Poem For The Two Hundred And Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Founding Of Harvard College Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDD EEFFGGCCHH IIJJKKAALLMMMMNNMMMM OOPPQQ JJRRJJSSTT UVFFWWUVXX YYZZMMMMCCNNA2A2B2B2 JJMM MMC2C2 D2D2MMQQMMMMMME2E2 DDF2F2G2G2MMDDH2H2 MMQQI2I2J2J2 MMK2K2YYL2L2M2M2MM RRMMN2N2QQO2O2ZZ P2P2RR N2N2RR A2A2MMQ2Q2ZZ N2N2QIRRR2R2A2A2RRS2 S2MM MMA2A2T2T2N2N2U2U2V2 V2 W2W2MMRRZZRRMMA2A2X2 X2RRA2A2Y2Y2A2A2Z2Z2 ZZ A2A2A2A2V2V2ZZI2I2MM A2A2MM MMMMA3A3A2A2MMC2C2ZZ MMQQRRJ2J2ZZA2A2 A2A2A2A2C2C2A2A2A2A2 A2A2PPA2A2MMFFA2A2MM ZZQQMMA2A2MMMMA2A2A2 A2MMA2A2MMA2A2A2A2A2 A2A2A2 OOB3B3A2A2MMA2A2A2A2 A2A2DDA2A2ZZA2A2 MMA2A2 A2A2A2A2A2A2C3C3A2A2 MMNN MMW2W2ZZA2A2MMS2S2M2 M2 MMA2A2C2C2RRUJSS A2A2RRSSD3D3N2N2SSSS A2A2MMMMS2S2A2A2E3E3 SSSSC2C2 RRSSS2S2A2A2 SSA2A2MMP2P2SSMMA2A2 A2A2E3E3F3F3 A2A2MMA2A2S2S2A2A2NN SS A2A2MMRRS2S2RRA2A2SS MMS2S2 S2S2A2A2A2A2C3C3

Twice had the mellowing sun of autumn crowned	A
The hundredth circle of his yearly round	A
When as we meet to day our fathers met	B
That joyous gathering who can e'er forget	B
When Harvard's nurslings scattered far and wide	C
Through mart and village lake's and ocean's side	C
Came with one impulse one fraternal throng	D
And crowned the hours with banquet speech and song	D
	-
Once more revived in fancy's magic glass	E
I see in state the long procession pass	E
Tall courtly leader as by right divine	F
Winthrop our Winthrop rules the marshalled line	F
Still seen in front as on that far off day	G
His ribboned baton showed the column's way	G
Not all are gone who marched in manly pride	C
And waved their truncheons at their leader's side	C
Gray Lowell Dixwell who his empire shared	H
These to be with us envious Time has spared	H
	-
Few are the faces so familiar then	I
Our eyes still meet amid the haunts of men	I
Scarce one of all the living gathered there	J
Whose unthinned locks betrayed a silver hair	J
Greets us to day and yet we seem the same	K
As our own sires and grandsires save in name	K
There are the patriarchs looking vaguely round	A
For classmates' faces hardly known if found	A
See the cold brow that rules the busy mart	L
Close at its side the pallid son of art	L
Whose purchased skill with borrowed meaning clothes	M
And stolen hues the smirking face he loathes	M
Here is the patient scholar in his looks	M
You read the titles of his learned books	M
What classic lore those spidery crow's feet speak	N
What problems figure on that wrinkled cheek	N
For never thought but left its stiffened trace	M
Its fossil footprint on the plastic face	M
As the swift record of a raindrop stands	M
Fixed on the tablet of the hardening sands	M
On every face as on the written page	O
Each year renews the autograph of age	O
One trait alone may wasting years defy	P
The fire still lingering in the poet's eye	P
While Hope the siren sings her sweetest strain	Q
Non omnis moriar is its proud refrain	Q
	-
Sadly we gaze upon the vacant chair	J
He who should claim its honors is not there	J
Otis whose lips the listening crowd enthrall	R
That press and pack the floor of Boston's hall	R
But Kirkland smiles released from toil and care	J
Since the silk mantle younger shoulders wear	J
Quincy's whose spirit breathes the selfsame fire	S
That filled the bosom of his youthful sire	S
Who for the altar bore the kindled torch	T
To freedom's temple dying in its porch	T
	-
Three grave professions in their sons appear	U
Whose words well studied all well pleased will hear	V
Palfrey ordained in varied walks to shine	F
Statesman historian critic and divine	F
Solid and square behold majestic Shaw	W
A mass of wisdom and a mine of law	W
Warren whose arm the doughtiest warriors fear	U
Asks of the startled crowd to lend its ear	V
Proud of his calling him the world loves best	X
Not as the coming but the parting guest	X
	-
Look on that form with eye dilating scan	Y
