American Academy Centennial Celebration Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCC DEDEE FGFGG HIHII JKJKK FLFLL MFMFF HNHNN OPOPP FKFQQ AFAFF RNRNN FSFSS TUTUU| MAY | A |
| - | |
| SIRE son and grandson so the century glides | B |
| Three lives three strides three foot prints in the sand | C |
| Silent as midnight's falling meteor slides | B |
| Into the stillness of the far off land | C |
| How dim the space its little arc has spanned | C |
| - | |
| See on this opening page the names renowned | D |
| Tombed in these records on our dusty shelves | E |
| Scarce on the scroll of living memory found | D |
| Save where the wan eyed antiquarian delves | E |
| Shadows they seem ab what are we ourselves | E |
| - | |
| Pale ghosts of Bowdoin Winthrop Willard West | F |
| Sages of busy brain and wrinkled brow | G |
| Searchers of Nature's secrets unconfessed | F |
| Asking of all things Whence and Why and How | G |
| What problems meet your larger vision now | G |
| - | |
| Has Gannett tracked the wild Aurora's path | H |
| Has Bowdoin found his all surrounding sphere | I |
| What question puzzles ciphering Philomath | H |
| Could Williams make the hidden causes clear | I |
| Of the Dark Day that filled the land with fear | I |
| - | |
| Dear ancient school boys Nature taught to them | J |
| The simple lessons of the star and flower | K |
| Showed them strange sights how on a single stem | J |
| Admire the marvels of Creative Power | K |
| Twin apples grew one sweet the other sour | K |
| - | |
| How from the hill top where our eyes beheld | F |
| In even ranks the plumed and bannered maize | L |
| Range its long columns in the days of old | F |
| The live volcano shot its angry blaze | L |
| Dead since the showers of Noah's watery days | L |
| - | |
| How when the lightning split the mighty rock | M |
| The spreading fury of the shaft was spent | F |
| How the young scion joined the alien stock | M |
| And when and where the homeless swallows went | F |
| To pass the winter of their discontent | F |
| - | |
| Scant were the gleanings in those years of dearth | H |
| No Cuvier yet had clothed the fossil bones | N |
| That slumbered waiting for their second birth | H |
| No Lyell read the legend of the stones | N |
| Science still pointed to her empty thrones | N |
| - | |
| Dreaming of orbs to eyes of earth unknown | O |
| Herschel looked heavenwards in the starlight pale | P |
| Lost in those awful depths he trod alone | O |
| Laplace stood mute before the lifted veil | P |
| While home bred Humboldt trimmed his toy ship's sail | P |
| - | |
| No mortal feet these loftier heights had gained | F |
| Whence the wide realms of Nature we descry | K |
| In vain their eyes our longing fathers strained | F |
| To scan with wondering gaze the summits high | Q |
| That far beneath their children's footpaths lie | Q |
| - | |
| Smile at their first small ventures as we may | A |
| The school boy's copy shapes the scholar's hand | F |
| Their grateful memory fills our hearts to day | A |
| Brave hopeful wise this bower of peace they planned | F |
| While war's dread ploughshare scarred the suffering land | F |
| - | |
| Child of our children's children yet unborn | R |
| When on this yellow page you turn your eyes | N |
| Where the brief record of this May day morn | R |
| In phrase antique and faded letters lies | N |
| How vague how pale our flitting ghosts will rise | N |
| - | |
| Yet in our veins the blood ran warm and red | F |
| For us the fields were green the skies were blue | S |
| Though from our dust the spirit long has fled | F |
| We lived we loved we toiled we dreamed like you | S |
| Smiled at our sires and thought how much we knew | S |
| - | |
| Oh might our spirits for one hour return | T |
| When the next century rounds its hundredth ring | U |
| All the strange secrets it shall teach to learn | T |
| To hear the larger truths its years shall bring | U |
| Its wiser sages talk its sweeter minstrels sing | U |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< Musa Poem
Stanzas Poem>>
About American Academy Centennial Celebration
American Academy Centennial Celebration is a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about American Academy Centennial Celebration poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Best Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes