The Pilgrim's Vision Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABCBDB EFAFFFGF HI AIJIE FEGEEEGE FFAFKFLF FMEMNMOM APQPEPAP KRGRARFR FFSFTFFF FAUAAAAA FVAVAVWV EEXEXEFE EAPAYAZ FA2AOAB2EA2 AEFEC2ED2E WFEFFFAF AFE2FEFFF

IN the hour of twilight shadowsA
The Pilgrim sire looked outB
He thought of the 'bloudy Salvages'A
That lurked all round aboutB
Of Wituwamet's pictured knifeC
And Pecksuot's whooping shoutB
For the baby's limbs were feebleD
Though his father's arms were stoutB
-
His home was a freezing cabinE
Too bare for the hungry ratF
Its roof was thatched with ragged grassA
And bald enough of thatF
The hole that served for casementF
Was glazed with an ancient hatF
And the ice was gently thawingG
From the log whereon he satF
-
Along the dreary landscapeH
His eyes went to and froI
-
The trees all clad in iciclesA
The streams that did not flowI
A sudden thought flashed o'er himJ
A dream of long agoI
He smote his leathern jerkinE
And murmured 'Even so '-
-
'Come hither God be GlorifiedF
And sit upon my kneeE
Behold the dream unfoldingG
Whereof I spake to theeE
By the winter's hearth in LeydenE
And on the stormy seaE
True is the dream's beginningG
So may its ending beE
-
'I saw in the naked forestF
Our scattered remnant castF
A screen of shivering branchesA
Between them and the blastF
The snow was falling round themK
The dying fell as fastF
I looked to see them perishL
When lo the vision passedF
-
'Again mine eyes were openedF
The feeble had waxed strongM
The babes had grown to sturdy menE
The remnant was a throngM
By shadowed lake and winding streamN
And all the shores alongM
The howling demons quaked to hearO
The Christian's godly songM
-
'They slept the village fathersA
By river lake and shoreP
When far adown the steep of TimeQ
The vision rose once moreP
I saw along the winter snowE
A spectral column pourP
And high above their broken ranksA
A tattered flag they boreP
-
'Their Leader rode before themK
Of bearing calm and highR
The light of Heaven's own kindlingG
Throned in his awful eyeR
These were a Nation's championsA
Her dread appeal to tryR
God for the right I falteredF
And lo the train passed byR
-
'Once more the strife is endedF
The solemn issue triedF
The Lord of Hosts his mighty armS
Has helped our Israel's sideF
Gray stone and grassy hillockT
Tell where our martyrs diedF
But peaceful smiles the harvestF
And stainless flows the tideF
-
'A crash as when some swollen cloudF
Cracks o'er the tangled treesA
With side to side and spar to sparU
Whose smoking decks are theseA
I know Saint George's blood red crossA
Thou Mistress of the SeasA
But what is she whose streaming barsA
Roll out before the breezeA
-
'Ah well her iron ribs are knitF
Whose thunders strive to quellV
The bellowing throats the blazing lipsA
That pealed the Armada's knellV
The mist was cleared a wreath of starsA
Rose o'er the crimsoned swellV
And wavering from its haughty peakW
The cross of England fellV
-
'O trembling Faith though dark the mornE
A heavenly torch is thineE
While feebler races melt awayX
And paler orbs declineE
Still shall the fiery pillar's rayX
Along thy pathway shineE
To light the chosen tribe that soughtF
This Western PalestineE
-
'I see the living tide roll onE
It crowns with flaming towersA
The icy capes of LabradorP
The Spaniard's 'land of flowers'A
It streams beyond the splintered ridgeY
That parts the northern showersA
From eastern rock to sunset waveZ
The Continent is ours '-
-
He ceased the grim old soldier saintF
Then softly bent to cheerA2
The Pilgrim child whose wasting faceA
Was meekly turned to hearO
And drew his toil worn sleeve acrossA
To brush the manly tearB2
From cheeks that never changed in woeE
And never blanched in fearA2
-
The weary Pilgrim slumbersA
His resting place unknownE
His hands were crossed his lips were closedF
The dust was o'er him strownE
The drifting soil the mouldering leafC2
Along the sod were blownE
His mound has melted into earthD2
His memory lives aloneE
-
So let it live unfadingW
The memory of the deadF
Long as the pale anemoneE
Springs where their tears were shedF
Or raining in the summer's windF
In flakes of burning redF
The wild rose sprinkles with its leavesA
The turf where once they bledF
-
Yea when the frowning bulwarksA
That guard this holy strandF
Have sunk beneath the trampling surgeE2
In beds of sparkling sandF
While in the waste of oceanE
One hoary rock shall standF
Be this its latest legendF
HERE WAS THE PILGRIM'S LANDF

Oliver Wendell Holmes



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