The stately mould of nature's kingliest man	Y
Tower like he stands in life's unfaded prime	Z
Ask you his name None asks a second time	Z
He from the land his outward semblance takes	M
Where storm swept mountains watch o'er slumbering lakes	M
See in the impress which the body wears	M
How its imperial might the soul declares	M
The forehead's large expansion lofty wide	C
That locks unsilvered vainly strive to hide	C
The lines of thought that plough the sober cheek	N
Lips that betray their wisdom ere they speak	N
In tones like answers from Dodona's grove	A2
An eye like Juno's when she frowns on Jove	A2
I look and wonder will he be content	B2
This man this monarch for the purple meant	B2
The meaner duties of his tribe to share	J
Clad in the garb that common mortals wear	J
Ah wild Ambition spread thy restless wings	M
Beneath whose plumes the hidden cestrum stings	M
	-
Thou whose bold flight would leave earth's vulgar crowds	M
And like the eagle soar above the clouds	M
Must feel the pang that fallen angels know	C2
When the red lightning strikes thee from below	C2
	-
Less bronze more silver mingles in the mould	D2
Of him whom next my roving eyes behold	D2
His more the scholar's than the statesman's face	M
Proclaims him born of academic race	M
Weary his look as if an aching brain	Q
Left on his brow the frozen prints of pain	Q
His voice far reaching grave sonorous owns	M
A shade of sadness in its plaintive tones	M
Yet when its breath some loftier thought inspires	M
Glows with a heat that every bosom fires	M
Such Everett seems no chance sown wild flower knows	M
The full blown charms of culture's double rose	M
Alas how soon by death's unsparing frost	E2
Its bloom is faded and its fragrance lost	E2
	-
Two voices only two to earth belong	D
Of all whose accents met the listening throng	D
Winthrop alike for speech and guidance framed	F2
On that proud day a twofold duty claimed	F2
One other yet remembered or forgot	G2
Forgive my silence if I name him not	G2
Can I believe it I whose youthful voice	M
Claimed a brief gamut notes not over choice	M
Stood undismayed before the solemn throng	D
And propria voce sung that saucy song	D
Which even in memory turns my soul aghast	H2
Felix audacia was the verdict cast	H2
	-
What were the glory of these festal days	M
Shorn of their grand illumination's blaze	M
Night comes at last with all her starry train	Q
To find a light in every glittering pane	Q
From Harvard's windows see the sudden flash	I2
Old Massachusetts glares through every sash	I2
From wall to wall the kindling splendors run	J2
Till all is glorious as the noonday sun	J2
	-
How to the scholar's mind each object brings	M
What some historian tells some poet sings	M
The good gray teacher whom we all revered	K2
Loved honored laughed at and by freshmen feared	K2
As from old Harvard where its light began	Y
From hall to hall the clustering splendors ran	Y
Took down his well worn Eschylus and read	L2
Lit by the rays a thousand tapers shed	L2
How the swift herald crossed the leagues between	M2
Mycenae's monarch and his faithless queen	M2
And thus he read my verse but ill displays	M
The Attic picture clad in modern phrase	M
	-
On Ida's summit flames the kindling pile	R
And Lemnos answers from his rocky isle	R
From Athos next it climbs the reddening skies	M
Thence where the watch towers of Macistus rise	M
The sentries of Mesapius in their turn	N2
Bid the dry heath in high piled masses burn	N2
Cithoeron's crag the crimson billows stain	Q
Far AEgiplanctus joins the fiery train	Q
Thus the swift courier through the pathless night	O2
Has gained at length the Arachnoean height	O2
Whence the glad tidings borne on wings offlame	Z
Ilium has fallen reach the royal dame	Z
	-
So ends the day before the midnight stroke	P2
The lights expiring cloud the air with smoke	P2
While these the toil of younger hands employ	R
