The Baptistry Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFGC HIHI JKJK JCJC LFLJ JJJJMJMJ NONO KCKC PQPR JSJS HTHP OJOJ UJUJ| One winter eve at twilight when the sound | A |
| Of sorrowful winds scarce troubled Nature's rest | B |
| As she lay sleeping with her hair unbound | A |
| Holding her grey robe to her shivering breast | B |
| - | |
| I enter'd through a low arch'd oaken door | C |
| Circled with curious sculpture and I crept | D |
| With slow hush'd footsteps o'er the shadow'd floor | C |
| Where organ notes in sudden silence slept | D |
| - | |
| Far down the aisle where darkness seem'd to brood | E |
| With such wide spreading wings and where the sigh | F |
| Of murmur'd prayer scarce came until I stood | G |
| In the deep stillness of the Baptistry | C |
| - | |
| There in the dim side chapel no bright glow | H |
| From jewelled windows on the wall was shed | I |
| No sunbeams rested on the font below | H |
| Or kiss'd those mighty arches overhead | I |
| - | |
| Soft lines and curves went upward and were lost | J |
| In solemn shadow and in dreamy space | K |
| Only the level floor was faintly crost | J |
| With glimmering brightness from the holy place | K |
| - | |
| And as I listen'd I heard music sweet | J |
| Trembling and swelling through the soundless air | C |
| Threading dark aisles as if an angel's feet | J |
| Were bidden bring God's message to me there | C |
| - | |
| Ah and the echo of those anthem notes | L |
| Wanders and whispers in my heart for aye | F |
| In all my life the mystic language floats | L |
| Fitful and faint as in my ears that day | J |
| - | |
| One whom we knew had enter'd into rest | J |
| Calm on the pillow lay his hoary head | J |
| And through that music spoke in accents blest | J |
| Our holy Mother's voice hallowing the dead | J |
| Telling of perfect peace of labours done | M |
| Of long years' sorrow turned to joy at last | J |
| The quiet sleep when battles all are won | M |
| The hush of evening when the day is past | J |
| - | |
| I look'd upon the font and mused of all | N |
| Its wondrous meaning till my thoughts grew dim | O |
| And vast and shadowy as those columns tall | N |
| Morning of life for me death's night for him | O |
| - | |
| How fancy tried to span that awful space | K |
| Between the two between the here and there | C |
| To bridge the nave up to that blessed Place | K |
| Where light and song stream'd on the chancel stair | C |
| - | |
| Dim recollections drifted through my brain | P |
| Echoing footfalls of past childish years | Q |
| When the baptismal robe had less of stain | P |
| E'en though unwash'd by penitential tears | R |
| - | |
| I saw the gloomy shadows o'er my head | J |
| And sigh'd to think how I had suffer'd loss | S |
| I saw the soft light and was comforted | J |
| I knew it shone straight from the chancel cross | S |
| - | |
| A few more steps and then I stood below | H |
| The towering minster coronet again | T |
| Down on my face that pure and gentle glow | H |
| Fell like a pitying kiss in time of pain | P |
| - | |
| Down to my feet it stream'd a passage dim | O |
| With hosts of phantom shapes on either side | J |
| It drifted through as songs of seraphim | O |
| Drift through our mourning hearts at Easter tide | J |
| - | |
| Looking up then I seem'd to see my life | U |
| A long dim vista where the rays descend | J |
| Where light and darkness wage continual strife | U |
| But only light the full light at the end | J |
Ada Cambridge
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About The Baptistry
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