The Strong Heroic Line Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ KKLLFFMM MMNNOOPPPMM| FRIENDS of the Muse to you of right belong | A |
| The first staid footsteps of my square toed song | A |
| Full well I know the strong heroic line | B |
| Has lost its fashion since I made it mine | B |
| But there are tricks old singers will not learn | C |
| And this grave measure still must serve my turn | C |
| So the old bird resumes the selfsame note | D |
| His first young summer wakened in his throat | D |
| The selfsame tune the old canary sings | E |
| And all unchanged the bobolink s carol rings | E |
| When the tired songsters of the day are still | F |
| The thrush repeats his long remembered trill | F |
| Age alters not the crow s persistent caw | G |
| The Yankee s Haow the stammering Briton s Haw | G |
| And so the hand that takes the lyre for you | H |
| Plays the old tune on strings that once were new | H |
| Nor let the rhymester of the hour deride | I |
| The straight backed measure with its stately stride | I |
| It gave the mighty voice of Dryden scope | J |
| It sheathed the steel bright epigrams of Pope | J |
| In Goldsmith s verse it learned a sweeter strain | K |
| Byron and Campbell wore its clanking chain | K |
| I smile to listen while the critic s scorn | L |
| Flouts the proud purple kings have nobly worn | L |
| Bid each new rhymer try his dainty skill | F |
| And mould his frozen phrases as he will | F |
| We thank the artist for his neat device | M |
| The shape is pleasing though the stuff is ice | M |
| - | |
| Fashions will change the new costume allures | M |
| Unfading still the better type endures | M |
| While the slashed doublet of the cavalier | N |
| Gave the old knight the pomp of chanticleer | N |
| Our last hatched dandy with his glass and stick | O |
| Recalls the semblance of a new born chick | O |
| To match the model he is aiming at | P |
| He ought to wear an eggshell for a hat | P |
| He ought to wear an eggshell for a hat | P |
| Which of these objects would a painter choose | M |
| And which Velasquez or Van Dyck refuse | M |
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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