An Ode In Time Of Hesitation Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBDEEFEGGHHF IIJJKKKLMMLIMMLI NMMNNOOMOMPPOMQRRMSM TMTMMUUMMVVWWV XMXMYZYZZZA2A2B2B2C2 HC2HC2H D2RD2E2F2G2H2RI2F2F2 RI2 EFFEB2EB2B2J2J2FK2L2 K2M2L2M2L2N2O2N2O2 M MP2Q2Q2OOP2J2J2J2 BR2 R2BS2T2OOMR2B2R2B2 MT2MMMMMMMMU2MMV2V2U 2B2B2MM DW2DW2W2R2R2DJJX2X2 D R2R2R2 X2X2R2IAfter seeing at Boston the statue of Robert Gould Shaw killed while storming Fort Wagner July at the head of the first enlisted negro regiment the Fifty fourth Massachusetts | A |
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I | - |
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Before the solemn bronze Saint Gaudens made | B |
To thrill the heedless passer's heart with awe | C |
And set here in the city's talk and trade | B |
To the good memory of Robert Shaw | D |
This bright March morn I stand | E |
And hear the distant spring come up the land | E |
Knowing that what I hear is not unheard | F |
Of this boy soldier and his negro band | E |
For all their gaze is fixed so stern ahead | G |
For all the fatal rhythm of their tread | G |
The land they died to save from death and shame | H |
Trembles and waits hearing the spring's great name | H |
And by her pangs these resolute ghosts are stirred | F |
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II | - |
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Through street and mall the tides of people go | I |
Heedless the trees upon the Common show | I |
No hint of green but to my listening heart | J |
The still earth doth impart | J |
Assurance of her jubilant emprise | K |
And it is clear to my long searching eyes | K |
That love at last has might upon the skies | K |
The ice is runneled on the little pond | L |
A telltale patter drips from off the trees | M |
The air is touched with southland spiceries | M |
As if but yesterday it tossed the frond | L |
Of pendant mosses where the live oaks grow | I |
Beyond Virginia and the Carolines | M |
Or had its will among the fruits and vines | M |
Of aromatic isles asleep beyond | L |
Florida and the Gulf of Mexico | I |
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III | - |
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Soon shall the Cape Ann children shout in glee | N |
Spying the arbutus spring's dear recluse | M |
Hill lads at dawn shall hearken the wild goose | M |
Go honking northward over Tennessee | N |
West from Oswego to Sault Sainte Marie | N |
And on to where the Pictured Rocks are hung | O |
And yonder where gigantic wilful young | O |
Chicago sitteth at the northwest gates | M |
With restless violent hands and casual tongue | O |
Moulding her mighty fates | M |
The Lakes shall robe them in ethereal sheen | P |
And like a larger sea the vital green | P |
Of springing wheat shall vastly be outflung | O |
Over Dakota and the prairie states | M |
By desert people immemorial | Q |
On Arizonan mesas shall be done | R |
Dim rites unto the thunder and the sun | R |
Nor shall the primal gods lack sacrifice | M |
More splendid when the white Sierras call | S |
Unto the Rockies straightway to arise | M |
And dance before the unveiled ark of the year | T |
Sounding their windy cedars as for shawms | M |
Unrolling rivers clear | T |
For flutter of broad phylacteries | M |
While Shasta signals to Alaskan seas | M |
That watch old sluggish glaciers downward creep | U |
To fling their icebergs thundering from the steep | U |
And Mariposa through the purple calms | M |
Gazes at far Hawaii crowned with palms | M |
Where East and West are met | V |
A rich seal on the ocean's bosom set | V |
To say that East and West are twain | W |
With different loss and gain | W |
The Lord hath sundered them let them be sundered yet | V |
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IV | - |
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Alas what sounds are these that come | X |
Sullenly over the Pacific seas | M |
Sounds of ignoble battle striking dumb | X |
The season's half awakened ecstasies | M |
Must I be humble then | Y |
Now when my heart hath need of pride | Z |
Wild love falls on me from these sculptured men | Y |
By loving much the land for which they died | Z |
I would be justified | Z |
My spirit was away on pinions wide | Z |
To soothe in praise of her its passionate mood | A2 |
And ease it of its ache of gratitude | A2 |
Too sorely heavy is the debt they lay | B2 |
On me and the companions of my day | B2 |
I would remember now | C2 |
My country's goodliness make sweet her name | H |
Alas what shade art thou | C2 |
Of sorrow or of blame | H |
Liftest the lyric leafage from her brow | C2 |
And pointest a slow finger at her shame | H |
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V | - |
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Lies lies It cannot be The wars we wage | D2 |
Are noble and our battles still are won | R |
By justice for us ere we lift the gage | D2 |
We have not sold our loftiest heritage | E2 |
The proud republic hath not stooped to cheat | F2 |
And scramble in the market place of war | G2 |
