The Merrimac Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAAABBCCDDEEFGAAHHII JJKKLLAAMMNNOPQQQQRS DD TTOOQQBBUUUUVVBBWWXX UUYYGGZZBBAA BBBBQQA2A2CCUB2UUBBU UC2C2D2D2E2E2E2BBBBF 2F2G2G2Stream of my fathers sweetly still | A |
The sunset rays thy valley fill | A |
Poured slantwise down the long defile | A |
Wave wood and spire beneath them smile | A |
I see the winding Powow fold | B |
The green hill in its belt of gold | B |
And following down its wavy line | C |
Its sparkling waters blend with thine | C |
There 's not a tree upon thy side | D |
Nor rock which thy returning tide | D |
As yet hath left abrupt and stark | E |
Above thy evening water mark | E |
No calm cove with its rocky hem | F |
No isle whose emerald swells begin | G |
Thy broad smooth current not a sail | A |
Bowed to the freshening ocean gale | A |
No small boat with its busy oars | H |
Nor gray wall sloping to thy shores | H |
Nor farm house with its maple shade | I |
Or rigid poplar colonnade | I |
But lies distinct and full in sight | J |
Beneath this gush of sunset light | J |
Centuries ago that harbor bar | K |
Stretching its length of foam afar | K |
And Salisbury's beach of shining sand | L |
And yonder island's wave smoothed strand | L |
Saw the adventurer's tiny sail | A |
Flit stooping from the eastern gale | A |
And o'er these woods and waters broke | M |
The cheer from Britain's hearts of oak | M |
As brightly on the voyager's eye | N |
Weary of forest sea and sky | N |
Breaking the dull continuous wood | O |
The Merrimac rolled down his flood | P |
Mingling that clear pellucid brook | Q |
Which channels vast Agioochook | Q |
When spring time's sun and shower unlock | Q |
The frozen fountains of the rock | Q |
And more abundant waters given | R |
From that pure lake 'The Smile of Heaven ' | S |
Tributes from vale and mountain side | D |
With ocean's dark eternal tide | D |
- | |
On yonder rocky cape which braves | T |
The stormy challenge of the waves | T |
Midst tangled vine and dwarfish wood | O |
The hardy Anglo Saxon stood | O |
Planting upon the topmost crag | Q |
The staff of England's battle flag | Q |
And while from out its heavy fold | B |
Saint George's crimson cross unrolled | B |
Midst roll of drum and trumpet blare | U |
And weapons brandishing in air | U |
He gave to that lone promontory | U |
The sweetest name in all his story | U |
Of her the flower of Islam's daughters | V |
Whose harems look on Stamboul's waters | V |
Who when the chance of war had bound | B |
The Moslem chain his limbs around | B |
Wreathed o'er with silk that iron chain | W |
Soothed with her smiles his hours of pain | W |
And fondly to her youthful slave | X |
A dearer gift than freedom gave | X |
- | |
But look the yellow light no more | U |
Streams down on wave and verdant shore | U |
And clearly on the calm air swells | Y |
The twilight voice of distant bells | Y |
From Ocean's bosom white and thin | G |
The mists come slowly rolling in | G |
Hills woods the river's rocky rim | Z |
Amidst the sea like vapor swim | Z |
While yonder lonely coast light set | B |
Within its wave washed minaret | B |
Half quenched a beamless star and pale | A |
Shines dimly through its cloudy veil | A |
- | |
Home of my fathers I have stood | B |
Where Hudson rolled his lordly flood | B |
Seen sunrise rest and sunset fade | B |
Along his frowning Palisade | B |
Looked down the Appalachian peak | Q |
On Juniata's silver streak | Q |
Have seen along his valley gleam | A2 |
The Mohawk's softly winding stream | A2 |
The level light of sunset shine | C |
Through broad Potomac's hem of pine | C |
And autumn's rainbow tinted banner | U |
Hang lightly o'er the Susquehanna | B2 |
Yet wheresoe'er his step might be | U |
Thy wandering child looked back to thee | U |
Heard in his dreams thy river's sound | B |
Of murmuring on its pebbly bound | B |
The unforgotten swell and roar | U |
Of waves on thy familiar shore | U |
And saw amidst the curtained gloom | C2 |
And quiet of his lonely room | C2 |
Thy sunset scenes before him pass | D2 |
As in Agrippa's magic glass | D2 |
The loved and lost arose to view | E2 |
Remembered groves in greenness grew | E2 |
Bathed still in childhood's morning dew | E2 |
Along whose bowers of beauty swept | B |
Whatever Memory's mourners wept | B |
Sweet faces which the charnel kept | B |
Young gentle eyes which long had slept | B |
And while the gazer leaned to trace | F2 |
More near some dear familiar face | F2 |
He wept to find the vision flown | G2 |
A phantom and a dream alone | G2 |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
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