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 GGQ3T2CCR3R3A3WOODSTOCK CONN JULY | A |
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NOT to myself this breath of vesper song | B |
Not to these patient friends this kindly throng | B |
Not to this hallowed morning though it be | C |
Our summer Christmas Freedom's jubilee | C |
When every summit topmast steeple tower | D |
That owns her empire spreads her starry flower | D |
Its blood streaked leaves in heaven's benignant dew | E |
Washed clean from every crimson stain they knew | E |
No not to these the passing thrills belong | B |
That steal my breath to hush themselves with song | B |
These moments all are memory's I have come | F |
To speak with lips that rather should be dumb | F |
For what are words At every step I tread | G |
The dust that wore the footprints of the dead | G |
But for whose life my life had never known | H |
This faded vesture which it calls its own | H |
Here sleeps my father's sire and they who gave | I |
That earlier life here found their peaceful grave | I |
In days gone by I sought the hallowed ground | J |
Climbed yon long slope the sacred spot I found | J |
Where all unsullied lies the winter snow | K |
Where all ungathered spring's pale violets blow | K |
And tracked from stone to stone the Saxon name | L |
That marks the blood I need not blush to claim | L |
Blood such as warmed the Pilgrim sons of toil | M |
Who held from God the charter of the soil | M |
I come an alien to your hills and plains | N |
Yet feel your birthright tingling in my veins | N |
Mine are this changing prospect's sun and shade | O |
In full blown summer's bridal pomp arrayed | O |
Mine these fair hillsides and the vales between | P |
Mine the sweet streams that lend their brightening green | P |
I breathed your air the sunlit landscape smiled | Q |
I touch your soil it knows its children's child | Q |
Throned in my heart your heritage is mine | R |
I claim it all by memory's right divine | R |
Waking I dream Before my vacant eyes | S |
In long procession shadowy forms arise | S |
Far through the vista of the silent years | T |
I see a venturous band the pioneers | T |
Who let the sunlight through the forest's gloom | U |
Who bade the harvest wave the garden bloom | U |
Hark loud resounds the bare armed settler's axe | V |
See where the stealthy panther left his tracks | V |
As fierce as stealthy creeps the skulking foe | K |
With stone tipped shaft and sinew corded bow | W |
Soon shall he vanish from his ancient reign | X |
Leave his last cornfield to the coming train | X |
Quit the green margin of the wave he drinks | Y |
For haunts that hide the wild cat and the lynx | Y |
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But who the Youth his glistening axe that swings | Z |
To smite the pine that shows a hundred rings | Z |
His features something in his look I find | A2 |
That calls the semblance of my race to mind | A2 |
His name my own and that which goes before | B2 |
The same that once the loved disciple bore | B2 |
Young brave discreet the father of a line | R |
Whose voiceless lives have found a voice in mine | R |
Thinned by unnumbered currents though they be | C |
Thanks for the ruddy drops I claim from thee | C |
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The seasons pass the roses come and go | K |
Snows fall and melt the waters freeze and flow | K |
The boys are men the girls grown tall and fair | C2 |
Have found their mates a gravestone here and there | C2 |
Tells where the fathers lie the silvered hair | C2 |
Of some bent patriarch yet recalls the time | D2 |
That saw his feet the northern hillside climb | D2 |
A pilgrim from the pilgrims far away | E2 |
The godly men the dwellers by the bay | E2 |
On many a hearthstone burns the cheerful fire | D |
The schoolhouse porch the heavenward pointing spire | F2 |
Proclaim in letters every eye can read | G |
Knowledge and Faith the new world's simple creed | G2 |
Hush 't is the Sabbath's silence stricken morn | H2 |
No feet must wander through the tasselled corn | H2 |
No merry children laugh around the door | B2 |
No idle playthings strew the sanded floor | B2 |
The law of Moses lays its awful ban | I2 |
On all that stirs here comes the tithing man | I2 |
At last the solemn hour of worship calls | J2 |
Slowly they gather in the sacred walls | J2 |
Man in his strength and age with knotted staff | K2 |
And boyhood aching for its week day laugh | K2 |
The toil worn mother with the child she leads | L2 |
The maiden lovely in her golden beads | L2 |
The popish symbols round her neck she wears | M2 |
But on them counts her lovers not her prayers | M2 |
