Gertrude Of Wyoming Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCCDCDD EFEFFGFGG EEEEEHEHH IJIJJKJKK FEFLLDLMD NONOOEOEE PIPIIEIEE FQFRQLQLL SESEEFEFF TQTQREREE FFFFELFLL ELELLULVW QLQLLLLLL JLJLLXLYY ZEZEEJEJJ LA2LA2A2LA2LL QEQEEREQR LLLLLLLLL ELELLDLDD LLLLLB2PART I | A |
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On Susquehanna's side fair Wyoming | B |
Although the wild flower on thy ruin'd wall | C |
And roofless homes a sad remembrance bring | B |
Of what thy gentle people did befall | C |
Yet thou wert once the loveliest land of all | C |
That see the Atlantic wave their morn restore | D |
Sweet land may I thy lost delights recall | C |
And paint thy Gertrude in her bowers of yore | D |
Whose beauty was the love of Pennsylvania's shore | D |
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Delightful Wyoming beneath thy skies | E |
The happy shepherd swains had nought to do | F |
But feed their flocks on green declivities | E |
Or skim perchance thy lake with light canoe | F |
From morn till evening's sweeter pastimes grew | F |
With timbrel when beneath the forests brown | G |
Thy lovely maidens would the dance renew | F |
And aye those sunny mountains half way down | G |
Would echo flageolet from some romantic town | G |
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Then where of Indian hills the daylight takes | E |
His leave how might you the flamingo see | E |
Disporting like a meteor on the lakes | E |
And playful squirrel on his nut grown tree | E |
And every sound of life was full of glee | E |
From merry mock bird's song or hum of men | H |
While hearkening fearing naught their revelry | E |
The wild deer arch'd his neck from glades and then | H |
Unhunted sought his woods and wilderness again | H |
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And scarce had Wyoming of war or crime | I |
Heard but in transatlantic story rung | J |
For here the exile met from every clime | I |
And spoke in friendship every distant tongue | J |
Men from the blood of warring Europe sprung | J |
Were but divided by the running brook | K |
And happy where no Rhenish trumpet sung | J |
On plains no sieging mine's volcano shook | K |
The blue eyed German changed his sword to pruning hook | K |
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Nor far some Andalusian saraband | F |
Would sound to many a native roundelay | E |
But who is he that yet a dearer land | F |
Remembers over hills and far away | L |
Green Albin what though he no more survey | L |
Thy ships at anchor on the quiet shore | D |
Thy pelloch's rolling from the mountain bay | L |
Thy lone sepulchral cairn upon the moor | M |
And distant isles that hear the loud Corbrechtan roar | D |
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Alas poor Caledonia's mountaineer | N |
That wants stern edict e'er and feudal grief | O |
Had forced him from a home he loved so dear | N |
Yet found he here a home and glad relief | O |
And plied the beverage from his own fair sheaf | O |
That fired his Highland blood with mickle glee | E |
And England sent her men of men the chief | O |
Who taught those sires of empire yet to be | E |
To plant the tree of life to plant fair Freedom's tree | E |
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Here was not mingled in the city's pomp | P |
Of life's extremes the grandeur and the gloom | I |
Judgment awoke not here her dismal tromp | P |
Nor seal'd in blood a fellow creature's doom | I |
Nor mourn'd the captive in a living tomb | I |
One venerable man beloved of all | E |
Sufficed where innocence was yet in bloom | I |
To sway the strife that seldom might befall | E |
And Albert was their judge in patriarchal hall | E |
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How reverend was the look serenely aged | F |
He bore this gentle Pennsylvanian sire | Q |
Where all but kindly fervors were assuaged | F |
Undimm'd by weakness' shade or turbid ire | R |
And though amidst the calm of thought entire | Q |
Some high and haughty features might betray | L |
A soul impetuous once 'twas earthly fire | Q |
That fled composure's intellectual ray | L |
As AEtna's fires grow dim before the rising day | L |
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I boast no song in magic wonders rife | S |
But yet oh Nature is there naught to prize | E |
Familiar in thy bosom scenes of life | S |
And dwells in day light truth's salubrious skies | E |
No form with which the soul may sympathise | E |
Young innocent on whose sweet forehead mild | F |
The parted ringlet shone in simplest guise | E |
An inmate in the home of Albert smiled | F |
Or blest his noonday walk she was his only child | F |
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The rose of England bloom'd on Gertrude's cheek | T |
What though these shades had seen her birth her sire | Q |
A Briton's independence taught to seek | T |
Far western worlds and there his household fire | Q |
The light of social love did long inspire | R |
