Fifty Years At The Altar Poem Rhyme Scheme

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To Rev Father E Sourin S J from A J Ryan first in memory of some happy hours passed in his company at Loyola College Baltimore next in appreciation of a character of strange beautifulness known of God but hidden from men and last but by no means least to test and tempt his humility in the to him proud hour of the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination	A
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	-
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To day fifty years at the altar	B
Thou art as of old at thy post	C
Tell us O chasubled soldier	B
Art weary of watching the Host	C
Fifty years Christ's sacred sentry	D
To day thy feet faithful are found	E
When the cross on the altar is blessing	F
Thy heart in its sentinel round	E
	-
The beautiful story of Thabor	D
Fifty years agone thrilled thy young heart	G
When wearing white vestments of glory	D
And up the high mountain apart	G
In the fresh glowing grace of thy priesthood	H
Thou didst climb to the summit alone	I
While the Feast of Christ's Transfiguration	I
Was a sweet outward sign of thy own	I
	-
Old priest on the slope of the summit	J
Did float down and fall on thine ear	D
The strong words of weak hearted Peter	D
O Lord it is good to be here	D
Thy heart was stronger than Peter's	K
And sweeter the tone of thy prayer	D
'Twas Calvary thy young feet were climbing	F
And old thou art still standing there	D
	-
For you as for him on bright Thabor	D
Forever to stay were not hard	L
But when Calvary girdles the altar	D
And garments the Eucharist's guard	L
With sacrifice and with its shadows	M
To keep there forever a feast	N
Is the glory and grace of the human	I
The altar the cross and the priest	N
	-
The crucifix's wardens and watchers	K
Like Him must be heart sacrificed	O
The Christ on the crucifix lifeless	P
For guard needs a brave human Christ	O
To guard Him three hours what a glory	D
With sacrifice splendors aflame	Q
Three hours and He died on His Calvary	D
How long hast thou lived for His name	Q
	-
Half a century cries out thy crucifix	R
Binding together thy beads	S
His look like thy life lingers in it	T
A light for men's souls in their needs	S
Old priest is thy life not a rosary	D
Five decades and more have been said	U
In thy heart the warm splendors of Thabor	D
Beneath the white snows of thy head	U
	-
Fifty years lifting the chalice	V
Ah 'tis Life in this death darkened land	W
Thy clasp may be weak but the chrism	Q
Old priest that anointed thy hand	W
Is as fresh and as strong in its virtue	X
As in the five decades agone	I
Thy young hands were touched with its unction	I
And thy vestments of white were put on	I
	-
Fifty years Every day passes	Y
A part of one great endless feast	N
That moves round its orbit of Masses	Y
And hath nor a West nor an East	N
But everywhere hath its pure altars	K
At each of its altars a priest	N
To lift up a Host with a chalice	V
Till the story of grace shall have ceased	N
	-
Fifty years in the feast's orbit	J
Nearly two thousand of days	Z
Fifty years priest in the priesthood	H
Fifty years lit with its rays	Z
Lit them but to reflect them	Q
When the adorers' throngs pass	A2
Out of thy life and its glory	D
Shining each day from thy Mass	A2
	-
Half of a century's service	P
Wearing thy cassock of black	B2
O'er thy camps and thy battles and triumphs	C2
Old soldier of Jesus look back	B2
To the day when thou kissed thy first altar	D
In love with youth's fervor athrill	D2
From the day when we meet and we greet thee	D
So true to the old altar still	D2
	-
Fifty long years what if trials	E2
Did oftentimes darken thy way	F2
They marked like the shadows on dials	E2
Thy soul's brightest hour every day	F2
The sun in the height of his splendor	D
By the mystical law of his light	G2
O'er his glories flings vestments of shadows	M
And sinking leaves stars to the night	G2
	-
Old priest with the heart of a poet	J
Thou hast written sweet stanzas for men	I
Thy life many versed is a poem	Q
That puzzles the art of the pen	I
The crucifix wrote it and writes it	T
A scripture too deep for my ken	I
A record of deeds more than sayings	H2
Only God reads it rightly and then	I
	-
My stanzas are just like the shadows	M
That follow the sun and his sheen	I
To tell to the eye that will read them	Q
Where the purest of sunshine has been	I
Thy life moves in mystical eclipse	I2
All hidden from men and their sight	G2
We look but we see but its surface	P
But God sees the depth of its light	G2
	-
Twenty five years highest honors	K
Were thine high deserved in the world	J2
Dawned a day with a grace in its flashing	F
O'er thy heart from a standard unfurled	J2
Whose folds bore the mystical motto	K2
To the greater glory of God	L2
And somehow there opened before thee	D
A way thou hadst never yet trod	L2
	-
Twenty five years still a private	J
In files where the humblest and last	M2
Stands higher in rank than the highest	N2
Of those who are passing or passed	M2
Twenty five years in the vanguard	L
Whose name is a spell of their strength	O2
The light of the folds of whose standard	P2
Lengthens along all the length	O2
	-
Of the march of the Crucified Jesus	P
Loyola was wiser than most	C
In claiming for him and his soldiers	K
The name of the Chief of the host	C
His name and his motto and colors	K
That never shall know a defeat	Q2
Whose banner when others are folded	R2
Shall never float over retreat	Q2
	-
To day when the wind wafts the wavelets	K
To the gray altar steps of yon shore	D
Each wearing an alb foam embroidered	P2
And kneeling like priests to adore	D
The God of the land I will mingle	D2
My prayers aged priest with the sea	K
While God for thy fifty years' priesthood	H
Will hear thy prayers whispered for me	K

Abram Joseph Ryan

Fifty Years At The Altar Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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