The Witnesses Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDC EFGF BHIH JKLK AMNON PQRQ STUT VKWK AXYZY A2B2C2B2 D2B2E2B2 F2G2H2G2 B2KB2K| I | A |
| Lads in the loose blue | B |
| Crutched with limping feet | C |
| With bandaged arm that roam | D |
| To day the bustling street | C |
| - | |
| You humble us with your gaze | E |
| Calm confiding clear | F |
| You humble us with a smile | G |
| That says nothing but cheer | F |
| - | |
| Our souls are scarred with you | B |
| Yet though we suffered all | H |
| You have suffered all were vain | I |
| To atone or to recall | H |
| - | |
| The robbed future or build | J |
| The maimed body again | K |
| Whole or ever efface | L |
| What men have done to men | K |
| - | |
| - | |
| II | A |
| Each body of straight youth | M |
| Strong shapely and marred | N |
| Shines as out of a cloud | O |
| Of storm and splintered shard | N |
| - | |
| Of chaos torture blood | P |
| Fire thunder and stench | Q |
| And the savage shattering noise | R |
| Of churned and shaken trench | Q |
| - | |
| Echoes through myriad hearts | S |
| In the dumb lands behind | T |
| Silent wailing and bitter | U |
| Tears of the world's mind | T |
| - | |
| You stand upon each threshold | V |
| Without complaint What pen | K |
| Dares to write half the deeds | W |
| That men have done to men | K |
| - | |
| - | |
| III | A |
| Must we be humbled more | X |
| Peace whose olive seems | Y |
| A tree of hope and heaven | Z |
| Of answered prayers and dreams | Y |
| - | |
| Peace has her own hid wounds | A2 |
| She also grinds and maims | B2 |
| And must we bear and share | C2 |
| Those old continued shames | B2 |
| - | |
| Not only the body's waste | D2 |
| But the mind's captivities | B2 |
| Crippled sore and starved | E2 |
| The ignorant victories | B2 |
| - | |
| Of the visionless who serve | F2 |
| No cause and fight no foe | G2 |
| Is a cruelty less sure | H2 |
| Because its ways are slow | G2 |
| - | |
| Now we have eyes to see | B2 |
| Shall we not use them then | K |
| These bright wounds witness | B2 |
| What men may do to men | K |
Robert Laurence Binyon
(1)
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