Those youths in homespun suits and ribboned queues | N2 |
Whose hearts are beating in the high backed pews | N2 |
The pastor rises looks along the seats | O2 |
With searching eye each wonted face he meets | O2 |
Asks heavenly guidance finds the chapter's place | P2 |
That tells some tale of Israel's stubborn race | P2 |
Gives out the sacred song all voices join | Q2 |
For no quartette extorts their scanty coin | Q2 |
Then while both hands their black gloved palms display | E2 |
Lifts his gray head and murmurs 'Let us pray ' | - |
And pray he does as one that never fears | T |
To plead unanswered by the God that hears | R2 |
What if he dwells on many a fact as though | K |
Some things Heaven knew not which it ought to know | K |
Thanks God for all his favors past and yet | S2 |
Tells Him there's something He must not forget | S2 |
Such are the prayers his people love to hear | T2 |
See how the Deacon slants his listening ear | T2 |
What look once more Nay surely there I trace | P2 |
The hinted outlines of a well known face | P2 |
Not those the lips for laughter to beguile | U2 |
Yet round their corners lurks an embryo smile | U2 |
The same on other lips my childhood knew | E |
That scarce the Sabbath's mastery could subdue | E |
Him too my lineage gives me leave to claim | L |
The good grave man that bears the Psalmist's name | L |
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And still in ceaseless round the seasons passed | V2 |
Spring piped her carol Autumn blew his blast | V2 |
Babes waxed to manhood manhood shrunk to age | W2 |
Life's worn out players tottered off the stage | W2 |
The few are many boys have grown to men | X2 |
Since Putnam dragged the wolf from Pomfret's den | X2 |
Our new old Woodstock is a thriving town | Y2 |
Brave are her children faithful to the crown | Y2 |
Her soldiers' steel the savage redskin knows | Z2 |
Their blood has crimsoned his Canadian snows | Z2 |
And now once more along the quiet vale | A3 |
Rings the dread call that turns the mothers pale | A3 |
Full well they know the valorous heat that runs | B3 |
In every pulse beat of their loyal sons | B3 |
Who would not bleed in good King George's cause | C3 |
When England's lion shows his teeth and claws | D3 |
With glittering firelocks on the village green | P |
In proud array a martial band is seen | P |
You know what names those ancient rosters hold | E3 |
Whose belts were buckled when the drum beat rolled | E3 |
But mark their Captain tell us who is he | C |
On his brown face that same old look I see | C |
Yes from the homestead's still retreat he came | L |
Whose peaceful owner bore the Psalmist's name | L |
The same his own Well Israel's glorious king | F3 |
Who struck the harp could also whirl the sling | F3 |
Breathe in his song a penitential sigh | A |
And smite the sons of Amalek hip and thigh | A |
These shared their task one deaconed out the psalm | G3 |
One slashed the scalping hell hounds of calm | H3 |
The praying father's pious work is done | I3 |
Now sword in hand steps forth the fighting son | I3 |
On many a field he fought in wilds afar | J3 |
See on his swarthy cheek the bullet's scar | J3 |
There hangs a murderous tomahawk beneath | K3 |
Without its blade a knife's embroidered sheath | K3 |
Save for the stroke his trusty weapon dealt | L3 |
His scalp had dangled at their owner's belt | L3 |
But not for him such fate he lived to see | C |
The bloodier strife that made our nation free | C |
To serve with willing toil with skilful hand | M3 |
The war worn saviors of the bleeding land | M3 |
His wasting life to others' needs he gave | I |
Sought rest in home and found it in the grave | I |
See where the stones life's brief memorials keep | N3 |
The tablet telling where he 'fell on sleep ' | - |
Watched by a winged cherub's rayless eye | A |
A scroll above that says we all must die | A |
Those saddening lines beneath the 'Night Thoughts' lent | O3 |
So stands the Soldier's Surgeon's monument | P3 |
Ah at a glance my filial eye divines | C |
The scholar son in those remembered lines | C |
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The Scholar Son His hand my footsteps led | G |
No more the dim unreal past I tread | G |
O thou whose breathing form was once so dear | Q3 |
Whose cheering voice was music to my ear | T2 |
Art thou not with me as my feet pursue | C |
The village paths so well thy boyhood knew | C |
Along the tangled margin of the stream | R3 |
Whose murmurs blended with thine infant dream | R3 |
Or climb the hill or thread the wooded vale | A3 |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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