The Centerarian's Story Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEA FGHII JKIELIMIG JNK E OPQJRSICTUIVWX XIYZQII EA2B2C2A D2E2AOI K IA KF2IG2H2 GH2I2J2K IK2L2GIIA KM2F2KN2 OKO2 KK AAAJ2KA J2I2E KP2AD2 NEAQ2OA QGVZ PEOF2R2 S2E AEE A APEG PAPPA PPE EPT2APAN2U2AA KPV2E W2GIVE me your hand old Revolutionary | A |
The hill top is nigh but a few steps make room gentlemen | B |
Up the path you have follow'd me well spite of your hundred and | C |
extra years | D |
You can walk old man though your eyes are almost done | E |
Your faculties serve you and presently I must have them serve me | A |
- | |
Rest while I tell what the crowd around us means | F |
On the plain below recruits are drilling and exercising | G |
There is the camp one regiment departs to morrow | H |
Do you hear the officers giving the orders | I |
Do you hear the clank of the muskets | I |
- | |
Why what comes over you now old man | J |
Why do you tremble and clutch my hand so convulsively | K |
The troops are but drilling they are yet surrounded with smiles | I |
Around them at hand the well drest friends and the women | E |
While splendid and warm the afternoon sun shines down | L |
Green the midsummer verdure and fresh blows the dallying breeze | I |
O'er proud and peaceful cities and arm of the sea between | M |
But drill and parade are over they march back to quarters | I |
Only hear that approval of hands hear what a clapping | G |
- | |
As wending the crowds now part and disperse but we old man | J |
Not for nothing have I brought you hither we must remain | N |
You to speak in your turn and I to listen and tell | K |
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THE CENTENARIAN | E |
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When I clutch'd your hand it was not with terror | O |
But suddenly pouring about me here on every side | P |
And below there where the boys were drilling and up the slopes they | Q |
ran | J |
And where tents are pitch'd and wherever you see south and south | R |
east and south west | S |
Over hills across lowlands and in the skirts of woods | I |
And along the shores in mire now fill'd over came again and | C |
suddenly raged | T |
As eighty five years agone no mere parade receiv'd with applause of | U |
friends | I |
But a battle which I took part in myself aye long ago as it is I | V |
took part in it | W |
Walking then this hill top this same ground | X |
- | |
Aye this is the ground | X |
My blind eyes even as I speak behold it re peopled from graves | I |
The years recede pavements and stately houses disappear | Y |
Rude forts appear again the old hoop'd guns are mounted | Z |
I see the lines of rais'd earth stretching from river to bay | Q |
I mark the vista of waters I mark the uplands and slopes | I |
Here we lay encamp'd it was this time in summer also | I |
- | |
As I talk I remember all I remember the Declaration | E |
It was read here the whole army paraded it was read to us here | A2 |
By his staff surrounded the General stood in the middle he held up | B2 |
his unsheath'd sword | C2 |
It glitter'd in the sun in full sight of the army | A |
- | |
'Twas a bold act then | D2 |
The English war ships had just arrived the king had sent them from | E2 |
over the sea | A |
We could watch down the lower bay where they lay at anchor | O |
And the transports swarming with soldiers | I |
- | |
A few days more and they landed and then the battle | K |
- | |
Twenty thousand were brought against us | I |
A veteran force furnish'd with good artillery | A |
- | |
I tell not now the whole of the battle | K |
But one brigade early in the forenoon order'd forward to engage the | F2 |
red coats | I |
Of that brigade I tell and how steadily it march'd | G2 |
And how long and how well it stood confronting death | H2 |
- | |
Who do you think that was marching steadily sternly confronting | G |
death | H2 |
It was the brigade of the youngest men two thousand strong | I2 |
Rais'd in Virginia and Maryland and many of them known personally to | J2 |
the General | K |
- | |
Jauntily forward they went with quick step toward Gowanus' waters | I |
Till of a sudden unlook'd for by defiles through the woods gain'd | K2 |
at night | L2 |
The British advancing wedging in from the east fiercely playing | G |
their guns | I |
That brigade of the youngest was cut off and at the enemy's | I |
mercy | A |
- | |
The General watch'd them from this hill | K |
They made repeated desperate attempts to burst their environment | M2 |
Then drew close together very compact their flag flying in the | F2 |
middle | K |
But O from the hills how the cannon were thinning and thinning them | N2 |
- | |
It sickens me yet that slaughter | O |
I saw the moisture gather in drops on the face of the General | K |
I saw how he wrung his hands in anguish | O2 |
- | |
Meanwhile the British maneuver'd to draw us out for a pitch'd battle | K |
But we dared not trust the chances of a pitch'd battle | K |
- | |
We fought the fight in detachments | A |
Sallying forth we fought at several points but in each the luck was | A |
against us | A |
Our foe advancing steadily getting the best of it push'd us back to | J2 |
the works on this hill | K |
Till we turn'd menacing here and then he left us | A |
- | |
That was the going out of the brigade of the youngest men two | J2 |
thousand strong | I2 |
Few return'd nearly all remain in Brooklyn | E |
- | |
That and here my General's first battle | K |
No women looking on nor sunshine to bask in it did not conclude | P2 |
with applause | A |
Nobody clapp'd hands here then | D2 |
- | |
But in darkness in mist on the ground under a chill rain | N |
Wearied that night we lay foil'd and sullen | E |
While scornfully laugh'd many an arrogant lord off against us | A |
encamp'd | Q2 |
Quite within hearing feasting klinking wine glasses together over | O |
their victory | A |
- | |
So dull and damp and another day | Q |
But the night of that mist lifting rain ceasing | G |
Silent as a ghost while they thought they were sure of him my | V |
General retreated | Z |
- | |
I saw him at the river side | P |
Down by the ferry lit by torches hastening the embarcation | E |
My General waited till the soldiers and wounded were all pass'd over | O |
And then it was just ere sunrise these eyes rested on him for the | F2 |
last time | R2 |
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Every one else seem'd fill'd with gloom | S2 |
Many no doubt thought of capitulation | E |
- | |
But when my General pass'd me | A |
As he stood in his boat and look'd toward the coming sun | E |
I saw something different from capitulation | E |
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TERMINUS | A |
- | |
Enough the Centenarian's story ends | A |
The two the past and present have interchanged | P |
I myself as connecter as chansonnier of a great future am now | E |
speaking | G |
- | |
And is this the ground Washington trod | P |
And these waters I listlessly daily cross are these the waters he | A |
cross'd | P |
As resolute in defeat as other generals in their proudest | P |
triumphs | A |
- | |
It is well a lesson like that always comes good | P |
I must copy the story and send it eastward and westward | P |
I must preserve that look as it beam'd on you rivers of Brooklyn | E |
- | |
See as the annual round returns the phantoms return | E |
It is the th of August and the British have landed | P |
The battle begins and goes against us behold through the smoke | T2 |
Washington's face | A |
The brigade of Virginia and Maryland have march'd forth to intercept | P |
the enemy | A |
They are cut off murderous artillery from the hills plays upon them | N2 |
Rank after rank falls while over them silently droops the flag | U2 |
Baptized that day in many a young man's bloody wounds | A |
In death defeat and sisters' mothers' tears | A |
- | |
Ah hills and slopes of Brooklyn I perceive you are more valuable | K |
than your owners supposed | P |
Ah river henceforth you will be illumin'd to me at sunrise with | V2 |
something besides the sun | E |
- | |
Encamp | W2 |
Walt Whitman
(1)
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