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 SEPTEMBERA
-
BONAPARTE AUGUST HUMBOLDT SEPTEMBERA
-
ERE yet the warning chimes of midnight soundB
Set back the flaming index of the yearC
Track the swift shifting seasons in their roundB
Through fivescore circles of the swinging sphereC
-
Lo in yon islet of the midland seaD
That cleaves the storm cloud with its snowy crestE
The embryo heir of Empires yet to beD
A month old babe upon his mother's breastE
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Those little hands that soon shall grow so strongF
In their rude grasp great thrones shall rock and fallG
Press her soft bosom while a nursery songF
Holds the world's master in its slender thrallG
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Look a new crescent bends its silver bowH
A new lit star has fired the eastern skyI
Hark by the river where the lindens blowJ
A waiting household hears an infant's cryI
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This too a conqueror His the vast domainK
Wider than widest sceptre shadowed landsL
Earth and the weltering kingdom of the mainK
Laid their broad charters in his royal handsL
-
His was no taper lit in cloistered cageM
Its glimmer borrowed from the grove or porchN
He read the record of the planet's pageM
By Etna's glare and Cotopaxi's torchN
-
He heard the voices of the pathless woodsO
On the salt steppes he saw the starlight shineP
He scaled the mountain's windy solitudesO
And trod the galleries of the breathless mineP
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For him no fingering of the love strung lyreQ
No problem vague by torturing schoolmen vexedR
He fed no broken altar's dying fireA
Nor skulked and scowled behind a Rabbi's textR
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For God's new truth he claimed the kingly robeS
That priestly shoulders counted all their ownT
Unrolled the gospel of the storied globeS
And led young Science to her empty throneT
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While the round planet on its axle spinsO
One fruitful year shall boast its double birthU
And show the cradles of its mighty twinsO
Master and Servant of the sons of earthU
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Which wears the garland that shall never fadeV
Sweet with fair memories that can never dieI
Ask not the marbles where their bones are laidV
But bow thine ear to hear thy brothers' cryI
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'Tear up the despot's laurels by the rootW
Like mandrakes shrieking as they quit the soilX
Feed us no more upon the blood red fruitW
That sucks its crimson from the heart of ToilX
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'We claim the food that fixed our mortal fateY
Bend to our reach the long forbidden treeD
The angel frowned at Eden's eastern gateY
Its western portal is forever freeD
-
'Bring the white blossoms of the waning yearC
Heap with full hands the peaceful conqueror's shrineP
Whose bloodless triumphs cost no sufferer's tearZ
Hero of knowledge be our tribute thine '-

Oliver Wendell Holmes



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