Humboldt-s Birthday Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A A BCBC DEDE FGFG HIJI KLKL MNMN OPOP QRAR STST OUOU VIVI WXWX YDYD CPZCENTENNIAL CELEBRATION SEPTEMBER | A |
- | |
BONAPARTE AUGUST HUMBOLDT SEPTEMBER | A |
- | |
ERE yet the warning chimes of midnight sound | B |
Set back the flaming index of the year | C |
Track the swift shifting seasons in their round | B |
Through fivescore circles of the swinging sphere | C |
- | |
Lo in yon islet of the midland sea | D |
That cleaves the storm cloud with its snowy crest | E |
The embryo heir of Empires yet to be | D |
A month old babe upon his mother's breast | E |
- | |
Those little hands that soon shall grow so strong | F |
In their rude grasp great thrones shall rock and fall | G |
Press her soft bosom while a nursery song | F |
Holds the world's master in its slender thrall | G |
- | |
Look a new crescent bends its silver bow | H |
A new lit star has fired the eastern sky | I |
Hark by the river where the lindens blow | J |
A waiting household hears an infant's cry | I |
- | |
This too a conqueror His the vast domain | K |
Wider than widest sceptre shadowed lands | L |
Earth and the weltering kingdom of the main | K |
Laid their broad charters in his royal hands | L |
- | |
His was no taper lit in cloistered cage | M |
Its glimmer borrowed from the grove or porch | N |
He read the record of the planet's page | M |
By Etna's glare and Cotopaxi's torch | N |
- | |
He heard the voices of the pathless woods | O |
On the salt steppes he saw the starlight shine | P |
He scaled the mountain's windy solitudes | O |
And trod the galleries of the breathless mine | P |
- | |
For him no fingering of the love strung lyre | Q |
No problem vague by torturing schoolmen vexed | R |
He fed no broken altar's dying fire | A |
Nor skulked and scowled behind a Rabbi's text | R |
- | |
For God's new truth he claimed the kingly robe | S |
That priestly shoulders counted all their own | T |
Unrolled the gospel of the storied globe | S |
And led young Science to her empty throne | T |
- | |
While the round planet on its axle spins | O |
One fruitful year shall boast its double birth | U |
And show the cradles of its mighty twins | O |
Master and Servant of the sons of earth | U |
- | |
Which wears the garland that shall never fade | V |
Sweet with fair memories that can never die | I |
Ask not the marbles where their bones are laid | V |
But bow thine ear to hear thy brothers' cry | I |
- | |
'Tear up the despot's laurels by the root | W |
Like mandrakes shrieking as they quit the soil | X |
Feed us no more upon the blood red fruit | W |
That sucks its crimson from the heart of Toil | X |
- | |
'We claim the food that fixed our mortal fate | Y |
Bend to our reach the long forbidden tree | D |
The angel frowned at Eden's eastern gate | Y |
Its western portal is forever free | D |
- | |
'Bring the white blossoms of the waning year | C |
Heap with full hands the peaceful conqueror's shrine | P |
Whose bloodless triumphs cost no sufferer's tear | Z |
Hero of knowledge be our tribute thine ' | - |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< Spring Poem
Musa Poem>>
Write your comment about Humboldt-s Birthday poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Best Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes