Tripoli Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCD EEEE FGHGIJIJ EEEE GKGLFMHM EEEE NONOPQPQ EEEE RSRSJTJT EEEE EUEUULUL EEEE VLBLUWUW EEEE UKUKUXUX EEEE YZYZUUUU EEEE YUYUUA2UA2 EEEE B2OB2OJTT EEEE LULUUC2UC2 EEEEHear the singing on the boats | A |
As they halt beside the pier | B |
Ah those fresh Italian throats | A |
How they cheer | B |
Yet the words they sing so loud | C |
Bring depression to my heart | D |
As I watch the youthful crowd | C |
Thus depart | D |
- | |
We are going o'er the sea | E |
Loyal sons of Italy | E |
We are bound for Tripoli | E |
Tripoli | E |
- | |
See that lad of twenty years | F |
Who is stretching out his hand | G |
Toward his mother there in tears | H |
On the strand | G |
Should he perish in the strife | I |
Under Afric's burning sky | J |
There were nothing left in life | I |
She must die | J |
- | |
Yet he's going o'er the sea | E |
At the call of Italy | E |
He is bound for Tripoli | E |
Tripoli | E |
- | |
Now the plank is pulled to land | G |
And the last farewell is o'er | K |
As the steamer at command | G |
Leaves the shore | L |
There are shouts and ringing cheers | F |
For the boys are brave and strong | M |
Yet one feels that there are tears | H |
In their song | M |
- | |
We are going o'er the sea | E |
Loyal sons of Italy | E |
We are bound for Tripoli | E |
Tripoli | E |
- | |
Ah that mother who is left | N |
She is weeping now alone | O |
Like a Niobe bereft | N |
Of her own | O |
And at length I dare to speak | P |
To the woman seated there | Q |
With the tears upon her cheek | P |
In despair | Q |
- | |
He has gone across the sea | E |
Who so dutiful as he | E |
He is bound for Tripoli | E |
Tripoli | E |
- | |
Nay good mother do not weep | R |
Since the summons comes from Rome | S |
Can we really wish to keep | R |
Sons at home | S |
And why not she made reply | J |
We have no invading foe | T |
I would send my son to die | J |
Were it so | T |
- | |
But he's gone across the sea | E |
Gone with thousands such as he | E |
He is bound for Tripoli | E |
Tripoli | E |
- | |
What is Africa to me | E |
If it swallow up my child | U |
What care I for Tripoli | E |
Spot defiled | U |
Did not Abyssinian sand | U |
Drink sufficiently our gore | L |
Must we stain that fatal strand | U |
As before | L |
- | |
Yet he's gone across the sea | E |
Who more valorous than he | E |
He is bound for Tripoli | E |
Tripoli | E |
- | |
Have we no great uses here | V |
For the millions we outpour | L |
Are our consciences quite clear | B |
In this war | L |
Are there no more roads to build | U |
Schools to found and farms to work | W |
That we let our boys be killed | U |
By the Turk | W |
- | |
Yet we send them o'er the sea | E |
Youthful sons of Italy | E |
They are bound for Tripoli | E |
Tripoli | E |
- | |
We are hungry yet behold | U |
How the price of food goes higher | K |
And the nights will soon be cold | U |
Without fire | K |
Who will earn for me my bread | U |
Who my little home will save | X |
When he lies there cold and dead | U |
In his grave | X |
- | |
But he's gone across the sea | E |
Who so good and kind to me | E |
He is bound for Tripoli | E |
Tripoli | E |
- | |
To the churchyard near the bay | Y |
Went the mother in her grief | Z |
For her soul was moved to pray | Y |
For relief | Z |
And deep sobs convulsed her breast | U |
As she knelt upon the sod | U |
Where her husband lay at rest | U |
Safe in God | U |
- | |
For the boy was o'er the sea | E |
Whom she rocked upon her knee | E |
He had gone to Tripoli | E |
Tripoli | E |
- | |
She was buried yesterday | Y |
With her husband side by side | U |
Ere two months had passed away | Y |
She had died | U |
For one morning she had read | U |
Of her son among the slain | A2 |
And they saw her old gray head | U |
Sink in pain | A2 |
- | |
Nevermore across the sea | E |
Will he come to Italy | E |
He was killed in Tripoli | E |
Tripoli | E |
- | |
There was nothing more to tell | B2 |
Of a lad so little known | O |
He was reckoned one who fell | B2 |
That alone | O |
Was he wounded Did he lie | J |
Long ill treated by the foe | T |
And not know | T |
- | |
Yes he lies beyond the sea | E |
Can it be that that is he | E |
In the sands of Tripoli | E |
Tripoli | E |
- | |
She had asked for nothing more | L |
But in silence slowly failed | U |
Dreaming ever of the shore | L |
Whence he sailed | U |
Till her face so wan and white | U |
Flushed at last with sweet surprise | C2 |
And a strangely tender light | U |
Filled her eyes | C2 |
- | |
Then for her was no more sea | E |
She had found the soul set free | E |
From the sands of Tripoli | E |
Tripoli | E |
John L. Stoddard
(1)
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