A Family Record Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BBCCDDEEBBFFGGHHIIJJ KKLLMMNNOOPPQQRRSSTT UUVVKWXXYY ZZA2A2B2B2RRCC KKC2C2C2D2D2E2E2DF2G G2H2H2B2B2I2I2J2J2K2 K2L2L2M2M2N2N2O2O2P2 P2Q2Q2E2 TR2KKS2S2T2T2P2P2U2U 2EELL V2V2W2W2X2X2Y2Y2Z2Z2 A3A3B3B3C3D3PPE3E3CC LLF3F3AAG3H3I3I3J3J3 K3K3L3L3CCM3M3IIN3 AAO3P3CC GGQ3T2CCR3R3A3

WOODSTOCK CONN JULYA
-
NOT to myself this breath of vesper songB
Not to these patient friends this kindly throngB
Not to this hallowed morning though it beC
Our summer Christmas Freedom's jubileeC
When every summit topmast steeple towerD
That owns her empire spreads her starry flowerD
Its blood streaked leaves in heaven's benignant dewE
Washed clean from every crimson stain they knewE
No not to these the passing thrills belongB
That steal my breath to hush themselves with songB
These moments all are memory's I have comeF
To speak with lips that rather should be dumbF
For what are words At every step I treadG
The dust that wore the footprints of the deadG
But for whose life my life had never knownH
This faded vesture which it calls its ownH
Here sleeps my father's sire and they who gaveI
That earlier life here found their peaceful graveI
In days gone by I sought the hallowed groundJ
Climbed yon long slope the sacred spot I foundJ
Where all unsullied lies the winter snowK
Where all ungathered spring's pale violets blowK
And tracked from stone to stone the Saxon nameL
That marks the blood I need not blush to claimL
Blood such as warmed the Pilgrim sons of toilM
Who held from God the charter of the soilM
I come an alien to your hills and plainsN
Yet feel your birthright tingling in my veinsN
Mine are this changing prospect's sun and shadeO
In full blown summer's bridal pomp arrayedO
Mine these fair hillsides and the vales betweenP
Mine the sweet streams that lend their brightening greenP
I breathed your air the sunlit landscape smiledQ
I touch your soil it knows its children's childQ
Throned in my heart your heritage is mineR
I claim it all by memory's right divineR
Waking I dream Before my vacant eyesS
In long procession shadowy forms ariseS
Far through the vista of the silent yearsT
I see a venturous band the pioneersT
Who let the sunlight through the forest's gloomU
Who bade the harvest wave the garden bloomU
Hark loud resounds the bare armed settler's axeV
See where the stealthy panther left his tracksV
As fierce as stealthy creeps the skulking foeK
With stone tipped shaft and sinew corded bowW
Soon shall he vanish from his ancient reignX
Leave his last cornfield to the coming trainX
Quit the green margin of the wave he drinksY
For haunts that hide the wild cat and the lynxY
-
But who the Youth his glistening axe that swingsZ
To smite the pine that shows a hundred ringsZ
His features something in his look I findA2
That calls the semblance of my race to mindA2
His name my own and that which goes beforeB2
The same that once the loved disciple boreB2
Young brave discreet the father of a lineR
Whose voiceless lives have found a voice in mineR
Thinned by unnumbered currents though they beC
Thanks for the ruddy drops I claim from theeC
-
The seasons pass the roses come and goK
Snows fall and melt the waters freeze and flowK
The boys are men the girls grown tall and fairC2
Have found their mates a gravestone here and thereC2
Tells where the fathers lie the silvered hairC2
Of some bent patriarch yet recalls the timeD2
That saw his feet the northern hillside climbD2
A pilgrim from the pilgrims far awayE2
The godly men the dwellers by the bayE2
On many a hearthstone burns the cheerful fireD
The schoolhouse porch the heavenward pointing spireF2
Proclaim in letters every eye can readG
Knowledge and Faith the new world's simple creedG2
Hush 't is the Sabbath's silence stricken mornH2
No feet must wander through the tasselled cornH2
No merry children laugh around the doorB2
No idle playthings strew the sanded floorB2
The law of Moses lays its awful banI2
On all that stirs here comes the tithing manI2
At last the solemn hour of worship callsJ2
Slowly they gather in the sacred wallsJ2
Man in his strength and age with knotted staffK2
And boyhood aching for its week day laughK2
The toil worn mother with the child she leadsL2
