Orient To Occident, 1906 Poem Rhyme Scheme

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You thought me sunk in lethargy too deeply drugged with sleep	A
To notice how your armored fleets kept creeping o'er the deep	A
Too indolent to organize too feeble to resist	B
Too timid to return the blow of Europe's mailed fist	B
And Asia's conquest seemed to you a matter of such ease	C
That all your kings knew perfectly the part which each would seize	C
Of such a sluggish inert mass why should you be afraid	D
You wanted ports and provinces for purposes of trade	D
And monster spheres of influence whose wealth could be controlled	E
And plundered by your Governments to fill their vaults with gold	E
Hence since it seemed so probable that none of us would fight	F
Why should you even hesitate to prove that Might makes Right	F
	-
And yet perhaps it had been well before you formed your plan	G
To study Asia's history from Persia to Japan	G
For though the sleeping Orient like grain before the blast	H
May bow its head it rights itself when once the storm is past	H
How often has the Occident invaded our domains	I
And boasted of its victories Yet of them what remains	I
Seems India exceptional Fools judge not by a day	J
The horologe of centuries moves slowly in Cathay	J
The brilliant son of Macedon saw crushed and pale with fear	K
The vanquished East from Babylon to Egypt and Cashmere	K
But though the conquered Orient lay helpless as his slave	L
Of Alexander's influence how much survived his grave	L
Of Rome's prodigious armaments to Asian conquests led	M
Where is there now a souvenir save relics of the dead	M
And of the vast Crusading hosts which in their madness rose	N
And hurled themselves repeatedly upon their Moslem foes	N
What is to day the net result A thousand years have passed	H
But none of all their vaunted gains proved great enough to last	H
The Saviour's tomb Jerusalem and all the sacred lands	O
Connected with the Christian faith are still in Asian hands	O
	-
We needed rude awakening to rouse us from our sloth	P
It came among our northern isles whose heroes nothing loth	Q
Unbarred their ports to modern fleets their ancient life forswore	K
And learned from greedy foreigners the Christians' art of war	K
Behold the world in fifty years is breathless with surprise	R
And Europe's greatest Government has sought us for allies	R
That little section of our mass aroused itself and lo	S
Your largest Occidental Power has reeled beneath the blow	S
And while our living troops receive men's rapturous acclaim	T
Our fallen heroes have attained the Pantheon of fame	T
Yet think not we deceive ourselves you praise but really dread	M
The valour of the Orient if this awakening spread	M
Behind this movement of the East you think you hear the low	S
Long murmur of the Asians The foreigner must go	S
What wonder that we hate you all You look on us to day	J
As lions look on antelopes their heaven appointed prey	J
You know you have no lawful right to lands that you possess	U
You gained them all through violence or lying and finesse	U
Your cursed opium alone despite our prayers and tears	V
Has ruined millions of our race for more than two score years	W
And when we rose indignantly to right that bitter wrong	X
Your heavy guns bombarded us and you annexed Hong Kong	X
You force yourselves on us and ask concessions favors mines	Y
Protection for your mission schools and grants of railway lines	Y
But when we cross the seas to you an entry you refuse	Z
And curse illtreat and harry us with loathing and abuse	A2
Japan has shown the only way of keeping for our own	B2
The fertile fields which rightfully belong to us alone	B2
We do not wish to arm ourselves and fighting we abhor	K
But self protection forces us to learn and practise war	K
	-
Hence if assailed we shall not shun a struggle with the West	C2
Not bent on conquest like yourselves but rising to the test	C2
Of Asia for the Asians defend our threatened farms	D2
By sending to encounter you a million men in arms	D2
You think yourselves invincible Learn something from Japan	G
The fever of whose chivalry now spreads from man to man	G
Encouraging the Orient to hasten on the day	J
When all enlightened Asians shall cry Enough Away	J
Go exploit helpless Africa where you have shamed the beast	E2
But understand your cruel day is over in the East	E2
You still have many things to learn base worshippers of gold	E
When you were wild barbarians our Governments were old	E
Your self conceit and arrogance we therefore laugh to scorn	F2
We had our laws millenniums before your courts were born	F2
You talk by electricity you ride on wings of steam	G2
You thunder with machinery and these you proudly deem	G2
The grandest triumphs of the race forgetting that mere speed	H2
In transference of men and things is less than one great deed	H2
	-
You treat us condescendingly as if our gifts were small	I2
But do you think Almighty God has dowered you with all	I2
Earth's greatest continent is ours her highest mountains rise	R
In unapproached sublimity beneath our starry skies	R
Ours too the cradle of the race and at our Buddha's shrine	J2
Unequalled numbers of mankind adore him as divine	J2
How dare you speak of Asian thought with pity or a sneer	K
When practically all you know originated here	K
What had you been if our ideals in art and faith expressed	C2
Had not come down through Greece and Rome to civilize your West	C2
The great religions of the world are all of Asian birth	K2
And thence went forth resistlessly to dominate the earth	K2
Of six we granted one to you and you profess its creeds	L2
But what a sorry travesty you make of it in deeds	L2
The Christ taught love to enemies His followers to day	J
Have trained the whole male Christian world their fellow men to slay	J
The very Bible that you prize was writ by Asian hands	O
Your prophets saints and patriarchs were all of Eastern lands	O
The Son of God as you believe was born a humble Jew	M2
The Virgin Mother equally no other parents knew	M2
Yet you have robbed and tortured Jews and murdered them at will	N2
Through eighteen Christian centuries are killing thousands still	N2
	-
The Star of Empire as you claim has westward made its way	J
But what if now in Eastern skies it heralds a new day	J
You fondly dreamed its brilliant course had ended there with you	M2
But on it moves old lands to greet and belt the globe anew	M2
Its kindling rays revivify our nations which have slept	O2
While round the world our influence through you has slowly crept	O2
The coming century's great deeds lie not at Europe's doors	P2
A grander stage awaits mankind the vast Pacific's shores	P2
And we not only skirt that sea from Tokyo to Saigon	Q2
Our coastline fronts the western world from Syria to Ceylon	Q2
Again shall we supply to you the part of life you need	H2
Again your slaves of strenuous toil shall live at slower speed	H2
Once more as pilgrims to a shrine your chiefs shall come to me	R2
And learn of my philosophy as children at my knee	R2
You cannot cut me from your past nor cancel what you owe	S
For all my sages gave to you two thousand years ago	S
For after twenty centuries you think and speak and pray	J
Still much as I instructed you in Syria and Cathay	J
Keep you then the material I hold the mental realm	S2
For you the ship's machinery for me the guiding helm	S2

John L. Stoddard

Orient To Occident, 1906 Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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