The Brothers Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Madison Julius Cawein

The Brothers Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Not far from here it lies beyond	A
That low hilled belt of woods We'll take	B
This unused lane where brambles make	B
A wall of twilight and the blond	A
Brier roses pelt the path and flake	B
The margin waters of a pond	A
	-
This is its fence or that which was	C
Its fence once now rock rolled from rock	D
One tangle of the vine and dock	D
Where bloom the wild petunias	E
And this its gate the iron weeds block	D
Hot with the insects' dusty buzz	E
	-
Two wooden posts wherefrom has peeled	F
The weather crumbled paint still rise	G
Gaunt things that groan when someone tries	G
The gate whose hinges rust congealed	F
Snarl open on each post still lies	G
Its carven lion with a shield	F
	-
We enter and between great rows	H
Of locusts winds a grass grown road	I
And at its glimmering end o'erflowed	I
With quiet light the white front shows	H
Of an old mansion grand and broad	I
With grave Colonial porticoes	H
	-
Grown thick around it dark and deep	J
The locust trees make one vast hush	K
Their brawny branches crowd and crush	K
Its very casements and o'ersweep	J
Its rotting roofs their tranquil rush	K
Haunts all its spacious rooms with sleep	J
	-
Still is it called The Locusts though	L
None lives here now A tale's to tell	M
Of some dark thing that here befell	M
A crime that happened years ago	L
When by its walls with shot and shell	M
The war swept on and left it so	L
	-
For one black night within it shame	N
Made revel while all here about	I
With prayer or curse or battle shout	I
Men died and homesteads leapt in flame	N
Then passed the conquering Northern rout	I
And left it silent and the same	N
	-
Why should I speak of what has been	O
Or what dark part I played in all	P
Why ruin sits in porch and hall	P
Where pride and gladness once were seen	Q
And why beneath this lichened wall	P
The grave of Margaret is green	Q
	-
Heart broken Margaret whose fate	I
Was sadder yet than his who won	R
Her hand my brother Hamilton	R
Or mine who learned to know too late	I
Who learned to know when all was done	R
And nothing could exonerate	I
	-
To expiate is still my lot	I
And like the Ancient Mariner	S
To show to others how things are	T
And what I am still helps me blot	I
A little from that crime's red scar	T
That on my soul is branded hot	I
	-
He was my only brother She	U
A sister of my brother's friend	I
They met and married in the end	I
And I remember well when he	U
Brought her rejoicing home the trend	I
Of war moved towards us sullenly	P
	-
And scarce a year of wedlock when	V
Its red arms took him from his bride	I
With lips by hers thrice sanctified	I
He left to ride with Morgan's men	V
And I I never could decide	I
Remained at home It happened then	V
	-
For days went by And oft delayed	I
A letter came of loving word	I
Scrawled by some camp fire sabre stirred	I
Or by a pine knot's fitful aid	I
When in the saddle armed and spurred	I
And booted for some hurried raid	I
	-
Then weeks went by I do not know	L
How long it was before there came	N
Blown from the North the clarion fame	N
Of Morgan who with blow on blow	L
Had drawn a line of blood and flame	N
From Tennessee to Ohio	L
	-
Then letters ceased and days went on	W
No word from him The war rolled back	X
And in its turgid crimson track	X
A rumor grew like some wild dawn	Y
All ominous and red and black	X
With news of our lost Hamilton	R
	-
That hinted death or capture Yet	I
No thing was sure till one day fed	I
By us some men rode up who said	I
They'd been with Morgan and had met	I
Disaster and that he was dead	I
My brother I and Margaret	I
	-
Believed them Grief was ours too	I
But mine was more for her than him	Z
Grief that her eyes with tears were dim	Z
Grief that became the avenue	I
For love who crowned the sombre brim	Z
Of death's dark cup with rose red hue	I
	-
In sympathy unconsciously	P
Though it be given I hold doth dwell	P
