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 CPZ| CENTENNIAL 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)
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Humboldt-s Birthday is a poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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