The Unsung Heroes Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDC EEFGF HHIJI KKLL GMNON PLPQQ RRSS TDTUU| A song for the unsung heroes who rose in the country's need | A |
| When the life of the land was threatened by the slaver's cruel greed | A |
| For the men who came from the cornfield who came from the plough and | B |
| the flail | C |
| Who rallied round when they heard the sound of the mighty man of the | D |
| rail | C |
| - | |
| They laid them down in the valleys they laid them down in the wood | E |
| And the world looked on at the work they did and whispered It is good | E |
| They fought their way on the hillside they fought their way in the glen | F |
| And God looked down on their sinews brown and said I have made them | G |
| men | F |
| - | |
| They went to the blue lines gladly and the blue lines took them in | H |
| And the men who saw their muskets' fire thought not of their dusky skin | H |
| The gray lines rose and melted beneath their scathing showers | I |
| And they said 'T is true they have force to do these old slave boys | J |
| of ours | I |
| - | |
| Ah Wagner saw their glory and Pillow knew their blood | K |
| That poured on a nation's altar a sacrificial flood | K |
| Port Hudson heard their war cry that smote its smoke filled air | L |
| And the old free fires of their savage sires again were kindled there | L |
| - | |
| They laid them down where the rivers the greening valleys gem | G |
| And the song of the thund'rous cannon was their sole requiem | M |
| And the great smoke wreath that mingled its hue with the dusky cloud | N |
| Was the flag that furled o'er a saddened world and the sheet that made | O |
| their shroud | N |
| - | |
| Oh Mighty God of the Battles Who held them in Thy hand | P |
| Who gave them strength through the whole day's length to fight for their | L |
| native land | P |
| They are lying dead on the hillsides they are lying dead on the plain | Q |
| And we have not fire to smite the lyre and sing them one brief strain | Q |
| - | |
| Give Thou some seer the power to sing them in their might | R |
| The men who feared the master's whip but did not fear the fight | R |
| That he may tell of their virtues as minstrels did of old | S |
| Till the pride of face and the hate of race grow obsolete and cold | S |
| - | |
| A song for the unsung heroes who stood the awful test | T |
| When the humblest host that the land could boast went forth to meet the | D |
| best | T |
| A song for the unsung heroes who fell on the bloody sod | U |
| Who fought their way from night to day and struggled up to God | U |
Paul Laurence Dunbar
(1)
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