Fallen Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAAAAA AAAAAA BABBAA CDCCDD EFEEGF HAHHAA IDIIDD JKJJKK ADAAAA LMLLMM NANNAA OPOOPP AQAAQQ RSRRSSMy country by our fathers reared | A |
As champion of the world's opprest | A |
Whose moral force the tyrant feared | A |
Whose flag all struggling freemen cheered | A |
In clutching at an empire's crest | A |
Thou too art fallen like the rest | A |
- | |
Not in thy numbers wealth or might | A |
Proud mistress of a continent | A |
For rival nations at the sight | A |
Of thy resources view with fright | A |
Thy progress without precedent | A |
Not there is seen thy swift descent | A |
- | |
Reread the story of thy birth | B |
Recall the years in conflict spent | A |
To prove to a despairing earth | B |
That every Government of worth | B |
Is really based on free consent | A |
Then view with shame thy present bent | A |
- | |
Thou hadst a place unique sublime | C |
In many a land beyond the sea | D |
The victims of despotic crime | C |
In thee the latest born of Time | C |
Beheld a land from tyrants free | D |
The sacred Ark of Liberty | D |
- | |
But now the Old World's lust for lands | E |
Infects thee too the dread disease | F |
Hath left its plague spots on thy hands | E |
Thy monster area still expands | E |
For blind to history's Nemesis | G |
Thou too wouldst alien races seize | F |
- | |
Condemning with profound disdain | H |
All other nations' heartless greed | A |
How couldst thou buy from humbled Spain | H |
A people struggling to attain | H |
A freedom suited to their need | A |
Why stultify thy boasted creed | A |
- | |
Thine aid to them thou mightst have given | I |
As France her aid once gave to thee | D |
With them thy sons might well have striven | I |
And their blood rusted fetters riven | I |
But why in Heaven's name should we | D |
Shoot men aspiring to be free | D |
- | |
I tread the fields where thousands sleep | J |
The blood soaked fields that freed the slave | K |
What precious memories still they keep | J |
For hearts that mourn and eyes that weep | J |
Yet for the lives those heroes gave | K |
What have we that they died to save | K |
- | |
A Union Yes outstretched in might | A |
From snow to palm from sea to sea | D |
But pledged to use its strength aright | A |
And evermore to keep alight | A |
The torch of human liberty | A |
Is this the Union that we see | A |
- | |
Where history's Martyr dared to break | L |
The power that held a race in chains | M |
I see the ghastly lynching stake | L |
Where brutal mobs their vengeance take | L |
And since no law their course restrains | M |
Gloat o'er their writhing victim's pains | M |
- | |
Race hatred born of groundless fears | N |
And narrow prejudice of caste | A |
Now greets the cultured black with sneers | N |
And barring him from high careers | N |
Breaks like a mad iconoclast | A |
The nation's idols of the past | A |
- | |
No more can we with steadfast eyes | O |
Protest when tortured races moan | P |
With hands uplifted toward the skies | O |
Their tyrants answer with surprise | O |
And new born insolence of tone | P |
These are our lynchings cure your own | P |
- | |
Yet hope remains A path retraced | A |
Is nobler than persistent wrong | Q |
A fault confessed is half effaced | A |
That land alone can be disgraced | A |
Which is not just however strong | Q |
Toward those to whom its spoils belong | Q |
- | |
My country Would to God that praise | R |
Might leave my lips instead of blame | S |
So near the parting of the ways | R |
Subjected to the eager gaze | R |
Of millions jealous of thy fame | S |
Retrace the path that ends in shame | S |
John L. Stoddard
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Fallen poem by John L. Stoddard
Best Poems of John L. Stoddard