How We Kept The Day. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBCCDDEEFFGGGHGGI ABBJJKKLLMMNNOOJJGGG HGGI ABBPPQQJJRRSSTTGGGHG GI OBBOOJUOOVUFFQQGGGHG GI OWWXXOOYYZZV JJA2A2JJOOJJB2B2C2C2 GGGHGGI OEEBBD2D2E2E2JJZZJJF 2F2GGGHGGI OG2G2JJH2H2I2I2J2J2V VPPG2G2GGGHGGOI| I | A |
| The great procession came up the street | B |
| With clatter of hoofs and tramp of feet | B |
| There was General Jones to guide the van | C |
| And Corporal Jinks his right hand man | C |
| And each was riding his high horse | D |
| And each had epaulettes of course | D |
| And each had a sash of the bloodiest red | E |
| And each had a shako on his head | E |
| And each had a sword by his left side | F |
| And each had his mustache newly dyed | F |
| And that was the way | G |
| We kept the day | G |
| The great the grand the glorious day | G |
| That gave us | H |
| Hurray Hurray Hurray | G |
| With a battle or two the histories say | G |
| Our National Independence | I |
| - | |
| II | A |
| The great procession came up the street | B |
| With loud da capo and brazen repeat | B |
| There was Hans the leader a Teuton born | J |
| A sharp who worried the E flat horn | J |
| And Baritone Jake and Alto Mike | K |
| Who never played any thing twice alike | K |
| And Tenor Tom of conservative mind | L |
| Who always came out a note behind | L |
| And Dick whose tuba was seldom dumb | M |
| And Bob who punished the big bass drum | M |
| And when they stopped a minute to rest | N |
| The martial band discoursed its best | N |
| The ponderous drum and the pointed fife | O |
| Proceeded to roll and shriek for life | O |
| And Bonaparte Crossed the Rhine anon | J |
| And The Girl I Left Behind Me came on | J |
| And that was the way | G |
| The bands did play | G |
| On the loud high toned harmonious day | G |
| That gave us | H |
| Hurray Hurray Hurray | G |
| With some music of bullets our sires would say | G |
| Our glorious Independence | I |
| - | |
| III | A |
| The great procession came up the street | B |
| With a wagon of virgins sour and sweet | B |
| Each bearing the bloom of recent date | P |
| Each misrepresenting a single State | P |
| There was California pious and prim | Q |
| And Louisiana humming a hymn | Q |
| The Texas lass was the smallest one | J |
| Rhode Island weighed the tenth of a ton | J |
| The Empire State was pure as a pearl | R |
| And Massachusetts a modest girl | R |
| Vermont was red as the blush of a rose | S |
| And the goddess sported a turn up nose | S |
| And looked free sylph where she painfully sat | T |
| The worlds she would give to be out of that | T |
| And in this way | G |
| The maidens gay | G |
| Flashed up the street on the beautiful day | G |
| That gave us | H |
| Hurray Hurray Hurray | G |
| With some sacrifices our mothers would say | G |
| Our glorious Independence | I |
| - | |
| IV | O |
| The great procession came up the street | B |
| With firemen uniformed flashily neat | B |
| There was Tubbs the foreman with voice like five | O |
| The happiest proudest man alive | O |
| With a trumpet half as long as a gun | J |
| Which he used for the glory of Number | U |
| There was Nubbs who had climbed a ladder high | O |
| And saved a dog that was left to die | O |
| There was Cubbs who had dressed in black and blue | V |
| The eye of the foreman of Number | U |
| And each marched on with steady stride | F |
| And each had a look of fiery pride | F |
| And each glanced slyly round with a whim | Q |
| That all of the girls were looking at him | Q |
| And that was the way | G |
| With grand display | G |
| They marched through the blaze of the glowing day | G |
| That gave us | H |
| Hurray Hurray Hurray | G |
| With some hot fighting our fathers would say | G |
| Our glorious Independence | I |
| - | |
| V | O |
| The eager orator took the stand | W |
| In the cause of our great and happy land | W |
| He aired his own political views | X |
| He told us all of the latest news | X |
| How the Boston folks one night took tea | O |
| Their grounds for steeping it in the sea | O |
| What a heap of Britons our fathers did kill | Y |
| At the little skirmish of Bunker Hill | Y |
| He put us all in anxious doubt | Z |
| As to how that matter was coming out | Z |
| And when at last he had fought us through | V |
| To the bloodless year of ' | - |
| 'Twas the fervent hope of every one | J |
| That he as well as the war was done | J |
| But he continued to painfully soar | A2 |
| For something less than a century more | A2 |
| Until at last he had fairly begun | J |
| The wars of eighteen sixty one | J |
| And never rested till 'neath the tree | O |
| That shadowed the glory of Robert Lee | O |
| And then he inquired with martial frown | J |
| Americans must we go down | J |
| And as an answer from Heaven were sent | B2 |
| The stand gave way and down he went | B2 |
| A singer or two beneath him did drop | C2 |
| A big fat alderman fell atop | C2 |
| And that was the way | G |
| Our orator lay | G |
| Till we fished him out on the eloquent day | G |
| That gave us | H |
| Hurray Hurray Hurray | G |
| With a clash of arms Pat Henry would say | G |
| Our wordy Independence | I |
| - | |
| VI | O |
| The marshal his hungry compatriots led | E |
| Where Freedom's viands were thickly spread | E |
| With all that man or woman could eat | B |
| From crisp to sticky from sour to sweet | B |
| There were chickens that scarce had learned to crow | D2 |
| And veteran roosters of long ago | D2 |
| There was one old turkey huge and fierce | E2 |
| That was hatched in the days of President Pierce | E2 |
| Of which at last with an ominous groan | J |
| The parson essayed to swallow a bone | J |
| And it took three sinners plucky and stout | Z |
| To grapple the evil and bring it out | Z |
| And still the dinner went merrily on | J |
| And James and Lucy and Hannah and John | J |
| Kept winking their eyes and smacking their lips | F2 |
| And passing the eatables into eclipse | F2 |
| And that was the way | G |
| The grand array | G |
| Of victuals vanished on that day | G |
| That gave us | H |
| Hurray Hurray Hurray | G |
| With some starvation the records say | G |
| Our well fed Independence | I |
| - | |
| VII | O |
| The people went home through the sultry night | G2 |
| In a murky mood and a pitiful plight | G2 |
| Not more had the rockets' sticks gone down | J |
| Than the spirits of them who had been to town | J |
| Not more did the fire balloon collapse | H2 |
| Than the pride of them who had known mishaps | H2 |
| There were feathers ruffled and tempers roiled | I2 |
| And several brand new dresses spoiled | I2 |
| There were hearts that ached from envy's thorns | J2 |
| And feet that twinged with trampled corns | J2 |
| There were joys proved empty through and through | V |
| And several purses empty too | V |
| And some reeled homeward muddled and late | P |
| Who hadn't taken their glory straight | P |
| And some were fated to lodge that night | G2 |
| In the city lock up snug and tight | G2 |
| And that was the way | G |
| The deuce was to pay | G |
| As it always is at the close of the day | G |
| That gave us | H |
| Hurray Hurray Hurray | G |
| With some restrictions the fault finders say | G |
| That which please God we will keep for aye | O |
| Our National Independence | I |
Will Carleton
(1)
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About How We Kept The Day.
How We Kept The Day. is a poem by Will Carleton. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.