How Long? Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBACCDDCEEFFEGGHHG IIJJIKKLLKMMGGMNNOON PPQRPSTTU| How long O Prince of Peace how long We sicken of the shame | A |
| Of this wild war that wraps the world a roaring dragon flame | A |
| Fed on earth's glorious youth high hearts all passionate to cope | B |
| O Chivalry of Hope | B |
| With the cloudy host of the infidel and the Holy Earth reclaim | A |
| For each dear land is Holy Land to her own fervent sons | C |
| Who fling in loyal sacrifice their lives before the guns | C |
| But when they meet their foes above the battlesmoke they laugh | D |
| And all together quaff | D |
| The cup of welcome Honor pouts for her slain champions | C |
| Oh if a thousandth part of all this treasure purpose skill | E |
| Were poured into the crucible transforming wrong and ill | E |
| By the white magic of a wise and generous brotherhood | F |
| To righteousness and good | F |
| The world would be divine again with eery war cry still | E |
| Poor world so worn with wickedness bedimmed with rage and fear | G |
| Sad world that sprang forth singing from God's hand a golden sphere | G |
| O yet may Love's creative breath renew thee fashioned twice | H |
| A shining Paradise | H |
| Unsullied in the astral choir with Joy for charioteer | G |
| How long shall bomb and bullet think for human brains How long | I |
| Shall folk of the burned villages in starving staggering throng | I |
| Flee from the armies that in turn are mangled maddened slain | J |
| Till earth is all one stain | J |
| Of horror and the soaring larks are slaughtered in their song | I |
| Oh may this war this blasphemy that blots the globe with blood | K |
| Slay war forever cleanse the earth in its own mighty flood | K |
| Of tears tears unassuageable that will not cease to fall | L |
| Till Time has covered all | L |
| Our guilty century with sleep and the new eras bud | K |
| How long The angels of the stars entreat the clouded Throne | M |
| In anguish for their brother Earth who stands like Cain alone | M |
| And hides the mark upon his brow the while their harps implore | G |
| The Silence to restore | G |
| Peace to this wayward Son of God whose music is a moan | M |
| Come swiftly Peace Oh swiftly come with healing in thy feet | N |
| Bring back to tortured battlefields the waving of the wheat | N |
| Bring back to broken hearths whereby the wistful ghosts will walk | O |
| Blithe hum of household talk | O |
| Till childhood dare to sport again and maiden hood be sweet | N |
| Though thou must come by crimson road with grief and mercy come | P |
| Not with the insolence of strength the boast of fife and drum | P |
| Come with adventure in thine eyes for the splendid tasks that wait | Q |
| To weld these desolate | R |
| Crushed lands into the fellowship of thy millennium | P |
| O Peace to rear thy temple that no strife may overawe | S |
| O Purity to fashion thee a palace without flaw Galilee | T |
| To build the state on thee | T |
| And shape the deeds of nations by thy yet untested law | U |
Katharine Lee Bates
(1)
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