Yorktown Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCCDDEFGGHHCCIIJJE EKKKKKKFFLMNOPPQQRRS STTUUNOVVWWXXYZGGA2A 2ZZB2B2FFC2D2GGE2E2W WKKSSIIGG| YORKTOWN | A |
| FROM Yorktown's ruins ranked and still | B |
| Two lines stretch far o'er vale and hill | B |
| Who curbs his steed at head of one | C |
| Hark the low murmur Washington | C |
| Who bends his keen approving glance | D |
| Where down the gorgeous line of France | D |
| Shine knightly star and plume of snow | E |
| Thou too art victor Rochambeau | F |
| The earth which bears this calm array | G |
| Shook with the war charge yesterday | G |
| Ploughed deep with hurrying hoof and wheel | H |
| Shot sown and bladed thick with steel | H |
| October's clear and noonday sun | C |
| Paled in the breath smoke of the gun | C |
| And down night's double blackness fell | I |
| Like a dropped star the blazing shell | I |
| Now all is hushed the gleaming lines | J |
| Stand moveless as the neighboring pines | J |
| While through them sullen grim and slow | E |
| The conquered hosts of England go | E |
| O'Hara's brow belies his dress | K |
| Gay Tarleton's troop rides bannerless | K |
| Shout from thy fired and wasted homes | K |
| Thy scourge Virginia captive comes | K |
| Nor thou alone with one glad voice | K |
| Let all thy sister States rejoice | K |
| Let Freedom in whatever clime | F |
| She waits with sleepless eye her time | F |
| Shouting from cave and mountain wood | L |
| Make glad her desert solitude | M |
| While they who hunt her quail with fear | N |
| The New World's chain lies broken here | O |
| But who are they who cowering wait | P |
| Within the shattered fortress gate | P |
| Dark tillers of Virginia's soil | Q |
| Classed with the battle's common spoil | Q |
| With household stuffs and fowl and swine | R |
| With Indian weed and planters' wine | R |
| With stolen beeves and foraged corn | S |
| Are they not men Virginian born | S |
| Oh veil your faces young and brave | T |
| Sleep Scammel in thy soldier grave | T |
| Sons of the Northland ye who set | U |
| Stout hearts against the bayonet | U |
| And pressed with steady footfall near | N |
| The moated battery's blazing tier | O |
| Turn your scarred faces from the sight | V |
| Let shame do homage to the right | V |
| Lo fourscore years have passed and where | W |
| The Gallic bugles stirred the air | W |
| And through breached batteries side by side | X |
| To victory stormed the hosts allied | X |
| And brave foes grounded pale with pain | Y |
| The arms they might not lift again | Z |
| As abject as in that old day | G |
| The slave still toils his life away | G |
| Oh fields still green and fresh in story | A2 |
| Old days of pride old names of glory | A2 |
| Old marvels of the tongue and pen | Z |
| Old thoughts which stirred the hearts of men | Z |
| Ye spared the wrong and over all | B2 |
| Behold the avenging shadow fall | B2 |
| Your world wide honor stained with shame | F |
| Your freedom's self a hollow name | F |
| Where's now the flag of that old war | C2 |
| Where flows its stripe Where burns its star | D2 |
| Bear witness Palo Alto's day | G |
| Dark Vale of Palms red Monterey | G |
| Where Mexic Freedom young and weak | E2 |
| Fleshes the Northern eagle's beak | E2 |
| Symbol of terror and despair | W |
| Of chains and slaves go seek it there | W |
| Laugh Prussia midst thy iron ranks | K |
| Laugh Russia from thy Neva's banks | K |
| Brave sport to see the fledgling born | S |
| Of freedom by its parent torn | S |
| Safe now is Speilberg's dungeon cell | I |
| Safe drear Siberia's frozen hell | I |
| With Slavery's flag o'er both unrolled | G |
| What of the New World fears the Old | G |
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Yorktown poem by John Greenleaf Whittier
Best Poems of John Greenleaf Whittier