The Female Martyr Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAACDD BEBBEF GHGGHII JKJJKLL MNMMNNN OPOOPQQ JRJJRDD DSDDSTT EHEMHUU HVHHVWW XYZXA2B2B2 C2MD2D2GE2E2 F2BF2F2BG2G2'BRING out your dead ' The midnight street | A |
Heard and gave back the hoarse low call | B |
Harsh fell the tread of hasty feet | A |
Glanced through the dark the coarse white sheet | A |
Her coffin and her pall | C |
'What only one ' the brutal hack man said | D |
As with an oath he spurned away the dead | D |
- | |
How sunk the inmost hearts of all | B |
As rolled that dead cart slowly by | E |
With creaking wheel and harsh hoof fall | B |
The dying turned him to the wall | B |
To hear it and to die | E |
Onward it rolled while oft its driver stayed | F |
And hoarsely clamored 'Ho bring out your dead ' | - |
- | |
It paused beside the burial place | G |
'Toss in your load ' and it was done | H |
With quick hand and averted face | G |
Hastily to the grave's embrace | G |
They cast them one by one | H |
Stranger and friend the evil and the just | I |
Together trodden in the churchyard dust | I |
- | |
And thou young martyr thou wast there | J |
No white robed sisters round thee trod | K |
Nor holy hymn nor funeral prayer | J |
Rose through the damp and noisome air | J |
Giving thee to thy God | K |
Nor flower nor cross nor hallowed taper gave | L |
Grace to the dead and beauty to the grave | L |
- | |
Yet gentle sufferer there shall be | M |
In every heart of kindly feeling | N |
A rite as holy paid to thee | M |
As if beneath the convent tree | M |
Thy sisterhood were kneeling | N |
At vesper hours like sorrowing angels keeping | N |
Their tearful watch around thy place of sleeping | N |
- | |
For thou wast one in whom the light | O |
Of Heaven's own love was kindled well | P |
Enduring with a martyr's might | O |
Through weary day and wakeful night | O |
Far more than words may tell | P |
Gentle and meek and lowly and unknown | Q |
Thy mercies measured by thy God alone | Q |
- | |
Where manly hearts were failing where | J |
The throngful street grew foul with death | R |
O high souled martyr thou wast there | J |
Inhaling from the loathsome air | J |
Poison with every breath | R |
Yet shrinking not from offices of dread | D |
For the wrung dying and the unconscious dead | D |
- | |
And where the sickly taper shed | D |
Its light through vapors damp confined | S |
Hushed as a seraph's fell thy tread | D |
A new Electra by the bed | D |
Of suffering human kind | S |
Pointing the spirit in its dark dismay | T |
To that pure hope which fadeth not away | T |
- | |
Innocent teacher of the high | E |
And holy mysteries of Heaven | H |
How turned to thee each glazing eye | E |
In mute and awful sympathy | M |
As thy low prayers were given | H |
And the o'er hovering Spoiler wore the while | U |
An angel's features a deliverer's smile | U |
- | |
A blessed task and worthy one | H |
Who turning from the world as thou | V |
Before life's pathway had begun | H |
To leave its spring time flower and sun | H |
Had sealed her early vow | V |
Giving to God her beauty and her youth | W |
Her pure affections and her guileless truth | W |
- | |
Earth may not claim thee Nothing here | X |
Could be for thee a meet reward | Y |
Thine is a treasure far more dear | Z |
Eye hath not seen it nor the ear | X |
Of living mortal heard | A2 |
The joys prepared the promised bliss above | B2 |
The holy presence of Eternal Love | B2 |
- | |
Sleep on in peace The earth has not | C2 |
A nobler name than thine shall be | M |
The deeds by martial manhood wrought | D2 |
The lofty energies of thought | D2 |
The fire of poesy | G |
These have but frail and fading honors thine | E2 |
Shall Time unto Eternity consign | E2 |
- | |
Yea and when thrones shall crumble down | F2 |
And human pride and grandeur fall | B |
The herald's line of long renown | F2 |
The mitre and the kingly crown | F2 |
Perishing glories all | B |
The pure devotion of thy generous heart | G2 |
Shall live in Heaven of which it was a part | G2 |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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