A Hero's Grave Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEE EFGFGE HIHIE JKJKK LMLMM NONOO PQPQQ GRRGG STSTT UVUVV WXWXX YRYR ZA2EZ B2M C2M D2E2D2F2E2 G2H2H2G2G2H2G2H2 G2G2G2G2G2G2 G2I2G2I2G2G2 G2G2G2G2G2 GTMTT J2K2K2KKK2K2KK L2G2G2G2G2L2G2L2L2G2 G2L2L2 G2L2L2G2L2G2TG2L2G2L 2G2L2G2L2L2G2L2G2L2G 2L2L2G2

O'er our evening fire the smoke is like a pallA
And funeral banners hang about the arches of the hallB
In the gable end I see a catafalque aloofC
And night is drawn up like a curtain to the girders of the roofC
Thou knowest why we silent sit and why our eyes are dimD
Sing us such proud sorrow as we may hear for himD
Reach me the old harp that hangs between the flags he wonE
I will sing what once I heard beside the grave of such a sonE
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My son my sonE
A father's eyes are looking on thy graveF
Dry eyes that look on this green mound and seeG
The low weed blossom and the long grass waveF
Without a single tear to them or theeG
My son my sonE
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Why should I weep The grass is grass the weedsH
Are weeds The emmet hath done thus ere nowI
I tear a leaf the green blood that it bleedsH
Is cold What have I here Where where art thouI
My son my sonE
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On which tall trembler shall the old man leanJ
Which chill leaf shall lap o'er him when he liesK
On that bed where in visions I have seenJ
Thy filial love or when thy father diesK
Tissue a fingered thorn to close his childless eyesK
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Aye where art thou Men tell me of a fameL
Walking the wondering nations and they sayM
When thro' the shouting people thy great nameL
Goes like a chief upon a battle dayM
They shake the heavens with glory Well awayM
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As some poor hound that thro' thronged street and squareN
Pursues his loved lost lord and fond and fastO
Seeks what he feels to be but feels not whereN
Tracks the dear feet to some closed door at lastO
And lies him down and lornest looks doth castO
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So I thro' all the long tumultuous daysP
Tracing thy footstep on the human sandsQ
O'er the signed deserts and the vocal waysP
Pursue thee faithful thro' the echoing landsQ
Wearing a wandering staff with trembling handsQ
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Thro' echoing lands that ring with victoryG
And answer for the living with the deadR
And give me marble when I ask for breadR
And give me glory when I ask for theeG
It was not glory I nursed on my kneeG
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And now one stride behind thee and too lateS
Yet true to all that reason cannot killT
I stand before the inexorable gateS
And see thy latest footstep on the sillT
And know thou canst not come but watch and wait thee stillT
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'Old man ' Ah darest thou yet thy look is kindU
Didst thou too love him 'Thou grey headed sireV
Seest thou this path which from that grave doth windU
Far thro' those western uplands higher and higherV
Till like a thread it burns in the great fireV
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'Of sunset The wild sea and desert meetW
Eastward by yon unnavigable strandX
Then wherefore hath the flow of human feetW
Left this dry runnel of memorial sandX
Meandering thro' the summer of the landX
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'See where the long immeasurable snakeY
Between dim hall and hamlet tower and shedR
Mountain and mountain precipice and lakeY
Lies forth unfinished to this final headR
This green dead mound of the unfading dead '-
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Do they then come to weep thee Do they kissZ
Thy relics Art thou then as wholly goneA2
As some old buried saint My son my sonE
Ah could I mourn thee so Such tears were blissZ
'Old man they do not mourn who weep at graves like this '-
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They do not mourn What hath the insolent foeB2
Found out my child's last bed Who who are theyM
That come and go about him I cry 'Who '-
I am his father I I cry 'Who ' 'AyeC2
Gray trembler I will tell thee who are theyM
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'The slave who having grown up strong and starkD2
To the set season feels at length he wearsE2
Bonds that will break and thro' the slavish darkD2
Shines with the light of liberated yearsF2
And still in chains doth weep a freeman's tearsE2
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'The patriot while the unebbed force that hurledG2
His tyrant throbs within his bursting veinsH2
And on the ruins of a hundred reignsH2
That ancient heaven of brass so long unfurledG2
Falls with a crash of fame that fills the worldG2
And thro' the clangor lo the unwonted strainsH2
Of peace and in the new sweet heavens upcurledG2
The sudden incense of a thousand plainsH2
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'Youth whom some mighty flash from heaven hath turnedG2
In his dark highway and who runs forth shodG2
With flame into the wilderness untrodG2
And as he runs his heart of flint is burnedG2
And in that glass he sees the face of GodG2
And falls upon his knees and morn is all abroadG2
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'Age who hath heard amid his cloistered groundG2
The cheer of youth and steps from echoing aislesI2
And at a sight the great blood with a boundG2
Melts his brow's winter which the free sun smilesI2
To jewels and he stands a young man crownedG2
With glittering years among a young world shouting roundG2
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'Girls that do blush and tremble with delightG2
On the St John's eve of their maidenhoodG2
When the unsummered woman in her bloodG2
Glows through the Parian maid and at the sightG2
The flushing virgin weeps and feels herself too brightG2
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'He who first feels the world old destinyG
The shaft of gold that strikes the poet stillT
And slowly in its victim melts awayM
Who knows his wounds will heal but when they killT
And drop by vital drop doth bleed his golden illT
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'All whom the everpassing mysteriesJ2
Have rapt above the region of our raceK2
And blinded by the glory and the graceK2
Break from the ecstatic sphere as he who diesK
In darkness and in heaven's own light doth riseK
Dazed with the untried glory of the placeK2
Looks up and sees some well remembered faceK2
And thro' the invulnerable angels fliesK
To that dear human breast and hides his dazzled eyesK
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'All who like the sun ripened seed that springsL2
And bourgeons in the sun do hold profoundG2
An antenatal stature which the roundG2
Of the dull continent flesh hath cribbed and woundG2
Into this kernelled man but having foundG2
Such soil as grew them burst in blossomingsL2
Not native here or from the hallowed groundG2
Tower their slow height and spread like sheltering wingsL2
Those boughs wherein the bird of omen singsL2
High as the palms of heaven while to the soundG2
Lo kingdoms jocund in the sacred boundG2
Till the world's summer fills her moon and bringsL2
The final fruit which is the feast and fate of kingsL2
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'And darest thou mourn Thy bones are left behindG2
But where art thou Anchises Dost thou seeL2
Him who once bare the slow paternityL2
Foot burnt o'er stony Troy So thou reclinedG2
Goest thro' the falling years Here here where weL2
Two stand lies deep the flesh thou hast so pinedG2
To clasp and shalt clasp never VerilyT
Love and the worm are often of one mindG2
God save them from election Pity theeL2
True he lifts not thy load but he hath signedG2
And at his beck a nation rose up freeL2
Thy wounds his living love may never bindG2
But at the dead man's touch posterityL2
Is healed To thee thou poor and halt and blindG2
He is a staff no more but times to beL2
Lean on his monumental memoryL2
As the moon on a mountain Thou shalt findG2
A silent home a cheerless hearth but heL2
Shall be a fire which the enkindling windG2
Blowing for ever from eternityL2
Fans till its universal blaze hath shinedG2
The yule of thankful ages Pity theeL2
A son is lost to thine infirmityL2
Poor fool what then A son thou hast resignedG2
To give a father to the virtues of mankind '-

Sydney Thompson Dobell



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