The slumbering Grecian dreams of smouldering Troy	R
	-
As to that hour with backward steps I turn	N2
Midway I pause behold a funeral urn	N2
Ah sad memorial known but all too well	R
The tale which thus its golden letters tell	R
	-
This dust once breathing changed its joyous life	A2
For toil and hunger wounds and mortal strife	A2
Love friendship learning's all prevailing charms	M
For the cold bivouac and the clash of arms	M
The cause of freedom won a race enslaved	Q2
Called back to manhood and a nation saved	Q2
These sons of Harvard falling ere their prime	Z
Leave their proud memory to the coming time	Z
	-
While in their still retreats our scholars turn	N2
The mildewed pages of the past to learn	N2
With endless labor of the sleepless brain	Q
What once has been and ne'er shall be again	I
We reap the harvest of their ceaseless toil	R
And find a fragrance in their midnight oil	R
But let a purblind mortal dare the task	R2
The embryo future of itself to ask	R2
The world reminds him with a scornful laugh	A2
That times have changed since Prospero broke his staff	A2
Could all the wisdom of the schools foretell	R
The dismal hour when Lisbon shook and fell	R
Or name the shuddering night that toppled down	S2
Our sister's pride beneath whose mural crown	S2
Scarce had the scowl forgot its angry lines	M
When earth's blind prisoners fired their fatal mines	M
	-
New realms new worlds exulting Science claims	M
Still the dim future unexplored remains	M
Her trembling scales the far off planet weigh	A2
Her torturing prisms its elements betray	A2
We know what ores the fires of Sirius melt	T2
What vaporous metals gild Orion's belt	T2
Angels archangels may have yet to learn	N2
Those hidden truths our heaven taught eyes discern	N2
Yet vain is Knowledge with her mystic wand	U2
To pierce the cloudy screen and read beyond	U2
Once to the silent stars the fates were known	V2
To us they tell no secrets but their own	V2
	-
At Israel's altar still we humbly bow	W2
But where oh where are Israel's prophets now	W2
Where is the sibyl with her hoarded leaves	M
Where is the charm the weird enchantress weaves	M
No croaking raven turns the auspex pale	R
No reeking altars tell the morrow's tale	R
The measured footsteps of the Fates are dumb	Z
Unseen unheard unheralded they come	Z
Prophet and priest and all their following fail	R
Who then is left to rend the future's veil	R
Who but the poet he whose nicer sense	M
No film can baffle with its slight defence	M
Whose finer vision marks the waves that stray	A2
Felt but unseen beyond the violet ray	A2
Who while the storm wind waits its darkening shroud	X2
Foretells the tempest ere he sees the cloud	X2
Stays not for time his secrets to reveal	R
But reads his message ere he breaks the seal	R
So Mantua's bard foretold the coming day	A2
Ere Bethlehem's infant in the manger lay	A2
The promise trusted to a mortal tongue	Y2
Found listening ears before the angels sung	Y2
So while his load the creeping pack horse galled	A2
While inch by inch the dull canal boat crawled	A2
Darwin beheld a Titan from afar	Z2
Drag the slow barge or drive the rapid car	Z2
That panting giant fed by air and flame	Z
The mightiest forges task their strength to tame	Z
	-
Happy the poet him no tyrant fact	A2
Holds in its clutches to be chained and racked	A2
Him shall no mouldy document convict	A2
No stern statistics gravely contradict	A2
No rival sceptre threats his airy throne	V2
He rules o'er shadows but he reigns alone	V2
Shall I the poet's broad dominion claim	Z
Because you bid me wear his sacred name	Z
For these few moments Shall I boldly clash	I2
My flint and steel and by the sudden flash	I2
Read the fair vision which my soul descries	M
Through the wide pupils of its wondering eyes	M
List then awhile the fifty years have sped	A2
The third full century's opened scroll is spread	A2
Blank to all eyes save his who dimly sees	M
