Never Or Now - An Appeal Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD AEAF BGBG HIHI HJHJ AKAK LMLMListen young heroes your country is calling | A |
Time strikes the hour for the brave and the true | B |
Now while the foremost are fighting and falling | A |
Fill up the ranks that have opened for you | B |
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You whom the fathers made free and defended | C |
Stain not the scroll that emblazons their fame | D |
You whose fair heritage spotless descended | C |
Leave not your children a birthright of shame | D |
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Stay not for questions while Freedom stands gasping | A |
Wait not till Honor lies wrapped in his pall | E |
Brief the lips' meeting be swift the hands' clasping | A |
Off for the wars is enough for them all | F |
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Break from the arms that would fondly caress you | B |
Hark 't is the bugle blast sabres are drawn | G |
Mothers shall pray for you fathers shall bless you | B |
Maidens shall weep for you when you are gone | G |
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Never or now cries the blood of a nation | H |
Poured on the turf where the red rose should bloom | I |
Now is the day and the hour of salvation | H |
Never or now peals the trumpet of doom | I |
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Never or now roars the hoarse throated cannon | H |
Through the black canopy blotting the skies | J |
Never or now flaps the shell blasted pennon | H |
O'er the deep ooze where the Cumberland lies | J |
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From the foul dens where our brothers are dying | A |
Aliens and foes in the land of their birth | K |
From the rank swamps where our martyrs are lying | A |
Pleading in vain for a handful of earth | K |
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From the hot plains where they perish outnumbered | L |
Furrowed and ridged by the battle field's plough | M |
Comes the loud summons too long you have slumbered | L |
Hear the last Angel trump Never or Now | M |
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Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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