Her forehead weareth yet its solemn star | H2 |
Here is her witness this her perfect son | R |
This delicate and proud New England soul | I2 |
Who leads despis d men with just unshackled feet | F2 |
Up the large ways where death and glory meet | F2 |
To show all peoples that our shame is done | R |
That once more we are clean and spirit whole | I2 |
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VI | - |
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Crouched in the sea fog on the moaning sand | E |
All night he lay speaking some simple word | F |
From hour to hour to the slow minds that heard | F |
Holding each poor life gently in his hand | E |
And breathing on the base rejected clay | B2 |
Till each dark face shone mystical and grand | E |
Against the breaking day | B2 |
And lo the shard the potter cast away | B2 |
Was grown a fiery chalice crystal fine | J2 |
Fulfilled of the divine | J2 |
Great wine of battle wrath by God's ring finger stirred | F |
Then upward where the shadowy bastion loomed | K2 |
Huge on the mountain in the wet sea light | L2 |
Whence now and now infernal flowerage bloomed | K2 |
Bloomed burst and scattered down its deadly seed | M2 |
They swept and died like freemen on the height | L2 |
Like freemen and like men of noble breed | M2 |
And when the battle fell away at night | L2 |
By hasty and contemptuous hands were thrust | N2 |
Obscurely in a common grave with him | O2 |
The fair haired keeper of their love and trust | N2 |
Now limb doth mingle with dissolv d limb | O2 |
In nature's busy old democracy | - |
To flush the mountain laurel when she blows | M |
Sweet by the southern sea | - |
And heart with crumbled heart climbs in the rose | M |
The untaught hearts with the high heart that knew | P2 |
This mountain fortress for no earthly hold | Q2 |
Of temporal quarrel but the bastion old | Q2 |
Of spiritual wrong | O |
Built by an unjust nation sheer and strong | O |
Expugnable but by a nation's rue | P2 |
And bowing down before that equal shrine | J2 |
By all men held divine | J2 |
Whereof his band and he were the most holy sign | J2 |
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VII | - |
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O bitter bitter shade | B |
Wilt thou not put the scorn | R2 |
And instant tragic question from thine eye | - |
Do thy dark brows yet crave | - |
That swift and angry stave | - |
Unmeet for this desirous morn | R2 |
That I have striven striven to evade | B |
Gazing on him must I not deem they err | S2 |
Whose careless lips in street and shop aver | T2 |
As common tidings deeds to make his cheek | O |
Flush from the bronze and his dead throat to speak | O |
Surely some elder singer would arise | M |
Whose harp hath leave to threaten and to mourn | R2 |
Above this people when they go astray | B2 |
Is Whitman the strong spirit overworn | R2 |
Has Whittier put his yearning wrath away | B2 |
I will not and I dare not yet believe | - |
Though furtively the sunlight seems to grieve | - |
And the spring laden breeze | M |
Out of the gladdening west is sinister | T2 |
With sounds of nameless battle overseas | M |
Though when we turn and question in suspense | M |
If these things be indeed after these ways | M |
And what things are to follow after these | M |
Our fluent men of place and consequence | M |
Fumble and fill their mouths with hollow phrase | M |
Or for the end all of deep arguments | M |
Intone their dull commercial liturgies | M |
I dare not yet believe My ears are shut | U2 |
I will not hear the thin satiric praise | M |
And muffled laughter of our enemies | M |
Bidding us never sheathe our valiant sword | V2 |
Till we have changed our birthright for a gourd | V2 |
Of wild pulse stolen from a barbarian's hut | U2 |
Showing how wise it is to cast away | B2 |
The symbols of our spiritual sway | B2 |
That so our hands with better ease | M |
May wield the driver's whip and grasp the jailer's keys | M |
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VIII | - |
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Was it for this our fathers kept the law | D |
This crown shall crown their struggle and their ruth | W2 |
Are we the eagle nation Milton saw | D |
Mewing its mighty youth | W2 |
Soon to possess the mountain winds of truth | W2 |
And be a swift familiar of the sun | R2 |
Where aye before God's face his trumpets run | R2 |
Or have we but the talons and the maw | D |
And for the abject likeness of our heart | J |
Shall some less lordly bird be set apart | J |
Some gross billed wader where the swamps are fat | X2 |
Some gorger in the sun Some prowler with the bat | X2 |
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IX | D |
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Ah no | R2 |
We have not fallen so | R2 |
We are our fathers' sons let those who lead us know | R2 |
'T was only yesterday sick Cuba's cry | - |
Came up the tropic wind quot Now help us for we die quot | X2 |
Then Alabama heard | X2 |
And rising pale to Maine and Idaho | R2 |
Sho | I |
William Vaughn Moody
(1)
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