Japan,'old And New Poem Rhyme Scheme

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The son of a Japanese lord am I	A
A Prince of the olden time	B
My hair is white though black as night	C
In my youth and early prime	B
And again and again I ask myself	D
As the past I sadly scan	E
Are we better or worse Was it blessing or curse	F
That foreigners brought Japan	E
	-
It is barely two score years and ten	G
Since the epoch making day	H
When a foreign fleet through the summer heat	I
Came sailing up our bay	H
Still ring in my ears my father's words	J
As we watched it breast the waves	K
If strangers land on Nippon's strand	L
We may one day be their slaves	K
	-
But the strangers landed and asked for trade	M
And a permanent Open Door	N
And we deemed it best to grant the West	O
A foothold on our shore	N
Their slaves in truth we have not become	P
Yet who can fail to find	Q
That Japan obeys in a thousand ways	R
The will of the western mind	Q
	-
We sent our sons across the seas	S
To learn from the Western Powers	T
Their modes of life and their modes of strife	U
And have made them largely ours	T
But before all else have we learned from them	V
That our first great aim must be	W
To possess a fleet that can defeat	I
All rivals on the sea	W
	-
Hence all that the West hath yet devised	X
For the slaughter of men en masse	Y
We have copied or bought and have stopped at naught	Z
To make our fleet first class	Y
And lest this might not quite suffice	A2
Should an enemy come in sight	C
We have made each man throughout Japan	E
A soldier trained to fight	C
	-
But alas for the change that hath been wrought	Z
In the millions in our fields	B2
For the costly ships take from their lips	C2
The food that the harvest yields	B2
They were always poor but their load was light	C
Compared with their load to day	H
For thousands of hands that worked the lands	D2
Are drafted now away	H
	-
And sad are the scenes in the sphere of Art	E2
In which we had won such fame	F2
The fingers left are not so deft	G2
As they were when the strangers came	F2
For then we toiled for Beauty's sake	H2
And by time were we never paid	M
But now we have sold our art for gold	I2
And the western market's trade	M
	-
I never look at the goods now sent	J2
So worthless do they seem	K2
Without a sigh for the standard high	A
Which prevailed in the old regime	K2
When even the hilt of a Daimio's sword	L2
Was a work of months or years	M2
And the highest reward for a triumph scored	L2
Was praise from the artist's peers	M2
	-
No the soul of my people is not the same	F2
It was formerly sweet and kind	Q
And happiness reigned in hearts restrained	N2
By an unspoiled gentle mind	Q
But now the lusts of the outer world	O2
For power and lands and gold	I2
Our sons deprave till they madly crave	P2
What others have and hold	I2
	-
We have borrowed many things from the West	O
But one have we left alone	Q2
Of its Christian creed we had no need	R2
And have thus far kept our own	Q2
For each of its numerous sects affirms	S2
That it has the only way	H
And that all the rest should be suppressed	O
For they lead mankind astray	H
	-
But worse than the claims of rival sects	T2
And the war of clashing creeds	U2
Is the gulf heaven wide which we descried	O
Between their words and deeds	U2
For He whose sacred name they bear	V2
Was known as the Prince of Peace	W2
And what He taught in practice wrought	O
Would cause all wars to cease	W2
	-
They say with truth that we used to fight	O
For our Lords on sea and coast	O
But our soldiers then were as one to ten	G
Not a permanent armored host	O
Nor do we claim to obey the God	O
They worship in the West	O
But since they do is it not true	X2
That they mock at His first behest	O
	-
His words were Love your enemies	S
And never a hostile act	O
To friend or foe should Christians show	Y2
By whomsoever attacked	O
But they are really the best prepared	O
To attack and to resist	O
And the Kaiser who prays is the Kaiser who says	Z2
Go Strike with the mailed fist	O
	-
We look abroad and everywhere	V2
The spirit of Christ is dead	O
Men call Him Lord but they draw the sword	O
In defiance of what He said	O
And the haughty white skinned Christian race	A3
Hates men of a different hue	X2
And robs and slays in a thousand ways	R
With excuses ever new	X2
	-
In the North and South in the East and West	O
In vain do the natives plead	O
By the Congo's waves are countless graves	K
Where the Paleface gluts his greed	O
And China's fate looms dark and grim	B3
As its people note the means	C3
That Christians take when gold's at stake	H2
From the Rand to the Philippines	C3
	-
We have had to choose between the rule	D3
Of the Sermon on the Mount	O
And the brutal fact that nations act	O
With an eye to their bank account	O
And we see that the only way to shun	E3
The clutch of the Western Powers	T
Is to learn to kill with Christian skill	F3
And to make their weapons ours	T
	-
For we will not like the others bend	O
Our necks to the white man's yoke	G3
And poor Japan to her latest man	E
Will answer stroke with stroke	G3
So I watch to night a solemn sight	O
On the breast of the moonlit bay	H
As our gallant host for a hostile coast	O
Prepares to sail away	H
	-
It is life or death for my native land	O
And I fear I may never see	W
Those ships again with their noble men	G
Return from victory	W
And well I know in my heart of hearts	H3
As the past I sadly scan	E
That we are worse and it was a curse	F
That foreigners brought Japan	E

John L. Stoddard

Japan,'old And New Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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