The shadowy future told in words like these	M
	-
How strange the prospect to my sight appears	M
Changed by the busy hands of fifty years	M
Full well I know our ocean salted Charles	M
Filling and emptying through the sands and marls	M
That wall his restless stream on either bank	A3
Not all unlovely when the sedges rank	A3
Lend their coarse veil the sable ooze to hide	A2
That bares its blackness with the ebbing tide	A2
In other shapes to my illumined eyes	M
Those ragged margins of our stream arise	M
Through walls of stone the sparkling waters flow	C2
In clearer depths the golden sunsets glow	C2
On purer waves the lamps of midnight gleam	Z
That silver o'er the unpolluted stream	Z
Along his shores what stately temples rise	M
What spires what turrets print the shadowed skies	M
Our smiling Mother sees her broad domain	Q
Spread its tall roofs along the western plain	Q
Those blazoned windows' blushing glories tell	R
Of grateful hearts that loved her long and well	R
Yon gilded dome that glitters in the sun	J2
Was Dives' gift alas his only one	J2
These buttressed walls enshrine a banker's name	Z
That hallowed chapel hides a miser's shame	Z
Their wealth they left their memory cannot fade	A2
Though age shall crumble every stone they laid	A2
	-
Great lord of millions let me call thee great	A2
Since countless servants at thy bidding wait	A2
Richesse oblige no mortal must be blind	A2
To all but self or look at human kind	A2
Laboring and suffering all its want and woe	C2
Through sheets of crystal as a pleasing show	C2
That makes life happier for the chosen few	A2
Duty for whom is something not to do	A2
When thy last page of life at length is filled	A2
What shall thine heirs to keep thy memory build	A2
Will piles of stone in Auburn's mournful shade	A2
Save from neglect the spot where thou art laid	A2
Nay deem not thus the sauntering stranger's eye	P
Will pass unmoved thy columned tombstone by	P
No memory wakened not a teardrop shed	A2
Thy name uncared for and thy date unread	A2
But if thy record thou indeed dost prize	M
Bid from the soil some stately temple rise	M
Some hall of learning some memorial shrine	F
With names long honored to associate thine	F
So shall thy fame outlive thy shattered bust	A2
When all around thee slumber in the dust	A2
Thus England's Henry lives in Eton's towers	M
Saved from the spoil oblivion's gulf devours	M
Our later records with as fair a fame	Z
Have wreathed each uncrowned benefactor's name	Z
The walls they reared the memories still retain	Q
That churchyard marbles try to keep in vain	Q
In vain the delving antiquary tries	M
To find the tomb where generous Harvard lies	M
Here here his lasting monument is found	A2
Where every spot is consecrated ground	A2
O'er Stoughton's dust the crumbling stone decays	M
Fast fade its lines of lapidary praise	M
There the wild bramble weaves its ragged nets	M
There the dry lichen spreads its gray rosettes	M
Still in yon walls his memory lives unspent	A2
Nor asks a braver nobler monument	A2
Thus Hollis lives and Holden honored praised	A2
And good Sir Matthew in the halls they raised	A2
Thus live the worthies of these later times	M
Who shine in deeds less brilliant grouped in rhymes	M
Say shall the Muse with faltering steps retreat	A2
Or dare these names in rhythmic form repeat	A2
Why not as boldly as from Homer's lips	M
The long array of Argive battle ships	M
When o'er our graves a thousand years have past	A2
If to such date our threatened globe shall last	A2
These classic precincts myriad feet have pressed	A2
Will show on high in beauteous garlands dressed	A2
Those honored names that grace our later day	A2
Weld Matthews Sever Thayer Austin Gray	A2
Sears Phillips Lawrence Hemenway to the list	A2
Add Sanders Sibley all the Muse has missed	A2
	-
Once more I turn to read the pictured page	O
Bright with the promise of the coming age	O