And many a halcyon day he lived to see | E |
Unbroken but by one misfortune dire | R |
When fate had reft his mutual heart but she | E |
Was gone and Gertrude climb'd a widow'd father's knee | E |
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A loved bequest and I may half impart | F |
To them that feel the strong paternal tie | F |
How like a new existence to his heart | F |
That living flower uprose beneath his eye | F |
Dear as she was from cherub infancy | E |
From hours when she would round his garden play | L |
To time when as the ripening years went by | F |
Her lovely mind could culture well repay | L |
And more engaging grew from pleasing day to day | L |
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I may not paint those thousand infant charms | E |
Unconscious fascination undesign'd | L |
The orison repeated in his arms | E |
For God to bless her sire and all mankind | L |
The book the bosom on his knee reclined | L |
Or how sweet fairy lore he heard her con | U |
The playmate ere the teacher of her mind | L |
All uncompanion'd else her heart had gone | V |
Till now in Gertrude's eyes their ninth blue summer shone | W |
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And summer was the tide and sweet the hour | Q |
When sire and daughter saw with fleet descent | L |
An Indian from his bark approach their bower | Q |
Of buskin limb and swarthy lineament | L |
The red wild feathers on his brow were blent | L |
And bracelets bound the arm that help'd to light | L |
A boy who seem'd as he beside him went | L |
Of Christian vesture and complexion bright | L |
Led by his dusky guide like morning brought by night | L |
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Yet pensive seem'd the boy for one so young | J |
The dimple from his polish'd cheek had fled | L |
When leaning on his forest bow unstrung | J |
Th' Oneyda warrior to the planter said | L |
And laid his hand upon the stripling's head | L |
Peace be to thee my words this belt approve | X |
The paths of peace my steps have hither led | L |
This little nursling take him to thy love | Y |
And shield the bird unfledged since gone the parent dove | Y |
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Christian I am the foeman of thy foe | Z |
Our wampum league thy brethren did embrace | E |
Upon the Michigan three moons ago | Z |
We launch'd our pirogues for the bison chase | E |
And with the Hurons planted for a space | E |
With true and faithful hands the olive stalk | J |
But snakes are in the bosoms of their race | E |
And though they held with us a friendly talk | J |
The hollow peace tree fell beneath their tomahawk | J |
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It was encamping on the lake's far port | L |
A cry of Areouski broke our sleep | A2 |
Where storm'd an ambush'd foe thy nation's fort | L |
And rapid rapid whoops came o'er the deep | A2 |
But long thy country's war sign on the steep | A2 |
Appear'd through ghastly intervals of light | L |
And deathfully their thunders seem'd to sweep | A2 |
Till utter darkness swallow'd up the sight | L |
As if a shower of blood had quench'd the fiery fight | L |
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It slept it rose again on high their tower | Q |
Sprung upwards like a torch to light the skies | E |
Then down again it rain'd an ember shower | Q |
And louder lamentations heard we rise | E |
As when the evil Manitou that dries | E |
Th' Ohio woods consumes them in his ire | R |
In vain the desolated panther flies | E |
And howls amidst his wilderness of fire | Q |
Alas too late we reach'd and smote those Hurons dire | R |
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But as the fox beneath the nobler hound | L |
So died their warriors by our battle brand | L |
And from the tree we with her child unbound | L |
A lonely mother of the Christian land | L |
Her lord the captain of the British band | L |
Amidst the slaughter of his soldiers lay | L |
Scarce knew the widow our delivering hand | L |
Upon her child she sobb'd and soon'd away | L |
Or shriek'd unto the God to whom the Christians pray | L |
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Our virgins fed her with their kindly bowls | E |
Of fever balm and sweet sagamite | L |
But she was journeying to the land of souls | E |
And lifted up her dying head to pray | L |
That we should bid an ancient friend convey | L |
Her orphan to his home of England's shore | D |
And take she said this token far away | L |
To one that will remember us of yore | D |
When he beholds the ring that Waldegrave's Julia wore | D |
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And I the eagle of my tribe have rush'd | L |
With this lorn dove A sage's self command | L |
Had quell'd the tears from Albert's heart that gush'd | L |
But yet his cheek his agitated hand | L |
That shower'd upon the stranger of the land | L |
No common | B2 |
Thomas Campbell
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