Grandmother's Story Of Bunker-hill Battle As She Saw It From The Belfry Poem Rhyme Scheme

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'T is like stirring living embers when at eighty one remembers	A
All the achings and the quakings of the times that tried men's souls	B
When I talk of Whig and Tory when I tell the Rebel story	C
To you the words are ashes but to me they're burning coals	B
	-
I had heard the muskets' rattle of the April running battle	D
Lord Percy's hunted soldiers I can see their red coats still	E
But a deadly chill comes o'er me as the day looms up before me	C
When a thousand men lay bleeding on the slopes of Bunker's Hill	E
	-
'T was a peaceful summer's morning when the first thing gave us warning	F
Was the booming of the cannon from the river and the shore	G
Child says grandma what 's the matter what is all this noise and clatter	H
Have those scalping Indian devils come to murder us once more	G
	-
Poor old soul my sides were shaking in the midst of all my quaking	F
To hear her talk of Indians when the guns began to roar	G
She had seen the burning village and the slaughter and the pillage	I
When the Mohawks killed her father with their bullets through his door	G
	-
Then I said Now dear old granny don't you fret and worry any	C
For I'll soon come back and tell you whether this is work or play	J
There can't be mischief in it so I won't be gone a minute	K
For a minute then I started I was gone the live long day	J
	-
No time for bodice lacing or for looking glass grimacing	F
Down my hair went as I hurried tumbling half way to my heels	L
God forbid your ever knowing when there's blood around her flowing	F
How the lonely helpless daughter of a quiet house hold feels	L
	-
In the street I heard a thumping and I knew it was the stumping	F
Of the Corporal our old neighbor on that wooden leg he wore	G
With a knot of women round him it was lucky I had found him	M
So I followed with the others and the Corporal marched before	G
	-
They were making for the steeple the old soldier and his people	D
The pigeons circled round us as we climbed the creaking stair	N
Just across the narrow river oh so close it made me shiver	H
Stood a fortress on the hill top that but yesterday was bare	N
	-
Not slow our eyes to find it well we knew who stood behind it	O
Though the earthwork hid them from us and the stubborn walls were dumb	P
Here were sister wife and mother looking wild upon each other	H
And their lips were white with terror as they said THE HOUR HAS COME	P
	-
The morning slowly wasted not a morsel had we tasted	Q
And our heads were almost splitting with the cannons' deafening thrill	E
When a figure tall and stately round the rampart strode sedately	C
It was PRESCOTT one since told me he commanded on the hill	E
	-
Every woman's heart grew bigger when we saw his manly figure	H
With the banyan buckled round it standing up so straight and tall	R
Like a gentleman of leisure who is strolling out for pleasure	H
Through the storm of shells and cannon shot he walked around the wall	R
	-
At eleven the streets were swarming for the red coats' ranks were forming	F
At noon in marching order they were moving to the piers	S
How the bayonets gleamed and glistened as we looked far down and listened	T
To the trampling and the drum beat of the belted grenadiers	S
	-
At length the men have started with a cheer it seemed faint hearted	Q
In their scarlet regimentals with their knapsacks on their backs	S
And the reddening rippling water as after a sea fight's slaughter	H
Round the barges gliding onward blushed like blood along their tracks	S
	-
So they crossed to the other border and again they formed in order	H
And the boats came back for soldiers came for soldiers soldiers still	E
The time seemed everlasting to us women faint and fasting	F
At last they're moving marching marching proudly up the hill	E
	-
We can see the bright steel glancing all along the lines advancing	F
Now the front rank fires a volley they have thrown away their shot	U
For behind their earthwork lying all the balls above them flying	F
Our people need not hurry so they wait and answer not	U
	-
Then the Corporal our old cripple he would swear sometimes and tipple	D
He had heard the bullets whistle in the old French war before	G
Calls out in words of jeering just as if they all were hearing	F
And his wooden leg thumps fiercely on the dusty belfry floor	G
	-
Oh fire away ye villains and earn King George's shillin's	S
But ye 'll waste a ton of powder afore a 'rebel' falls	S
You may bang the dirt and welcome they're as safe as Dan'l Malcolm	P
Ten foot beneath the gravestone that you've splintered with your balls	S
	-
In the hush of expectation in the awe and trepidation	V
Of the dread approaching moment we are well nigh breathless all	R
Though the rotten bars are failing on the rickety belfry railing	F
We are crowding up against them like the waves against a wall	R
	-
Just a glimpse the air is clearer they are nearer nearer nearer	H
When a flash a curling smoke wreath then a crash the steeple shakes	S
The deadly truce is ended the tempest's shroud is rended	U
