Derne Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDDDEFFGGHHGGDDI IJJDDKKLMNNOOGGPPBBQ QRSTTGGGGGGGGGGQQGGG GKKUUFFVBGGWWGGDDGGX XYYZA2GGB2B2GGWWC2C2 ABPD2E2E2GGSSF2F2NNG 2G2H2H2I2I2J2J2DDNK2 F2F2DDL2L2NIGHT on the city of the Moor | A |
On mosque and tomb and white walled shore | B |
On sea waves to whose ceaseless knock | C |
The narrow harbor gates unlock | C |
On corsair's galley carack tall | D |
And plundered Christian caraval | D |
The sounds of Moslem life are still | D |
No mule bell tinkles down the hill | D |
Stretched in the broad court of the khan | E |
The dusty Bornou caravan | F |
Lies heaped in slumber beast and man | F |
The Sheik is dreaming in his tent | G |
His noisy Arab tongue o'erspent | G |
The kiosk's glimmering lights are gone | H |
The merchant with his wares withdrawn | H |
Rough pillowed on some pirate breast | G |
The dancing girl has sunk to rest | G |
And save where measured footsteps fall | D |
Along the Bashaw's guarded wall | D |
Or where like some bad dream the Jew | I |
Creeps stealthily his quarter through | I |
Or counts with fear his golden heaps | J |
The City of the Corsair sleeps | J |
But where yon prison long and low | D |
Stands black against the pale star glow | D |
Chafed by the ceaseless wash of waves | K |
There watch and pine the Christian slaves | K |
Rough bearded men whose far off wives | L |
Wear out with grief their lonely lives | M |
And youth still flashing from his eyes | N |
The clear blue of New England skies | N |
A treasured lock of whose soft hair | O |
Now wakes some sorrowing mother's prayer | O |
Or worn upon some maiden breast | G |
Stirs with the loving heart's unrest | G |
A bitter cup each life must drain | P |
The groaning earth is cursed with pain | P |
And like the scroll the angel bore | B |
The shuddering Hebrew seer before | B |
O'erwrit alike without within | Q |
With all the woes which follow sin | Q |
But bitterest of the ills beneath | R |
Whose load man totters down to death | S |
Is that which plucks the regal crown | T |
Of Freedom from his forehead down | T |
And snatches from his powerless hand | G |
The sceptred sign of self command | G |
Effacing with the chain and rod | G |
The image and the seal of God | G |
Till from his nature day by day | G |
The manly virtues fall away | G |
And leave him naked blind and mute | G |
The godlike merging in the brute | G |
Why mourn the quiet ones who die | G |
Beneath affection's tender eye | G |
Unto their household and their kin | Q |
Like ripened corn sheaves gathered in | Q |
O weeper from that tranquil sod | G |
That holy harvest home of God | G |
Turn to the quick and suffering shed | G |
Thy tears upon the living dead | G |
Thank God above thy dear ones' graves | K |
They sleep with Him they are not slaves | K |
What dark mass down the mountain sides | U |
Swift pouring like a stream divides | U |
A long loose straggling caravan | F |
Camel and horse and arm d man | F |
The moon's low crescent glimmering o'er | V |
Its grave of waters to the shore | B |
Lights up that mountain cavalcade | G |
And gleams from gun and spear and blade | G |
Near and more near now o'er them falls | W |
The shadow of the city walls | W |
Hark to the sentry's challenge drowned | G |
In the fierce trumpet's charging sound | G |
The rush of men the musket's peal | D |
The short sharp clang of meeting steel | D |
Vain Moslem vain thy lifeblood poured | G |
So freely on thy foeman's sword | G |
Not to the swift nor to the strong | X |
The battles of the right belong | X |
For he who strikes for Freedom wears | Y |
The armor of the captive's prayers | Y |
And Nature proffers to his cause | Z |
The strength of her eternal laws | A2 |
While he whose arm essays to bind | G |
And herd with common brutes his kind | G |
Strives evermore at fearful odds | B2 |
With Nature and the jealous gods | B2 |
And dares the dread recoil which late | G |
Or soon their right shall vindicate | G |
'T is done the horn d crescent falls | W |
The star flag flouts the broken walls | W |
Joy to the captive husband joy | C2 |
To thy sick heart O brown locked boy | C2 |
In sullen wrath the conquered Moor | A |
Wide open flings your dungeon door | B |
And leaves ye free from cell and chain | P |
The owners of yourselves again | D2 |
Dark as his allies desert born | E2 |
Soiled with the battle's stain and worn | E2 |
With the long marches of his band | G |
Through hottest wastes of rock and sand | G |
Scorched by the sun and furnace breath | S |
Of the red desert's wind of death | S |
With welcome words and grasping hands | F2 |
The victor and deliverer stands | F2 |
The tale is one of distant skies | N |
The dust of half a century lies | N |
Upon it yet its hero's name | G2 |
Still lingers on the lips of Fame | G2 |
Men speak the praise of him who gave | H2 |
Deliverance to the Moorman's slave | H2 |
Yet dare to brand with shame and crime | I2 |
The heroes of our land and time | I2 |
The self forgetful ones who stake | J2 |
Home name and life for Freedom's sake | J2 |
God mend his heart who cannot feel | D |
The impulse of a holy zeal | D |
And sees not with his sordid eyes | N |
The beauty of self sacrifice | K2 |
Though in the sacred place he stands | F2 |
Uplifting consecrated hands | F2 |
Unworthy are his lips to tell | D |
Of Jesus' martyr miracle | D |
Or name aright that dread embrace | L2 |
Of suffering for a fallen race | L2 |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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