The germ of love that time shall swell	P
To blossom Sooner then in me	P
When close relations so befell	P
That love should spring from sympathy	P
	-
Our similar tastes and mutual bents	L
Combined to make us intimates	L
From our first meeting Different states	L
Of interest then our temperaments	L
Begot Then friendship that abates	L
No love whose self it represents	L
	-
These led to talks and dreams how oft	I
We sat at some wide window while	P
The sun sank o'er the hills' far file	P
Serene and of the cloud aloft	I
Made one vast rose and mile on mile	P
Of firmament grew sad and soft	I
	-
And all in harmony with these	L
Dim clemencies of dusk afar	T
Our talks and dreams went while the star	T
Of evening brightened o'er the trees	L
We spoke of home the end of war	A2
We dreamed of life and love and peace	L
	-
How on our walks in listening lanes	L
Or confidences of the wood	I
We paused to hear the dove that cooed	I
Or gathered wild flowers taking pains	L
To find the fairest or her hood	I
Filled with wild fruit that left deep stains	L
	-
No echo of the drum or fife	B2
No hint of conflict entered in	O
Our thoughts then Will you call it sin	O
Indifference to a nation's strife	B2
What side might lose what side might win	O
Both immaterial to our life	B2
	-
Into the past we did not look	C2
Beyond what was we did not dream	D2
While onward rushed the thunderous stream	D2
Of war that in its torrent took	C2
One of our own No crimson gleam	D2
Of its wild course around us shook	C2
	-
At last we knew And when we learned	I
How he had fallen Margaret	I
Wept and albeit my eyes were wet	I
Within my soul I half discerned	I
A joy that mingled with regret	I
A grief that to relief was turned	I
	-
As time went on and confidence	L
Drew us more strongly each to each	E2
Why did no intimation reach	E2
Its warning hand into the dense	L
Soul silence and confuse the speech	E2
Of love's unbroken eloquence	L
	-
But no no hint to turn the poise	L
Or check the impulse of our youth	F2
To chill it with the living truth	F2
As with the awe of God's own voice	L
No hint to make our hope uncouth	F2
No word to warn us from our choice	L
	-
To me a wall seemed overthrown	G2
That social law had raised between	Q
And o'er its ruin broad and green	Q
A path went I possessed alone	G2
The sky above seemed all serene	Q
The land around seemed all my own	G2
	-
What shall I say of Margaret	I
To justify her part in this	L
That her young heart was never his	L
But had been mine since first we met	I
So would you say Enough it is	L
That when he left she loved him yet	I
	-
So passed the Spring and Summer sped	I
And early Autumn brought the day	I
When she her hand in mine should lay	I
And I should take her hand and wed	I
And still no hint that might gainsay	I
No warning word of quick or dead	I
	-
The day arrived and with it born	H2
A battle sullying the East	I
With boom of cannon that increased	I
And throb of musket and of horn	H2
Until at last towards dusk it ceased	I
And men with faces wild and worn	H2
	-
In fierce retreat swept past now groups	L
Now one by one now sternly white	I
Or blood stained now with looks whose fright	I
Said all was lost Then sullen troops	L
That beaten still kept up the fight	I
Then came the victors shadowy loops	L
	-
Of men and horse that left a crowd	I
Of officers in hall and porch	I2
While through the land around the torch	I2
Circled and many a fiery cloud	I
Marked out the army's iron march	J2
In furrows red that pillage plowed	I
	-
Here we were wedded Ask the years	L
How such could be while over us	L
A sword of wrath swung ominous	L
And on our cheeks its breath was fierce	L
All I remember is 'twas thus	L
And Margaret's eyes were wet with tears	L
	-
No other cause my memory sees	L
Save this that night was set and when	V
I found my home filled with armed men	V
With whom were all my sympathies	L
Of Union why postpone it then	V
So argued conscience into peace	L
	-
And then it was when night had passed	I
There came to me an orderly	P
With word of a confederate spy	J