The maiden lovely in her golden beadsL2
The popish symbols round her neck she wearsM2
But on them counts her lovers not her prayersM2
Those youths in homespun suits and ribboned queuesN2
Whose hearts are beating in the high backed pewsN2
The pastor rises looks along the seatsO2
With searching eye each wonted face he meetsO2
Asks heavenly guidance finds the chapter's placeP2
That tells some tale of Israel's stubborn raceP2
Gives out the sacred song all voices joinQ2
For no quartette extorts their scanty coinQ2
Then while both hands their black gloved palms displayE2
Lifts his gray head and murmurs 'Let us pray '-
And pray he does as one that never fearsT
To plead unanswered by the God that hearsR2
What if he dwells on many a fact as thoughK
Some things Heaven knew not which it ought to knowK
Thanks God for all his favors past and yetS2
Tells Him there's something He must not forgetS2
Such are the prayers his people love to hearT2
See how the Deacon slants his listening earT2
What look once more Nay surely there I traceP2
The hinted outlines of a well known faceP2
Not those the lips for laughter to beguileU2
Yet round their corners lurks an embryo smileU2
The same on other lips my childhood knewE
That scarce the Sabbath's mastery could subdueE
Him too my lineage gives me leave to claimL
The good grave man that bears the Psalmist's nameL
-
And still in ceaseless round the seasons passedV2
Spring piped her carol Autumn blew his blastV2
Babes waxed to manhood manhood shrunk to ageW2
Life's worn out players tottered off the stageW2
The few are many boys have grown to menX2
Since Putnam dragged the wolf from Pomfret's denX2
Our new old Woodstock is a thriving townY2
Brave are her children faithful to the crownY2
Her soldiers' steel the savage redskin knowsZ2
Their blood has crimsoned his Canadian snowsZ2
And now once more along the quiet valeA3
Rings the dread call that turns the mothers paleA3
Full well they know the valorous heat that runsB3
In every pulse beat of their loyal sonsB3
Who would not bleed in good King George's causeC3
When England's lion shows his teeth and clawsD3
With glittering firelocks on the village greenP
In proud array a martial band is seenP
You know what names those ancient rosters holdE3
Whose belts were buckled when the drum beat rolledE3
But mark their Captain tell us who is heC
On his brown face that same old look I seeC
Yes from the homestead's still retreat he cameL
Whose peaceful owner bore the Psalmist's nameL
The same his own Well Israel's glorious kingF3
Who struck the harp could also whirl the slingF3
Breathe in his song a penitential sighA
And smite the sons of Amalek hip and thighA
These shared their task one deaconed out the psalmG3
One slashed the scalping hell hounds of calmH3
The praying father's pious work is doneI3
Now sword in hand steps forth the fighting sonI3
On many a field he fought in wilds afarJ3
See on his swarthy cheek the bullet's scarJ3
There hangs a murderous tomahawk beneathK3
Without its blade a knife's embroidered sheathK3
Save for the stroke his trusty weapon dealtL3
His scalp had dangled at their owner's beltL3
But not for him such fate he lived to seeC
The bloodier strife that made our nation freeC
To serve with willing toil with skilful handM3
The war worn saviors of the bleeding landM3
His wasting life to others' needs he gaveI
Sought rest in home and found it in the graveI
See where the stones life's brief memorials keepN3
The tablet telling where he 'fell on sleep '-
Watched by a winged cherub's rayless eyeA
A scroll above that says we all must dieA
Those saddening lines beneath the 'Night Thoughts' lentO3
So stands the Soldier's Surgeon's monumentP3
Ah at a glance my filial eye divinesC
The scholar son in those remembered linesC
-
The Scholar Son His hand my footsteps ledG
No more the dim unreal past I treadG
O thou whose breathing form was once so dearQ3
Whose cheering voice was music to my earT2
Art thou not with me as my feet pursueC
The village paths so well thy boyhood knewC
Along the tangled margin of the streamR3
Whose murmurs blended with thine infant dreamR3
Or climb the hill or thread the wooded valeA3

Oliver Wendell Holmes



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