJXXJF2G2F2 F2G2H2I2J2H2I2K2L2K2 M2L2N2LN2N2LO2P2O2O2 P2Q2R2LQ2R2GRGGRD2S2 D2D2S2DT2DDT2U2V2WWV 2ONCE more dear friends you meet beneath | A |
A clouded sky | B |
Not yet the sword has found its sheath | A |
And on the sweet spring airs the breath | C |
Of war floats by | B |
Yet trouble springs not from the ground | D |
Nor pain from chance | E |
The Eternal order circles round | D |
And wave and storm find mete and bound | D |
In Providence | F |
Full long our feet the flowery ways | G |
Of peace have trod | H |
Content with creed and garb and phrase | G |
A harder path in earlier days | G |
Led up to God | H |
Too cheaply truths once purchased dear | I |
Are made our own | J |
Too long the world has smiled to hear | K |
Our boast of full corn in the ear | K |
By others sown | J |
To see us stir the martyr fires | L |
Of long ago | M |
And wrap our satisfied desires | L |
In the singed mantles that our sires | N |
Have dropped below | M |
But now the cross our worthies bore | O |
On us is laid | P |
Profession's quiet sleep is o'er | Q |
And in the scale of truth once more | O |
Our faith is weighed | P |
The cry of innocent blood at last | R |
Is calling down | S |
An answer in the whirlwind blast | R |
The thunder and the shadow cast | R |
From Heaven's dark frown | S |
The land is red with judgments Who | T |
Stands guiltless forth | U |
Have we been faithful as we knew | T |
To God and to our brother true | T |
To Heaven and Earth | V |
How faint through din of merchandise | W |
And count of gain | X |
Have seemed to us the captive's cries | W |
How far away the tears and sighs | W |
Of souls in pain | X |
This day the fearful reckoning comes | Y |
To each and all | Z |
We hear amidst our peaceful homes | A2 |
The summons of the conscript drums | Y |
The bugle's call | Z |
Our path is plain the war net draws | B2 |
Round us in vain | X |
While faithful to the Higher Cause | C2 |
We keep our fealty to the laws | B2 |
Through patient pain | X |
The levelled gun the battle brand | D2 |
We may not take | E2 |
But calmly loyal we can stand | D2 |
And suffer with our suffering land | D2 |
For conscience' sake | E2 |
Why ask for ease where all is pain | X |
Shall we alone | J |
Be left to add our gain to gain | X |
When over Armageddon's plain | X |
The trump is blown | J |
To suffer well is well to serve | F2 |
Safe in our Lord | G2 |
The rigid lines of law shall curve | F2 |
To spare us from our heads shall swerve | F2 |
Its smiting sword | G2 |
And light is mingled with the gloom | H2 |
And joy with grief | I2 |
Divinest compensations come | J2 |
Through thorns of judgment mercies bloom | H2 |
In sweet relief | I2 |
Thanks for our privilege to bless | K2 |
By word and deed | L2 |
The widow in her keen distress | K2 |
The childless and the fatherless | M2 |
The hearts that bleed | L2 |
For fields of duty opening wide | N2 |
Where all our powers | L |
Are tasked the eager steps to guide | N2 |
Of millions on a path untried | N2 |
The slave is ours | L |
Ours by traditions dear and old | O2 |
Which make the race | P2 |
Our wards to cherish and uphold | O2 |
And cast their freedom in the mould | O2 |
Of Christian grace | P2 |
And we may tread the sick bed floors | Q2 |
Where strong men pine | R2 |
And down the groaning corridors | L |
Pour freely from our liberal stores | Q2 |
The oil and wine | R2 |
Who murmurs that in these dark days | G |
His lot is cast | R |
God's hand within the shadow lays | G |
The stones whereon His gates of praise | G |
Shall rise at last | R |
Turn and o'erturn O outstretched Hand | D2 |
Nor stint nor stay | S2 |
The years have never dropped their sand | D2 |
On mortal issue vast and grand | D2 |
As ours to day | S2 |
Already on the sable ground | D |
Of man's despair | T2 |
Is Freedom's glorious picture found | D |
With all its dusky hands unbound | D |
Upraised in prayer | T2 |
Oh small shall seem all sacrifice | U2 |
And pain and loss | V2 |
When God shall wipe the weeping eyes | W |
For suffering give the victor's prize | W |
The crown for cross | V2 |
John Greenleaf Whittier
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