Late taken who with head downcast	I
Had asked one favor this That I	J
Would see him ere he breathed his last	I
	-
I stand alone here Heavily	P
My thoughts go back Had I not gone	Y
The dead had still been dead for none	R
Had yet believed his story he	P
My dead deemed brother Hamilton	R
Who in the spy confronted me	P
	-
O you who never have been tried	I
How can you judge me in my place	L
I saw him standing who can trace	L
My heart thoughts then I turned aside	I
A thing of some unnatural race	L
And did not speak and so he died	I
	-
In hospital or prison when	V
It was he lay what had forbid	I
His home return so long amid	I
What hardships he had suffered then	V
I dared not ask and when I did	I
Long afterwards inquire of men	V
	-
No thing I learned But this I feel	P
He who had so returned to life	B2
Was not a spy Through stress and strife	B2
This makes my conscience hard to heal	P
He had escaped he sought his wife	B2
He sought his home that should conceal	P
	-
And Margaret Oh pity her	S
A criminal I sought her side	I
Still thinking love was justified	I
In all for her whatever were	S
The price a brother thrice denied	I
Or thrice a brother's murderer	S
	-
Since then long years have passed away	I
And through those years perhaps you'll ask	K2
How to the world I wore my mask	K2
Of honesty I can but say	I
Beyond my powers it was a task	K2
Before my time it turned me gray	I
	-
And when at last the ceaseless hiss	L
Of conscience drove and I betrayed	I
All to her she knelt down and prayed	I
Then rose and 'twixt us an abyss	L
Was opened and she seemed to fade	I
Out of my life I came to miss	L
	-
The sweet attentions of a bride	I
For each appealing heart's caress	L
In me her heart assumed a dress	L
Of dull indifference till denied	I
To me was all responsiveness	L
And then I knew her love had died	I
	-
Ah had she loaded me perchance	L
With wild reproach or even hate	I
Such would have helped a hope to wait	I
Forgiveness and returned romance	L
But 'twixt our souls instead a gate	I
She closed of silent tolerance	L
	-
Yet 't was for love of her I lent	I
My soul to crime I question me	P
Often if less entirely	P
I'd loved her then in that event	I
She had been justified to see	P
The deed alone stand prominent	I
	-
The deed alone But love records	L
In his own heart I will aver	S
No depth I did not feel for her	S
Beyond the plummet reach of words	L
And though there may be worthier	S
No truer love this world affords	L
	-
Than mine was though it could not rise	L
Above itself And so 't was best	I
Perhaps that she saw manifest	I
Its crime that I as saw her eyes	L
Might see and so in soul confessed	I
Some life atonement might devise	L
	-
Sadly my heart one comfort keeps	L
That towards the end she took my hands	L
And said as one who understands	L
Had I but seen But love that weeps	L
Sees only as its loss commands	L
And sighed Beneath this stone she sleeps	L
	-
Yes I have suffered for that sin	O
Yet in no instance would I shun	R
What I should suffer Many a one	R
Who heard my tale has tried to win	O
Me to believe that Hamilton	R
It was not and though proven kin	O
	-
This had not saved him Still the stain	L2
Of the intention had I erred	I
And 't was not he had writ the word	I
Red on my soul that branded Cain	L2
For still my error had incurred	I
The fact of guilt that would remain	L2
	-
Ah love at best is insecure	S
And lives with doubt and vain regret	I
And hope and faith with faces set	I
Upon the past are never sure	M2
And through their fever grief and fret	I
The heart may fail that should endure	M2
	-
For in ourselves however blend	I
The passions that make heaven and hell	P
Is evil not accountable	P
For most the good we comprehend	I
And through these two or ill or well	P
Man must evolve his spiritual end	I
	-
It is with deeds that we must ask	K2
Forgiveness for upon this earth	N2
Life walks alone from very birth	N2
With death hope tells us is a mask	K2
For life beyond of vaster worth	N2
Where sin no more sets love a task	K2