The Last Survivor Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCD EEFF GGH IIJJ KKLL HHEM LLHH NNOO LLCC PPQQ RRLL SSLL IIE HHTT LLUU LLBB DDLL| YES the vacant chairs tell sadly we are going going fast | A |
| And the thought comes strangely o'er me who will live to be the last | A |
| When the twentieth century's sunbeams climb the far off eastern hill | B |
| With his ninety winters burdened will he greet the morning still | B |
| - | |
| Will he stand with Harvard's nurslings when they hear their mother's call | C |
| And the old and young are gathered in the many alcoved hall | C |
| Will he answer to the summons when they range themselves in line | D |
| And the young mustachioed marshal calls out 'Class of ' ' | - |
| - | |
| Methinks I see the column as its lengthened ranks appear | E |
| In the sunshine of the morrow of the nineteen hundredth year | E |
| Through the yard 't is creeping winding by the walls of dusky red | F |
| What shape is that which totters at the long procession's head | F |
| - | |
| Who knows this ancient graduate of fourscore years and ten | G |
| What place he held what name he bore among the sons of men | G |
| So speeds the curious question its answer travels slow | H |
| ''T is the last of sixty classmates of seventy years ago ' | - |
| - | |
| His figure shows but dimly his face I scarce can see | I |
| There's something that reminds me it looks like is it he | I |
| He Who No voice may whisper what wrinkled brow shall claim | J |
| The wreath of stars that circles our last survivor's name | J |
| - | |
| Will he be some veteran minstrel left to pipe in feeble rhyme | K |
| All the stories and the glories of our gay and golden time | K |
| Or some quiet voiceless brother in whose lonely loving breast | L |
| Fond memory broods in silence like a dove upon her nest | L |
| - | |
| Will it be some old Emeritus who taught so long ago | H |
| The boys that heard him lecture have heads as white as snow | H |
| Or a pious painful preacher holding forth from year to year | E |
| Till his colleague got a colleague whom the young folks flocked to hear | M |
| - | |
| Will it be a rich old merchant in a square tied white cravat | L |
| Or select man of a village in a pre historic hat | L |
| Will his dwelling be a mansion in a marble fronted row | H |
| Or a homestead by a hillside where the huckleberries grow | H |
| - | |
| I can see our one survivor sitting lonely by himself | N |
| All his college text books round him ranged in order on their shelf | N |
| There are classic 'interliners' filled with learning's choicest pith | O |
| Each cum notis variorum quas recensuit doctus Smith | O |
| - | |
| Physics metaphysics logic mathematics all the lot | L |
| Every wisdom crammed octavo he has mastered and forgot | L |
| With the ghosts of dead professors standing guard beside them all | C |
| And the room is fall of shadows which their lettered backs recall | C |
| - | |
| How the past spreads out in vision with its far receding train | P |
| Like a long embroidered arras in the chambers of the brain | P |
| From opening manhood's morning when first we learned to grieve | Q |
| To the fond regretful moments of our sorrow saddened eve | Q |
| - | |
| What early shadows darkened our idle summer's joy | R |
| When death snatched roughly from us that lovely bright eyed boy | R |
| The years move swiftly onwards the deadly shafts fall fast | L |
| Till all have dropped around him lo there he stands the last | L |
| - | |
| Their faces flit before him some rosy hued and fair | S |
| Some strong in iron manhood some worn with toil and care | S |
| Their smiles no more shall greet him on cheeks with pleasure flushed | L |
| The friendly hands are folded the pleasant voices hushed | L |
| - | |
| My picture sets me dreaming alas and can it be | I |
| Those two familiar faces we never more may see | I |
| In every entering footfall I think them drawing near | E |
| With every door that opens I say 'At last they 're here ' | - |
| - | |
| The willow bends unbroken when angry tempests blow | H |
| The stately oak is levelled and all its strength laid low | H |
| So fell that tower of manhood undaunted patient strong | T |
| White with the gathering snowflakes who faced the storm so long | T |
| - | |
| And he what subtle phrases their varying light must blend | L |
| To paint as each remembers our many featured friend | L |
| His wit a flash auroral that laughed in every look | U |
| His talk a sunbeam broken on the ripples of a brook | U |
| - | |
| Or fed from thousand sources a fountain's glittering jet | L |
| Or careless handfuls scattered of diamond sparks unset | L |
| Ah sketch him paint him mould him in every shape you will | B |
| He was himself the only the one unpictured still | B |
| - | |
| Farewell our skies are darkened and yet the stars will shine | D |
| We 'll close our ranks together and still fall into line | D |
| Till one is left one only to mourn for all the rest | L |
| And Heaven bequeath their memories to him who loves us best | L |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
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