Ye unborn sons of children yet unborn	B3
Whose youthful eyes shall greet that far off morn	B3
Blest are those eyes that all undimmed behold	A2
The sights so longed for by the wise of old	A2
From high arched alcoves through resounding halls	M
Clad in full robes majestic Science calls	M
Tireless unsleeping still at Nature's feet	A2
Whate'er she utters fearless to repeat	A2
Her lips at last from every cramp released	A2
That Israel's prophet caught from Egypt's priest	A2
I see the statesman firm sagacious bold	A2
For life's long conflict cast in amplest mould	A2
Not his to clamor with the senseless throng	D
That shouts unshamed Our party right or wrong	D
But in the patriot's never ending fight	A2
To side with Truth who changes wrong to right	A2
I see the scholar in that wondrous time	Z
Men women children all can write in rhyme	Z
These four brief lines addressed to youth inclined	A2
To idle rhyming in his notes I find	A2
	-
Who writes in verse that should have writ in prose	M
Is like a traveller walking on his toes	M
Happy the rhymester who in time has found	A2
The heels he lifts were made to touch the ground	A2
	-
I see gray teachers on their work intent	A2
Their lavished lives in endless labor spent	A2
Had closed at last in age and penury wrecked	A2
Martyrs not burned but frozen in neglect	A2
Save for the generous hands that stretched in aid	A2
Of worn out servants left to die half paid	A2
Ah many a year will pass I thought ere we	C3
Such kindly forethought shall rejoice to see	C3
Monarchs are mindful of the sacred debt	A2
That cold republics hasten to forget	A2
I see the priest if such a name he bears	M
Who without pride his sacred vestment wears	M
And while the symbols of his tribe I seek	N
Thus my first impulse bids me think and speak	N
	-
Let not the mitre England's prelate wears	M
Next to the crown whose regal pomp it shares	M
Though low before it courtly Christians bow	W2
Leave its red mark on Younger England's brow	W2
We love we honor the maternal dame	Z
But let her priesthood wear a modest name	Z
While through the waters of the Pilgrim's bay	A2
A new born Mayflower shows her keels the way	A2
Too old grew Britain for her mother's beads	M
Must we be necklaced with her children's creeds	M
Welcome alike in surplice or in gown	S2
The loyal lieges of the Heavenly Crown	S2
We greet with cheerful not submissive mien	M2
A sister church but not a mitred Queen	M2
	-
A few brief flutters and the unwilling Muse	M
Who feared the flight she hated to refuse	M
Shall fold the wings whose gayer plumes are shed	A2
Here where at first her half fledged pinions spread	A2
Well I remember in the long ago	C2
How in the forest shades of Fontainebleau	C2
Strained through a fissure in a rocky cell	R
One crystal drop with measured cadence fell	R
Still as of old forever bright and clear	U
The fissured cavern drops its wonted tear	J
And wondrous virtue simple folk aver	S
Lies in that teardrop of la roche qui pleure	S
	-
Of old I wandered by the river's side	A2
Between whose banks the mighty waters glide	A2
Where vast Niagara hurrying to its fall	R
Builds and unbuilds its ever tumbling wall	R
Oft in my dreams I hear the rush and roar	S
Of battling floods and feel the trembling shore	S
As the huge torrent girded for its leap	D3
With bellowing thunders plunges down the steep	D3
Not less distinct from memory's pictured urn	N2
The gray old rock the leafy woods return	N2
Robed in their pride the lofty oaks appear	S
And once again with quickened sense I hear	S
Through the low murmur of the leaves that stir	S
The tinkling teardrop of la roche qui pleure	S
	-
So when the third ripe century stands complete	A2
As once again the sons of Harvard meet	A2
Rejoicing numerous as the seashore sands	M
Drawn from all quarters farthest distant lands	M
Where through the reeds the scaly saurian steals	M
