Randolph Of Roanoke Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFE GBHBDDDD IBDBJKEK LBKBDEME NDODBBPB EQDREBSB ETETDEGE UBSBPVWV XDBDBBYB XEXEZGEG EBA2BB2BSB C2NEND2BBB IBE2BBB B DXDXEBDB DEDEEBEBO Mother Earth upon thy lap | A |
Thy weary ones receiving | B |
And o'er them silent as a dream | C |
Thy grassy mantle weaving | B |
Fold softly in thy long embrace | D |
That heart so worn and broken | E |
And cool its pulse of fire beneath | F |
Thy shadows old and oaken | E |
- | |
Shut out from him the bitter word | G |
And serpent hiss of scorning | B |
Nor let the storms of yesterday | H |
Disturb his quiet morning | B |
Breathe over him forgetfulness | D |
Of all save deeds of kindness | D |
And save to smiles of grateful eyes | D |
Press down his lids in blindness | D |
- | |
There where with living ear and eye | I |
He heard Potomac's flowing | B |
And through his tall ancestral trees | D |
Saw autumn's sunset glowing | B |
He sleeps still looking to the west | J |
Beneath the dark wood shadow | K |
As if he still would see the sun | E |
Sink down on wave and meadow | K |
- | |
Bard Sage and Tribune in himself | L |
All moods of mind contrasting | B |
The tenderest wail of human woe | K |
The scorn like lightning blasting | B |
The pathos which from rival eyes | D |
Unwilling tears could summon | E |
The stinging taunt the fiery burst | M |
Of hatred scarcely human | E |
- | |
Mirth sparkling like a diamond shower | N |
From lips of life long sadness | D |
Clear picturings of majestic thought | O |
Upon a ground of madness | D |
And over all Romance and Song | B |
A classic beauty throwing | B |
And laurelled Clio at his side | P |
Her storied pages showing | B |
- | |
All parties feared him each in turn | E |
Beheld its schemes disjointed | Q |
As right or left his fatal glance | D |
And spectral finger pointed | R |
Sworn foe of Cant he smote it down | E |
With trenchant wit unsparing | B |
And mocking rent with ruthless hand | S |
The robe Pretence was wearing | B |
- | |
Too honest or too proud to feign | E |
A love he never cherished | T |
Beyond Virginia's border line | E |
His patriotism perished | T |
While others hailed in distant skies | D |
Our eagle's dusky pinion | E |
He only saw the mountain bird | G |
Stoop o'er his Old Dominion | E |
- | |
Still through each change of fortune strange | U |
Racked nerve and brain all burning | B |
His loving faith in Mother land | S |
Knew never shade of turning | B |
By Britain's lakes by Neva's tide | P |
Whatever sky was o'er him | V |
He heard her rivers' rushing sound | W |
Her blue peaks rose before him | V |
- | |
He held his slaves yet made withal | X |
No false and vain pretences | D |
Nor paid a lying priest to seek | B |
For Scriptural defences | D |
His harshest words of proud rebuke | B |
His bitterest taunt and scorning | B |
Fell fire like on the Northern brow | Y |
That bent to him in fawning | B |
- | |
He held his slaves yet kept the while | X |
His reverence for the Human | E |
In the dark vassals of his will | X |
He saw but Man and Woman | E |
No hunter of God's outraged poor | Z |
His Roanoke valley entered | G |
No trader in the souls of men | E |
Across his threshold ventured | G |
- | |
And when the old and wearied man | E |
Lay down for his last sleeping | B |
And at his side a slave no more | A2 |
His brother man stood weeping | B |
His latest thought his latest breath | B2 |
To Freedom's duty giving | B |
With failing tongue and trembling hand | S |
The dying blest the living | B |
- | |
Oh never bore his ancient State | C2 |
A truer son or braver | N |
None trampling with a calmer scorn | E |
On foreign hate or favor | N |
He knew her faults yet never stooped | D2 |
His proud and manly feeling | B |
To poor excuses of the wrong | B |
Or meanness of concealing | B |
- | |
But none beheld with clearer eye | I |
The plague spot o'er her spreading | B |
None heard more sure the steps of Doom | E2 |
Along her future treading | B |
For her as for himself he spake | B |
When his gaunt frame upbracing | B |
He traced with dying hand 'Remorse ' | - |
And perished in the tracing | B |
- | |
As from the grave where Henry sleeps | D |
From Vernon's weeping willow | X |
And from the grassy pall which hides | D |
The Sage of Monticello | X |
So from the leaf strewn burial stone | E |
Of Randolph's lowly dwelling | B |
Virginia o'er thy land of slaves | D |
A warning voice is swelling | B |
- | |
And hark from thy deserted fields | D |
Are sadder warnings spoken | E |
From quenched hearths where thy exiled sons | D |
Their household gods have broken | E |
The curse is on thee wolves for men | E |
And briers for corn sheaves giving | B |
Oh more than all thy dead renown | E |
Were now one hero living | B |
John Greenleaf Whittier
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