The Flag Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEAA FFGG HHIJ KKLM NNOO PPQ AARR LLSS| There's a flag hangs over my threshold whose folds are more dear to me | A |
| Than the blood that thrills in my bosom its earnest of liberty | A |
| And dear are the stars it harbors in its sunny field of blue | B |
| As the hope of a further heaven that lights all our dim lives through | B |
| - | |
| But now should my guests be merry the house is in holiday guise | C |
| Looking out through its burnished windows like a score of welcoming eyes | C |
| Come hither my brothers who wander in saintliness and in sin | D |
| Come hither ye pilgrims of Nature my heart doth invite you in | D |
| - | |
| My win is not of the choicest yet bears it an honest brand | E |
| And the bread that I bid you lighten I break with no sparing hand | E |
| But pause ere you pass to taste it one act must accomplished be | A |
| Salute the flag in its virtue before ye sit down with me | A |
| - | |
| The flag of our stately battles not struggles of wrath and greed | F |
| Its stripes were a holy lesson its spangles a deathless creed | F |
| 'Twas red with the blood of freemen and white with the fear of the foe | G |
| And the stars that fight in their courses 'gainst tyrants its symbols know | G |
| - | |
| Come hither thou son of my mother we were reared in the selfsame arms | H |
| Thou hast many a pleasant gesture thy mind hath its fights and charms | H |
| But my heart is as stern to question as mine eyes are of sorrows full | I |
| Salute the flag in its virtue or pass on where others rule | J |
| - | |
| Thou lord of a thousand acres with heaps of uncounted gold | K |
| The steeds of thy stall are haughty thy lackeys cunning and bold | K |
| I envy no jot of thy splendor I rail at thy follies none | L |
| Salute the flag in its virtue or leave my poor house alone | M |
| - | |
| Fair lady with silken trappings high waving thy stainless plume | N |
| We welcome thee to our numbers a flower of costliest bloom | N |
| Let a hundred maids live widowed to furnish thy bridal bed | O |
| But pause where the flag doth question and bend thy triumphant head | O |
| - | |
| Take down now your flaunting banner for a scout comes breathless and pale | P |
| With the terror death upon him of failure is all his tale | P |
| 'They have fled while the flag waved o'er them they have turned to the foe their back | Q |
| They are scattered pursued and slaughtered the fields are all rout and wrack ' | - |
| - | |
| Pass hence then the friends I gathered a goodly company | A |
| All ye that have manhood in you go perish for Liberty | A |
| But I and the babes God gave me will wait with uplifted hearts | R |
| With the firm smile ready to kindle and the will to perform our parts | R |
| - | |
| When the last true heart lies bloodless when the fierce and the false have won | L |
| I'll press in turn to my bosom each daughter and either son | L |
| Bid them loose the flag from its bearings and we'll lay us down to rest | S |
| With the glory of home about us and its freedom locked in our breast | S |
Julia Ward Howe
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