Where cold Alaska feeds her floundering seals	M
Where Plymouth glorying wears her iron crown	S2
Where Sacramento sees the suns go down	S2
Nay from the cloisters whence the refluent tide	A2
Wafts their pale students to our Mother's side	A2
Mid all the tumult that the day shall bring	E3
While all the echoes shout and roar and ring	E3
These tinkling lines oblivion's easy prey	S
Once more emerging to the light of day	S
Not all unpleasing to the listening ear	S
Shall wake the memories of this bygone year	S
Heard as I hear the measured drops that flow	C2
From the gray rock of wooded Fontainebleau	C2
	-
Yet ere I leave one loving word for all	R
Those fresh young lives that wait our Mother's call	R
One gift is yours kind Nature's richest dower	S
Youth the fair bud that holds life's opening flower	S
Full of high hopes no coward doubts enchain	S2
With all the future throbbing in its brain	S2
And mightiest instincts which the beating heart	A2
Fills with the fire its burning waves impart	A2
	-
O joyous youth whose glory is to dare	S
Thy foot firm planted on the lowest stair	S
Thine eye uplifted to the loftiest height	A2
Where Fame stands beckoning in the rosy light	A2
Thanks for thy flattering tales thy fond deceits	M
Thy loving lies thy cheerful smiling cheats	M
Nature's rash promise every day is broke	P2
A thousand acorns breed a single oak	P2
The myriad blooms that make the orchard gay	S
In barren beauty throw their lives away	S
Yet shall we quarrel with the sap that yields	M
The painted blossoms which adorn the fields	M
When the fair orchard wears its May day suit	A2
Of pink white petals for its scanty fruit	A2
Thrice happy hours in hope's illusion dressed	A2
In fancy's cradle nurtured and caressed	A2
Though rich the spoils that ripening years may bring	E3
To thee the dewdrops of the Orient cling	E3
Not all the dye stuffs from the vats of truth	F3
Can match the rainbow on the robes of youth	F3
	-
Dear unborn children to our Mother's trust	A2
We leave you fearless when we lie in dust	A2
While o'er these walls the Christian banner waves	M
From hallowed lips shall flow the truth that saves	M
While o'er those portals Veritas you read	A2
No church shall bind you with its human creed	A2
Take from the past the best its toil has won	S2
But learn betimes its slavish ruts to shun	S2
Pass the old tree whose withered leaves are shed	A2
Quit the old paths that error loved to tread	A2
And a new wreath of living blossoms seek	N
A narrower pathway up a loftier peak	N
Lose not your reverence but unmanly fear	S
Leave far behind you all who enter here	S
	-
As once of old from Ida's lofty height	A2
The flaming signal flashed across the night	A2
So Harvard's beacon sheds its unspent rays	M
Till every watch tower shows its kindling blaze	M
Caught from a spark and fanned by every gale	R
A brighter radiance gilds the roofs of Yale	R
Amherst and Williams bid their flambeaus shine	S2
And Bowdoin answers through her groves of pine	S2
O'er Princeton's sands the far reflections steal	R
Where mighty Edwards stamped his iron heel	R
Nay on the hill where old beliefs were bound	A2
Fast as if Styx had girt them nine times round	A2
Bursts such a light that trembling souls inquire	S
If the whole church of Calvin is on fire	S
Well may they ask for what so brightly burns	M
As a dry creed that nothing ever learns	M
Thus link by link is knit the flaming chain	S2
Lit by the torch of Harvard's hallowed plain	S2
	-
Thy son thy servant dearest Mother mine	S2
Lays this poor offering on thy holy shrine	S2
An autumn leaflet to the wild winds tost	A2
Touched by the finger of November's frost	A2
With sweet sad memories of that earlier day	A2
And all that listened to my first born lay	A2
With grateful heart this glorious morn I see	C3
Would that my tribute worthier were of thee	C3

Oliver Wendell Holmes

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