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 A2KA2KREAD AT THE MEETING HELD AT MUSIC HALL | A |
FEBRUARY IN MEMORY OF DR SAMUEL G HOWE | B |
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I | - |
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LEADER of armies Israel's God | C |
Thy soldier's fight is won | D |
Master whose lowly path he trod | C |
Thy servant's work is done | D |
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No voice is heard from Sinai's steep | E |
Our wandering feet to guide | F |
From Horeb's rock no waters leap | E |
No Jordan's waves divide | F |
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No prophet cleaves our western sky | - |
On wheels of whirling fire | G |
No shepherds hear the song on high | - |
Of heaven's angelic choir | G |
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Yet here as to the patriarch's tent | H |
God's angel comes a guest | I |
He comes on heaven's high errand sent | H |
In earth's poor raiment drest | H |
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We see no halo round his brow | B |
Till love its own recalls | J |
And like a leaf that quits the bough | B |
The mortal vesture falls | J |
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In autumn's chill declining day | H |
Ere winter's killing frost | H |
The message came so passed away | H |
The friend our earth has lost | H |
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Still Father in thy love we trust | H |
Forgive us if we mourn | K |
The saddening hour that laid in dust | H |
His robe of flesh outworn | K |
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II | - |
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How long the wreck strewn journey seems | L |
To reach the far off past | H |
That woke his youth from peaceful dreams | L |
With Freedom's trumpet blast | H |
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Along her classic hillsides rung | M |
The Paynim's battle cry | - |
And like a red cross knight he sprung | M |
For her to live or die | - |
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No trustier service claimed the wreath | N |
For Sparta's bravest son | K |
No truer soldier sleeps beneath | N |
The mound of Marathon | K |
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Yet not for him the warrior's grave | O |
In front of angry foes | P |
To lift to shield to help to save | O |
The holier task he chose | P |
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He touched the eyelids of the blind | H |
And lo the veil withdrawn | K |
As o'er the midnight of the mind | H |
He led the light of dawn | K |
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He asked not whence the fountains roll | Q |
No traveller's foot has found | H |
But mapped the desert of the soul | Q |
Untracked by sight or sound | H |
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What prayers have reached the sapphire throne | K |
By silent fingers spelt | H |
For him who first through depths unknown | K |
His doubtful pathway felt | H |
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Who sought the slumbering sense that lay | H |
Close shut with bolt and bar | R |
And showed awakening thought the ray | H |
Of reason's morning star | R |
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Where'er he moved his shadowy form | S |
The sightless orbs would seek | T |
And smiles of welcome light and warm | S |
The lips that could not speak | T |
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No labored line no sculptor's art | H |
Such hallowed memory needs | U |
His tablet is the human heart | H |
His record loving deeds | U |
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III | - |
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The rest that earth denied is thine | K |
Ah is it rest we ask | V |
Or traced by knowledge more divine | K |
Some larger nobler task | V |
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Had but those boundless fields of blue | W |
One darkened sphere like this | X |
But what has heaven for thee to do | W |
In realms of perfect bliss | X |
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No cloud to lift no mind to clear | Y |
No rugged path to smooth | Z |
No struggling soul to help and cheer | Y |
No mortal grief to soothe | Z |
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Enough is there a world of love | A2 |
No more we ask to know | K |
The hand will guide thy ways above | A2 |
That shaped thy task below | K |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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