Meeting Of The Alumni Of Harvard College Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ KKLL KKMM NNOP QQRR SSMM TTU QQV WWQQ XXQQ YYQQ YYZZ A2A2B2B2 HHYY| I THANK you MR PRESIDENT you've kindly broke the ice | A |
| Virtue should always be the first I 'm only SECOND VICE | A |
| A vice is something with a screw that's made to hold its jaw | B |
| Till some old file has played away upon an ancient saw | B |
| - | |
| Sweet brothers by the Mother's side the babes of days gone by | C |
| All nurslings of her Juno breasts whose milk is never dry | C |
| We come again like half grown boys and gather at her beck | D |
| About her knees and on her lap and clinging round her neck | D |
| - | |
| We find her at her stately door and in her ancient chair | E |
| Dressed in the robes of red and green she always loved to wear | E |
| Her eye has all its radiant youth her cheek its morning flame | F |
| We drop our roses as we go hers flourish still the same | F |
| - | |
| We have been playing many an hour and far away we've strayed | G |
| Some laughing in the cheerful sun some lingering in the shade | G |
| And some have tired and laid them down where darker shadows fall | H |
| Dear as her loving voice may be they cannot hear its call | H |
| - | |
| What miles we 've travelled since we shook the dew drops from our shoes | I |
| We gathered on this classic green so famed for heavy dues | I |
| How many boys have joined the game how many slipped away | J |
| Since we've been running up and down and having out our play | J |
| - | |
| One boy at work with book and brief and one with gown and band | K |
| One sailing vessels on the pool one digging sand | K |
| One flying paper kites on change one planting little pills | L |
| The seeds of certain annual flowers well known as little bills | L |
| - | |
| What maidens met us on our way and clasped us hand in hand | K |
| What cherubs not the legless kind that fly but never stand | K |
| How many a youthful head we've seen put on its silver crown | M |
| What sudden changes back again to youth's empurpled brown | M |
| - | |
| But fairer sights have met our eyes and broader lights have shone | N |
| Since others lit their midnight lamps where once we trimmed our own | N |
| A thousand trains that flap the sky with flags of rushing fire | O |
| And throbbing in the Thunderer's hand Thought's million chorded lyre | P |
| - | |
| We've seen the sparks of Empire fly beyond the mountain bars | Q |
| Till glittering o'er the Western wave they joined the setting stars | Q |
| And ocean trodden into paths that trampling giants ford | R |
| To find the planet's vertebrae and sink its spinal cord | R |
| - | |
| We've tried reform and chloroform and both have turned our brain | S |
| When France called up the photograph we roused the foe to pain | S |
| Just so those earlier sages shared the chaplet of renown | M |
| Hers sent a bladder to the clouds ours brought their lightning down | M |
| - | |
| We've seen the little tricks of life its varnish and veneer | T |
| Its stucco fronts of character flake off and disappear | T |
| We 've learned that oft the brownest hands will heap the biggest pile | U |
| And met with many a 'perfect brick' beneath a rimless 'tile ' | - |
| - | |
| What dreams we 've had of deathless name as scholars statesmen bards | Q |
| While Fame the lady with the trump held up her picture cards | Q |
| Till having nearly played our game she gayly whispered 'Ah | V |
| I said you should be something grand you'll soon be grandpapa ' | - |
| - | |
| Well well the old have had their day the young must take their turn | W |
| There's something always to forget and something still to learn | W |
| But how to tell what's old or young the tap root from the sprigs | Q |
| Since Florida revealed her fount to Ponce de Leon Twiggs | Q |
| - | |
| The wisest was a Freshman once just freed from bar and bolt | X |
| As noisy as a kettle drum as leggy as a colt | X |
| Don't be too savage with the boys the Primer does not say | Q |
| The kitten ought to go to church because the cat doth prey | Q |
| - | |
| The law of merit and of age is not the rule of three | Y |
| Non constat that A M must prove as busy as A B | Y |
| When Wise the father tracked the son ballooning through the skies | Q |
| He taught a lesson to the old go thou and do like Wise | Q |
| - | |
| Now then old boys and reverend youth of high or low degree | Y |
| Remember how we only get one annual out of three | Y |
| And such as dare to simmer down three dinners into one | Z |
| Must cut their salads mighty short and pepper well with fun | Z |
| - | |
| I've passed my zenith long ago it's time for me to set | A2 |
| A dozen planets wait to shine and I am lingering yet | A2 |
| As sometimes in the blaze of day a milk and watery moon | B2 |
| Stains with its dim and fading ray the lustrous blue of noon | B2 |
| - | |
| Farewell yet let one echo rise to shake our ancient hall | H |
| God save the Queen whose throne is here the Mother of us all | H |
| Till dawns the great commencement day on every shore and sea | Y |
| And 'Expectantur' all mankind to take their last Degree | Y |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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