A Dead March Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAA BBB CCC BBB AAA BBB DDD EEE BBB FFF| PLAY me a march low ton d and slow a march for a silent tread | A |
| Fit for the wandering feet of one who dreams of the silent dead | A |
| Lonely between the bones below and the souls that are overhead | A |
| - | |
| Here for a while they smil d and sang alive in the interspace | B |
| Here with the grass beneath the foot and the stars above the face | B |
| Now are their feet beneath the grass and whither has flown their grace | B |
| - | |
| Who shall assure us whence they come or tell us the way they go | C |
| Verily life with them was joy and now they have left us woe | C |
| Once they were not and now they are not and this is the sum we know | C |
| - | |
| Orderly range the seasons due and orderly roll the stars | B |
| How shall we deem the soldier brave who frets of his wounds and scars | B |
| Are we as senseless brutes that we should dash at the well seen bars | B |
| - | |
| No we are here with feet unfix d but ever as if with lead | A |
| Drawn from the orbs which shine above to the orb on which we tread | A |
| Down to the dust from which we came and with which we shall mingle dead | A |
| - | |
| No we are here to wait and work and strain our banish d eyes | B |
| Weary and sick of soil and toil and hungry and fain for skies | B |
| Far from the reach of wingless men and not to be scal d with cries | B |
| - | |
| No we are here to bend our necks to the yoke of tyrant Time | D |
| Welcoming all the gifts he gives us glories of youth and prime | D |
| Patiently watching them all depart as our heads grow white as rime | D |
| - | |
| Why do we mourn the days that go for the same sun shines each day | E |
| Ever a spring her primrose hath and ever a May her may | E |
| Sweet as the rose that died last year is the rose that is born to day | E |
| - | |
| Do we not too return we men as ever the round earth whirls | B |
| Never a head is dimm d with gray but another is sunn d with curls | B |
| She was a girl and he was a boy but yet there are boys and girls | B |
| - | |
| Ah but alas for the smile of smiles that never but one face wore | F |
| Ah for the voice that has flown away like a bird to an unseen shore | F |
| Ah for the face the flower of flowers that blossoms on earth no more | F |
William Cosmo Monkhouse
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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