The Crisis Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIFF JJKKLLMMNNOOKKPPQQRR SSTUVVWWXYZSA2A2B2B2 C2C2GGD2D2E2E2F2F2G2 G2FFBB| ACROSS the Stony Mountains o'er the desert's drouth and sand | A |
| The circles of our empire touch the western ocean's strand | A |
| From slumberous Timpanogos to Gila wild and free | B |
| Flowing down from Nuevo Leon to California's sea | B |
| And from the mountains of the east to Santa Rosa's shore | C |
| The eagles of Mexitli shall beat the air no more | C |
| O Vale of Rio Bravo Let thy simple children weep | D |
| Close watch about their holy fire let maids of Pecos keep | D |
| Let Taos send her cry across Sierra Madre's pines | E |
| And Santa Barbara toll her bells amidst her corn and vines | E |
| For lo the pale land seekers come with eager eyes of gain | F |
| Wide scattering like the bison herds on broad Salada's plain | F |
| Let Sacramento's herdsmen heed what sound the winds bring down | G |
| Of footsteps on the crisping snow from cold Nevada's crown | G |
| Full hot and fast the Saxon rides with rein of travel slack | H |
| And bending o'er his saddle leaves the sunrise at his back | H |
| By many a lonely river and gorge of fir and pine | I |
| On many a wintry hill top his nightly camp fires shine | I |
| O countrymen and brothers that land of lake and plain | F |
| Of salt wastes alternating with valleys fat with grain | F |
| Of mountains white with winter looking downward cold serene | J |
| On their feet with spring vines tangled and lapped in softest green | J |
| Swift through whose black volcanic gates o'er many a sunny vale | K |
| Wind like the Arapahoe sweeps the bison's dusty trail | K |
| Great spaces yet untravelled great lakes whose mystic shores | L |
| The Saxon rifle never heard nor dip of Saxon oars | L |
| Great herds that wander all unwatched wild steeds that none have tamed | M |
| Strange fish in unknown streams and birds the Saxon never named | M |
| Deep mines dark mountain crucibles where Nature's chemic powers | N |
| Work out the Great Designer's will all these ye say are ours | N |
| Forever ours for good or ill on us the burden lies | O |
| God's balance watched by angels is hung across the skies | O |
| Shall Justice Truth and Freedom turn the poised and trembling scale | K |
| Or shall the Evil triumph and robber Wrong prevail | K |
| Shall the broad land o'er which our flag in starry splendor waves | P |
| Forego through us its freedom and bear the tread of slaves | P |
| The day is breaking in the East of which the prophets told | Q |
| And brightens up the sky of Time the Christian Age of Gold | Q |
| Old Might to Right is yielding battle blade to clerkly pen | R |
| Earth's monarchs are her peoples and her serfs stand up as men | R |
| The isles rejoice together in a day are nations born | S |
| And the slave walks free in Tunis and by Stamboul's Golden Horn | S |
| Is this O countrymen of mine a day for us to sow | T |
| The soil of new gained empire with slavery's seeds of woe | U |
| To feed with our fresh life blood the Old World's cast off crime | V |
| Dropped like some monstrous early birth from the tired lap of Time | V |
| To run anew the evil race the old lost nations ran | W |
| And die like them of unbelief of God and wrong of man | W |
| Great Heaven Is this our mission End in this the prayers and tears | X |
| The toil the strife the watchings of our younger better years | Y |
| Still as the Old World rolls in light shall ours in shadow turn | Z |
| A beamless Chaos cursed of God through outer darkness borne | S |
| Where the far nations looked for light a blackness in the air | A2 |
| Where for words of hope they listened the long wail of despair | A2 |
| The Crisis presses on us face to face with us it stands | B2 |
| With solemn lips of question like the Sphinx in Egypt's sands | B2 |
| This day we fashion Destiny our web of Fate we spin | C2 |
| This day for all hereafter choose we holiness or sin | C2 |
| Even now from starry Gerizim or Ebal's cloudy crown | G |
| We call the dews of blessing or the bolts of cursing down | G |
| By all for which the martyrs bore their agony and shame | D2 |
| By all the warning words of truth with which the prophets came | D2 |
| By the Future which awaits us by all the hopes which cast | E2 |
| Their faint and trembling beams across the blackness of the Past | E2 |
| And by the blessed thought of Him who for Earth's freedom died | F2 |
| O my people O my brothers let us choose the righteous side | F2 |
| So shall the Northern pioneer go joyful on his way | G2 |
| To wed Penobscot's waters to San Francisco's bay | G2 |
| To make the rugged places smooth and sow the vales with grain | F |
| And bear with Liberty and Law the Bible in his train | F |
| The mighty West shall bless the East and sea shall answer sea | B |
| And mountain unto mountain call Praise God for we are free | B |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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