Confiteor Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAABAB CDCCDCD EFEEFEF GHGGIGI JKLLMLK NONPOPO QRQQRQR STSSTST LUNSUNU VLVVLVL WLWWLWL XGXXGXG LYLLYLY ZYZZYZ| The shore boat lies in the morning light | A |
| By the good ship ready for sailing | B |
| The skies are clear and the dawn is bright | A |
| Tho' the bar of the bay is fleck'd with white | A |
| And the wind is fitfully wailing | B |
| Near the tiller stands the priest and the knight | A |
| Leans over the quarter railing | B |
| - | |
| There is time while the vessel tarries still | C |
| There is time while her shrouds are slack | D |
| There is time ere her sails to the west wind fill | C |
| Ere her tall masts vanish from town and from hill | C |
| Ere cleaves to her keel the track | D |
| There is time for confession to those who will | C |
| To those who may never come back | D |
| - | |
| Sir priest you can shrive these men of mine | E |
| And I pray you shrive them fast | F |
| And shrive those hardy sons of the brine | E |
| Captain and mates of the eglantine | E |
| And sailors before the mast | F |
| Then pledge me a cup of the Cyprus wine | E |
| For I fain would bury the past | F |
| - | |
| And hast thou naught to repent my son | G |
| Dost thou scorn confession and shrift | H |
| Ere thy sands from the glass of time shall run | G |
| Is there naught undone that thou should'st have done | G |
| Naught done that thou should'st have left | I |
| The guiltiest soul may from guilt be won | G |
| And the stoniest heart may be cleft | I |
| - | |
| Have my ears been closed to the prayer of the poor | J |
| Or deaf to the cry of distress | K |
| Have I given little and taken more | L |
| Have I brought a curse to the widow's door | L |
| Have I wrong'd the fatherless | M |
| Have I steep'd my fingers in guiltless gore | L |
| That I must perforce confess | K |
| - | |
| Have thy steps been guided by purity | N |
| Through the paths with wickedness rife | O |
| Hast thou never smitten thine enemy | N |
| Hast thou yielded naught to the lust of the eye | P |
| And naught to the pride of life | O |
| Hast thou pass'd all snares of pleasure by | P |
| Hast thou shunn'd all wrath and strife | O |
| - | |
| Nay certes a sinful life I've led | Q |
| Yet I've suffered and lived in hope | R |
| I may suffer still but my hope has fled | Q |
| I've nothing now to hope or to dread | Q |
| And with fate I can fairly cope | R |
| Were the waters closing over my head | Q |
| I should scarcely catch at a rope | R |
| - | |
| Dost suffer thy pain may be fraught with grace | S |
| Since never by works alone | T |
| We are saved the penitent thief may trace | S |
| The wealth of love in the Saviour's face | S |
| To the Pharisee rarely shown | T |
| And the Magdalene's arms may yet embrace | S |
| The foot of the jasper throne | T |
| - | |
| Sir priest a heavier doom I dree | L |
| For I feel no quickening pain | U |
| But a dull dumb weight when I bow my knee | N |
| And not with the words of the Pharisee | S |
| My hard eyes heavenward strain | U |
| Where my dead darling prayeth for me | N |
| Now I wot she prayeth in vain | U |
| - | |
| Still I hear it over the battle's din | V |
| And over the festive cheer | L |
| So she pray'd with clasp'd hands white and thin | V |
| The prayer of a soul absolved from sin | V |
| For a soul that is dark and drear | L |
| For the light of repentance bursting in | V |
| And the flood of the blinding tear | L |
| - | |
| Say priest when the saint must vainly plead | W |
| Oh how shall the sinner fare | L |
| I hold your comfort a broken reed | W |
| Let the wither'd branch for itself take heed | W |
| While the green shoots wait your care | L |
| I've striven though feebly to grasp your creed | W |
| And I've grappled my own despair | L |
| - | |
| By the little within thee good and brave | X |
| Not wholly shattered though shaken | G |
| By the soul that crieth beyond the grave | X |
| The love that He once in His mercy gave | X |
| In His mercy since retaken | G |
| I conjure thee oh sinner pardon crave | X |
| I implore thee oh sleeper waken | G |
| - | |
| Go to shall I lay my black soul bare | L |
| To a vain self righteous man | Y |
| In my sin in my sorrow you may not share | L |
| And yet could I meet with one who must bear | L |
| The load of an equal ban | Y |
| With him I might strive to blend one prayer | L |
| The wail of the Publican | Y |
| - | |
| My son I too am a withered bough | Z |
| My place is to others given | Y |
| Thou hast sinn'd thou sayest I ask not how | Z |
| For I too have sinn'd even as thou | Z |
| And I too have feebly striven | Y |
| And with thee I must bow crying 'Shrive us now | Z |
| Our Father which art in heaven ' | - |
Adam Lindsay Gordon
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Confiteor poem by Adam Lindsay Gordon
Best Poems of Adam Lindsay Gordon