Song To The God Of War. (the Missionary.) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDEFFGHIIJJKKJJ LMNNIIAA BBOPQQRRSSTTUUVVBBWX XYYZIA2A2CCIIUUJJCCU UVB2B2C2C2D2D2CCE2E2 E2By thy habitation dread | A |
In the valley of the dead | A |
Where no sun nor day nor night | B |
Breaks the red and dusky light | B |
By the grisly troops that ride | C |
Of slaughtered Spaniards at thy side | C |
Slaughtered by the Indian spear | D |
Mighty Epananum hear | E |
Hark the battle Hark the din | F |
Now the deeds of Death begin | F |
The Spaniards come in clouds above | G |
I hear their hoarse artillery move | H |
Spirits of our fathers slain | I |
Haste pursue the dogs of Spain | I |
The noise was in the northern sky | J |
Haste pursue They fly they fly | J |
Now from the cavern's secret cell | K |
Where the direst phantoms dwell | K |
See they rush and riding high | J |
Break the moonlight as they fly | J |
And on the shadowed plain beneath | L |
Shoot unseen the shafts of Death | M |
O'er the devoted Spanish camp | N |
Like a vapour dark and damp | N |
May they hover till the plain | I |
Is hid beneath the countless slain | I |
And none but silent women tread | A |
From corse to corse to seek the dead | A |
- | |
The wavering fire flashed with expiring light | B |
When shrill and hollow through the cope of night | B |
A distant shout was heard at intervals | O |
Increasing on the listening ear it falls | P |
It ceased when bursting from the thickest wood | Q |
With lifted axe two gloomy warriors stood | Q |
Wan in the midst with dark and streaming hair | R |
Blown by the winds upon her bosom bare | R |
A woman faint from terror's wild alarms | S |
And folding a white infant in her arms | S |
Appeared Each warrior stooped his lance to gaze | T |
On her pale looks seen ghastlier through the blaze | T |
Save she exclaimed with harrowed aspect wild | U |
Oh save my innocent my helpless child | U |
Then fainting fell as from death's instant stroke | V |
Caupolican with stern inquiry spoke | V |
Whence come to interrupt our awful rite | B |
At this dread hour the warriors of the night | B |
From ocean | W |
Who is she who fainting lies | X |
And now scarce lifts her supplicating eyes | X |
The Spanish ship went down the seamen bore | Y |
In a small boat this woman to the shore | Y |
They fell beneath our hatchets and again | Z |
We gave them back to the insulted main | I |
The child and woman of a race we hate | A2 |
Warriors 'tis yours here to decide their fate | A2 |
Vengeance aloud fierce Mariantu cried | C |
Let vengeance on the race be satisfied | C |
Let none of hated Spanish blood remain | I |
Woman or child to violate our plain | I |
Amid that dark and bloody scene the child | U |
Stretched to the mountain chief his hands and smiled | U |
A starting tear of pity dimmed the eye | J |
Of the old warrior though he knew not why | J |
Oh think upon your little ones he cried | C |
Nor be compassion to the weak denied | C |
Caupolican then fixed his aspect mild | U |
On the white woman and her shrinking child | U |
Then firmly spoke | V |
White woman we were free | B2 |
When first thy brethren of the distant sea | B2 |
Came to our shores White woman theirs the guilt | C2 |
Theirs if the blood of innocence be spilt | C2 |
Yet blood we seek not though our arms oppose | D2 |
The hate of foreign and remorseless foes | D2 |
Thou camest here a captive so abide | C |
Till the Great Spirit shall our cause decide | C |
He spoke the warriors of the night obey | E2 |
And ere the earliest streak of dawning day | E2 |
They lead her from the scene of blood away | E2 |
William Lisle Bowles
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