Two Exhortations Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AB ACCBBDEFFGGHH IA AJB IK AB ILL AMNOOBBPPQQRR IC ACSSTUUKKA FVWVXXXYSSZZAASSA2AA AAASSB2ZZZ| A Shooting box in the West of Ireland A Bedchamber | A |
| LAURENCE RABY and MELCHIOR Night | B |
| - | |
| Melchior | A |
| Surely in the great beginning God made all things good and still | C |
| That soul sickness men call sinning entered not without His will | C |
| Nay our wisest have asserted that as shade enhances light | B |
| Evil is but good perverted wrong is but the foil of right | B |
| Banish sickness then you banish joy for health to all that live | D |
| Slay all sin all good must vanish good being but comparative | E |
| Sophistry you say yet listen look you skyward there 'tis known | F |
| Worlds on worlds in myriads glisten larger lovelier than our own | F |
| This has been and this still shall be here as there in sun or star | G |
| These things are to be and will be those things were to be and are | G |
| Man in man's imperfect nature is by imperfection taught | H |
| Add one cubit to your stature if you can by taking thought | H |
| - | |
| Laurence | I |
| Thus you would not teach that peasant though he calls you father | A |
| - | |
| Melchior | A |
| True I should magnify this present mystify that future too | J |
| We adapt our conversation always to our hearer's light | B |
| - | |
| Laurence | I |
| I am not of your persuasion | K |
| - | |
| Melchior | A |
| Yet the difference is but slight | B |
| - | |
| Laurence | I |
| I even I say He who barters worldly weal for heavenly worth | L |
| He does well your saints and martyrs were examples here on earth | L |
| - | |
| Melchior | A |
| Aye in earlier Christian ages while the heathen empire stood | M |
| When the war 'twixt saints and sages cried aloud for saintly blood | N |
| Christ was then their model truly Now if all were meek and pure | O |
| Save the ungodly and the unruly would the Christian Church endure | O |
| Shall the toiler or the fighter dream by day and watch by night | B |
| Turn the left cheek to the smiter smitten rudely on the right | B |
| Strong men must encounter bad men so called saints of latter days | P |
| Have been mostly pious madmen lusting after righteous praise | P |
| Or the thralls of superstition doubtless worthy some reward | Q |
| Since they came by their condition hardly of their free accord | Q |
| 'Tis but madness sad and solemn that these fakir Christians feel | R |
| Saint Stylites on his column gratified a morbid zeal | R |
| - | |
| Laurence | I |
| By your showing good is really on a par of worth with ill | C |
| - | |
| Melchior | A |
| Nay I said not so I merely tell you both some ends fulfil | C |
| Priestly vows were my vocation fast and vigil wait for me | S |
| You must work and face temptation Never should the strong man flee | S |
| Though God wills the inclination with the soul at war to be Pauses | T |
| In the strife 'twixt flesh and spirit while you can the spirit aid | U |
| Should you fall not less your merit be not for a fall afraid | U |
| Whatsoe'er most right most fit is you shall do When all is done | K |
| Chaunt the noble Nunc Dimittis Benedicimur my son | K |
| Exit MELCHIOR | A |
| - | |
| Laurence alone | F |
| Why do I provoke these wrangles Melchior talks as well he may | V |
| With the tongues of men and angels | W |
| Takes up a pamphlet What has this man got to say | V |
| Reads Sic sacerdos fatur ejus nomen quondam erat Burgo | X |
| Mala mens est caro pejus anima infirma ergo | X |
| I nunc ora sine mora orat etiam Sancta Virgo | X |
| Thinks | Y |
| Speaks So it seems they mean to make her wed the usurer Nathan Lee | S |
| Poor Estelle her friends forsake her what has this to do with me | S |
| Glad I am at least that Helen still refuses to discard | Z |
| Her through tales false gossips tell in spite or heedlessness 'Tis hard | Z |
| Lee the Levite some few years back Herbert horsewhipp'd him the cur | A |
| Show'd his teeth and laid his ears back Now his wealth has purchased her | A |
| Must his baseness mar her brightness Shall the callous cunning churl | S |
| Revel in the rosy whiteness of that golden headed girl | S |
| Thinks and smokes | A2 |
| Reads Cito certe venit vitae finis sic sacerdos fatur | A |
| Nunc audite omnes ite vobis fabula narratur | A |
| Nunc orate et laudate laudat etiam Alma Mater | A |
| Muses Such has been and such shall still be here as there in sun or star | A |
| These things are to be and will be those things were to be and are | A |
| If I thought that speech worth heeding I should Nay it seems to me | S |
| More like Satan's special pleading than like Gloria Domine | S |
| Lies down on his couch | B2 |
| Reads Et tuquoque frater meus facta mala quod fecisti | Z |
| Denique confundit Deus omnes res quas tetegisti | Z |
| Nunc si unquam nunc aut nunquam sanguine adjuro Christi | Z |
Adam Lindsay Gordon
(1)
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About Two Exhortations
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