A Memorial Tribute Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AB CDCD EFEF G G HIHH BJBJ HHHH HKHK LHLH M M NKNK OPOP HKHK QHQH KHKH HRHR STST HUHU KVKV WXWX YZYZ A2KA2K

READ AT THE MEETING HELD AT MUSIC HALLA
FEBRUARY IN MEMORY OF DR SAMUEL G HOWEB
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-
I-
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LEADER of armies Israel's GodC
Thy soldier's fight is wonD
Master whose lowly path he trodC
Thy servant's work is doneD
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No voice is heard from Sinai's steepE
Our wandering feet to guideF
From Horeb's rock no waters leapE
No Jordan's waves divideF
-
No prophet cleaves our western sky-
On wheels of whirling fireG
No shepherds hear the song on high-
Of heaven's angelic choirG
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Yet here as to the patriarch's tentH
God's angel comes a guestI
He comes on heaven's high errand sentH
In earth's poor raiment drestH
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We see no halo round his browB
Till love its own recallsJ
And like a leaf that quits the boughB
The mortal vesture fallsJ
-
In autumn's chill declining dayH
Ere winter's killing frostH
The message came so passed awayH
The friend our earth has lostH
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Still Father in thy love we trustH
Forgive us if we mournK
The saddening hour that laid in dustH
His robe of flesh outwornK
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II-
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How long the wreck strewn journey seemsL
To reach the far off pastH
That woke his youth from peaceful dreamsL
With Freedom's trumpet blastH
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Along her classic hillsides rungM
The Paynim's battle cry-
And like a red cross knight he sprungM
For her to live or die-
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No trustier service claimed the wreathN
For Sparta's bravest sonK
No truer soldier sleeps beneathN
The mound of MarathonK
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Yet not for him the warrior's graveO
In front of angry foesP
To lift to shield to help to saveO
The holier task he choseP
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He touched the eyelids of the blindH
And lo the veil withdrawnK
As o'er the midnight of the mindH
He led the light of dawnK
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He asked not whence the fountains rollQ
No traveller's foot has foundH
But mapped the desert of the soulQ
Untracked by sight or soundH
-
What prayers have reached the sapphire throneK
By silent fingers speltH
For him who first through depths unknownK
His doubtful pathway feltH
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Who sought the slumbering sense that layH
Close shut with bolt and barR
And showed awakening thought the rayH
Of reason's morning starR
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Where'er he moved his shadowy formS
The sightless orbs would seekT
And smiles of welcome light and warmS
The lips that could not speakT
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No labored line no sculptor's artH
Such hallowed memory needsU
His tablet is the human heartH
His record loving deedsU
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III-
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The rest that earth denied is thineK
Ah is it rest we askV
Or traced by knowledge more divineK
Some larger nobler taskV
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Had but those boundless fields of blueW
One darkened sphere like thisX
But what has heaven for thee to doW
In realms of perfect blissX
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No cloud to lift no mind to clearY
No rugged path to smoothZ
No struggling soul to help and cheerY
No mortal grief to sootheZ
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Enough is there a world of loveA2
No more we ask to knowK
The hand will guide thy ways aboveA2
That shaped thy task belowK

Oliver Wendell Holmes



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