Like a morning mist it gathered like a thunder cloud it breaks	S
	-
Oh the sight our eyes discover as the blue black smoke blows over	H
The red coats stretched in windrows as a mower rakes his hay	J
Here a scarlet heap is lying there a headlong crowd is flying	F
Like a billow that has broken and is shivered into spray	J
	-
Then we cried The troops are routed they are beat it can't be doubted	U
God be thanked the fight is over Ah the grim old soldier's smile	W
Tell us tell us why you look so we could hardly speak we shook so	S
Are they beaten Are they beaten ARE they beaten Wait a while	W
	-
Oh the trembling and the terror for too soon we saw our error	H
They are baffled not defeated we have driven them back in vain	X
And the columns that were scattered round the colors that were tattered	U
Toward the sullen silent fortress turn their belted breasts again	Y
	-
All at once as we are gazing lo the roofs of Charlestown blazing	F
They have fired the harmless village in an hour it will be down	Z
The Lord in heaven confound them rain his fire and brimstone round them	A2
The robbing murdering red coats that would burn a peaceful town	Z
	-
They are marching stern and solemn we can see each massive column	P
As they near the naked earth mound with the slanting walls so steep	B2
Have our soldiers got faint hearted and in noiseless haste departed	U
Are they panic struck and helpless Are they palsied or asleep	B2
	-
Now the walls they're almost under scarce a rod the foes asunder	H
Not a firelock flashed against them up the earth work they will swarm	C2
But the words have scarce been spoken when the ominous calm is broken	V
And a bellowing crash has emptied all the vengeance of the storm	C2
	-
So again with murderous slaughter pelted backwards to the water	H
Fly Pigot's running heroes and the frightened braves of Howe	D2
And we shout At last they're done for it's their barges they have run for	G
They are beaten beaten beaten and the battle 's over now	D2
	-
And we looked poor timid creatures on the rough old soldier's features	S
Our lips afraid to question but he knew what we would ask	E2
Not sure he said keep quiet once more I guess they 'll try it	U
Here's damnation to the cut throats then he handed me his flask	E2
	-
Saying Gal you're looking shaky have a drop of old Jamaiky	E2
I 'm afeard there 'll be more trouble afore the job is done	V
So I took one scorching swallow dreadful faint I felt and hollow	S
Standing there from early morning when the firing was begun	V
	-
All through those hours of trial I had watched a calm clock dial	D
As the hands kept creeping creeping they were creeping round to four	G
When the old man said They're forming with their bagonets fixed for storming	E2
It 's the death grip that's a coming they will try the works once more	G
	-
With brazen trumpets blaring the flames behind them glaring	E2
The deadly wall before them in close array they come	P
Still onward upward toiling like a dragon's fold uncoiling	E2
Like the rattlesnake's shrill warning the reverberating drum	P
	-
Over heaps all torn and gory shall I tell the fearful story	C
How they surged above the breastwork as a sea breaks over a deck	E2
How driven yet scarce defeated our worn out men retreated	U
With their powder horns all emptied like the swimmers from a wreck	E2
	-
It has all been told and painted as for me they say I fainted	U
And the wooden legged old Corporal stumped with me down the stair	N
When I woke from dreams affrighted the evening lamps were lighted	U
On the floor a youth was lying his bleeding breast was bare	N
	-
And I heard through all the flurry Send for WARREN hurry hurry	C
Tell him here's a soldier bleeding and he 'll come and dress his wound	U
Ah we knew not till the morrow told its tale of death and sorrow	S
How the starlight found him stiffened on the dark and bloody ground	U
	-
Who the youth was what his name was where the place from which he came was	S
Who had brought him from the battle and had left him at our door	G
He could not speak to tell us but 't was one of our brave fellows	S
As the homespun plainly showed us which the dying soldier wore	G
	-
For they all thought he was dying as they gathered round him crying	E2
And they said Oh how they'll miss him and What will his mother do	U
Then his eyelids just unclosing like a child's that has been dozing	E2
He faintly murmured Mother and I saw his eyes were blue	U
	-
Why grandma how you 're winking Ah my child it sets me thinking	E2
Of a story not like this one Well he somehow lived along	E2
So we came to know each other and I nursed him like a mother	H
Till at last he stood before me tall and rosy checked and strong	E2
	-
And we sometimes walked together in the pleasant summer weather	H
Please to tell us what his name was Just your own my little dear	F2
There's his picture Copley painted we became so well acquainted	U
That in short that's why I 'm grandma and you children all are here	G2

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Grandmother's Story Of Bunker-hill Battle As She Saw It From The Belfry Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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