A Brave And Startling Truth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEF GHIJK GLMNIOP QRJST GIUVWXYZU GA2B2C2JJB2D2E2 F2JB2D2G2H2 GI2D2WD2J2K2L2DD2M2 AB2HDN2O2B2D GJP2P2B2JQ2 GSH2R2G

We this people on a small and lonely planetA
Traveling through casual spaceB
Past aloof stars across the way of indifferent sunsC
To a destination where all signs tell usD
It is possible and imperative that we learnE
A brave and startling truthF
-
And when we come to itG
To the day of peacemakingH
When we release our fingersI
From fists of hostilityJ
And allow the pure air to cool our palmsK
-
When we come to itG
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hateL
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed cleanM
When battlefields and coliseumN
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughtersI
Up with the bruised and bloody grassO
To lie in identical plots in foreign soilP
-
When the rapacious storming of the churchesQ
The screaming racket in the temples have ceasedR
When the pennants are waving gailyJ
When the banners of the world trembleS
Stoutly in the good clean breezeT
-
When we come to itG
When we let the rifles fall from our shouldersI
And children dress their dolls in flags of truceU
When land mines of death have been removedV
And the aged can walk into evenings of peaceW
When religious ritual is not perfumedX
By the incense of burning fleshY
And childhood dreams are not kicked awakeZ
By nightmares of abuseU
-
When we come to itG
Then we will confess that not the PyramidsA2
With their stones set in mysterious perfectionB2
Nor the Gardens of BabylonC2
Hanging as eternal beautyJ
In our collective memoryJ
Not the Grand CanyonB2
Kindled into delicious colorD2
By Western sunsetsE2
-
Nor the Danube flowing its blue soul into EuropeF2
Not the sacred peak of Mount FujiJ
Stretching to the Rising SunB2
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who without favorD2
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shoresG2
These are not the only wonders of the worldH2
-
When we come to itG
We this people on this minuscule and kithless globeI2
Who reach daily for the bomb the blade and the daggerD2
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peaceW
We this people on this mote of matterD2
In whose mouths abide cankerous wordsJ2
Which challenge our very existenceK2
Yet out of those same mouthsL2
Come songs of such exquisite sweetnessD
That the heart falters in its laborD2
And the body is quieted into aweM2
-
We this people on this small and drifting planetA
Whose hands can strike with such abandonB2
That in a twinkling life is sapped from the livingH
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing irresistible tendernessD
That the haughty neck is happy to bowN2
And the proud back is glad to bendO2
Out of such chaos of such contradictionB2
We learn that we are neither devils nor divinesD
-
When we come to itG
We this people on this wayward floating bodyJ
Created on this earth of this earthP2
Have the power to fashion for this earthP2
A climate where every man and every womanB2
Can live freely without sanctimonious pietyJ
Without crippling fearQ2
-
When we come to itG
We must confess that we are the possibleS
We are the miraculous the true wonder of this worldH2
That is when and only whenR2
We come to itG

Maya Angelou



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Emmanuel Geoffrey: Great poem
Emmanuel Geoffrey: Great poem
 

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