Voluntaries Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDEDEFGHG IIJKJKLMLKNONOBPBPQR Q A STSTUVWWDGDGWXXWYBZB A2QA2Q A B2C2B2C2D2RD2RE2F2E2 G2H2I2H2I2 A2 J2H2CH2H2H2IH2H2K2L2 H2L2H2H2H2L2L2 L2M2L2M2H2BH2BA2L2A2 N2L2O2H2O2H2 C L2L2L2L2L2H2P2H2P2Q2 H2Q2H2L2Q2L2H2I | A |
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Low and mournful be the strain | B |
Haughty thought be far from me | C |
Tones of penitence and pain | B |
Moanings of the tropic sea | C |
Low and tender in the cell | D |
Where a captive sits in chains | E |
Crooning ditties treasured well | D |
From his Afric's torrid plains | E |
Sole estate his sire bequeathed | F |
Hapless sire to hapless son | G |
Was the wailing song he breathed | H |
And his chain when life was done | G |
- | |
What his fault or what his crime | I |
Or what ill planet crossed his prime | I |
Heart too soft and will too weak | J |
To front the fate that crouches near | K |
Dove beneath the vulture's beak | J |
Will song dissuade the thirsty spear | K |
Dragged from his mother's arms and breast | L |
Displaced disfurnished here | M |
His wistful toil to do his best | L |
Chilled by a ribald jeer | K |
Great men in the Senate sate | N |
Sage and hero side by side | O |
Building for their sons the State | N |
Which they shall rule with pride | O |
They forbore to break the chain | B |
Which bound the dusky tribe | P |
Checked by the owners' fierce disdain | B |
Lured by 'Union' as the bribe | P |
Destiny sat by and said | Q |
'Pang for pang your seed shall pay | R |
Hide in false peace your coward head | Q |
I bring round the harvest day ' | - |
- | |
II | A |
- | |
Freedom all winged expands | S |
Nor perches in a narrow place | T |
Her broad van seeks unplanted lands | S |
She loves a poor and virtuous race | T |
Clinging to a colder zone | U |
Whose dark sky sheds the snow flake down | V |
The snow flake is her banner's star | W |
Her stripes the boreal streamers are | W |
Long she loved the Northman well | D |
Now the iron age is done | G |
She will not refuse to dwell | D |
With the offspring of the Sun | G |
Foundling of the desert far | W |
Where palms plume siroccos blaze | X |
He roves unhurt the burning ways | X |
In climates of the summer star | W |
He has avenues to God | Y |
Hid from men of Northern brain | B |
Far beholding without cloud | Z |
What these with slowest steps attain | B |
If once the generous chief arrive | A2 |
To lead him willing to be led | Q |
For freedom he will strike and strive | A2 |
And drain his heart till he be dead | Q |
- | |
III | A |
- | |
In an age of fops and toys | B2 |
Wanting wisdom void of right | C2 |
Who shall nerve heroic boys | B2 |
To hazard all in Freedom's fight | C2 |
Break sharply off their jolly games | D2 |
Forsake their comrades gay | R |
And quit proud homes and youthful dames | D2 |
For famine toil and fray | R |
Yet on the nimble air benign | E2 |
Speed nimbler messages | F2 |
That waft the breath of grace divine | E2 |
To hearts in sloth and ease | G2 |
So nigh is grandeur to our dust | H2 |
So near is God to man | I2 |
When Duty whispers low Thou must | H2 |
The youth replies I can | I2 |
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IV | A2 |
- | |
O well for the fortunate soul | J2 |
Which Music's wings infold | H2 |
Stealing away the memory | C |
Of sorrows new and old | H2 |
Yet happier he whose inward sight | H2 |
Stayed on his subtile thought | H2 |
Shuts his sense on toys of time | I |
To vacant bosoms brought | H2 |
But best befriended of the God | H2 |
He who in evil times | K2 |
Warned by an inward voice | L2 |
Heeds not the darkness and the dread | H2 |
Biding by his rule and choice | L2 |
Feeling only the fiery thread | H2 |
Leading over heroic ground | H2 |
Walled with mortal terror round | H2 |
To the aim which him allures | L2 |
And the sweet heaven his deed secures | L2 |
- | |
Stainless soldier on the walls | L2 |
Knowing this and knows no more | M2 |
Whoever fights whoever falls | L2 |
Justice conquers evermore Justice after as before | M2 |
And he who battles on her side | H2 |
God though he were ten times slain | B |
Crowns him victor glorified | H2 |
Victor over death and pain | B |
Forever but his erring foe | A2 |
Self assured that he prevails | L2 |
Looks from his victim lying low | A2 |
And sees aloft the red right arm | N2 |
Redress the eternal scales | L2 |
He the poor foe whom angels foil | O2 |
Blind with pride and fooled by hate | H2 |
Writhes within the dragon coil | O2 |
Reserved to a speechless fate | H2 |
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V | C |
- | |
Blooms the laurel which belongs | L2 |
To the valiant chief who fights | L2 |
I see the wreath I hear the songs | L2 |
Lauding the Eternal Rights | L2 |
Victors over daily wrongs | L2 |
Awful victors they misguide | H2 |
Whom they will destroy | P2 |
And their coming triumph hide | H2 |
In our downfall or our joy | P2 |
They reach no term they never sleep | Q2 |
In equal strength through space abide | H2 |
Though feigning dwarfs they crouch and creep | Q2 |
The strong they slay the swift outstride | H2 |
Fate's grass grows rank in valley clods | L2 |
And rankly on the castled steep | Q2 |
Speak it firmly these are gods | L2 |
All are ghosts beside | H2 |
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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