St. Simeon Stylites Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Alfred Lord Tennyson

St. Simeon Stylites Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Altho' I be the basest of mankind	A
From scalp to sole one slough and crust of sin	B
Unfit for earth unfit for heaven scarce meet	C
For troops of devils mad with blasphemy	D
I will not cease to grasp the hope I hold	E
Of saintdom and to clamour mourn and sob	F
Battering the gates of heaven with storms of prayer	G
Have mercy Lord and take away my sin	B
	-
	-
Let this avail just dreadful mighty God	H
This not be all in vain that thrice ten years	I
Thrice multiplied by superhuman pangs	J
In hungers and in thirsts fevers and cold	E
In coughs aches stitches ulcerous throes and cramps	K
A sign betwixt the meadow and the cloud	L
Patient on this tall pillar I have borne	M
Rain wind frost heat hail damp and sleet and snow	N
And I had hoped that ere this period closed	O
Thou wouldst have caught me up into thy rest	P
Denying not these weather beaten limbs	Q
The meed of saints the white robe and the palm	R
	-
	-
O take the meaning Lord I do not breathe	S
Not whisper any murmur of complaint	T
Pain heap'd ten hundred fold to this were still	U
Less burthen by ten hundred fold to bear	G
Than were those lead like tons of sin that crush'd	V
My spirit flat before thee	D
	-
O Lord Lord	W
	-
Thou knowest I bore this better at the first	X
For I was strong and hale of body then	Y
And tho' my teeth which now are dropt away	Z
Would chatter with the cold and all my beard	A2
Was tagg'd with icy fringes in the moon	B2
I drown'd the whoopings of the owl with sound	C2
Of pious hymns and psalms and sometimes saw	D2
An angel stand and watch me as I sang	E2
Now am I feeble grown my end draws nigh	F2
I hope my end draws nigh half deaf I am	G2
So that I scarce can hear the people hum	H2
About the column's base and almost blind	A
And scarce can recognise the fields I know	N
And both my thighs are rotted with the dew	I2
Yet cease I not to clamour and to cry	F2
While my stiff spine can hold my weary head	J2
Till all my limbs drop piecemeal from the stone	K2
Have mercy mercy take away my sin	B
	-
	-
O Jesus if thou wilt not save my soul	L2
Who may be saved who is it may be saved	M2
Who may be made a saint if I fail here	N2
Show me the man hath suffer'd more than I	F2
For did not all thy martyrs die one death	O2
For either they were stoned or crucified	P2
Or burn'd in fire or boil'd in oil or sawn	B
In twain beneath the ribs but I die here	N2
To day and whole years long a life of death	O2
Bear witness if I could have found a way	Z
And heedfully I sifted all my thought	Q2
More slowly painful to subdue this home	R2
Of sin my flesh which I despise and hate	S2
I had not stinted practice O my God	H
	-
	-
For not alone this pillar punishment	T2
Not this alone I bore but while I lived	U2
In the white convent down the valley there	G
For many weeks about my loins I wore	V2
The rope that haled the buckets from the well	W2
Twisted as tight as I could knot the noose	X2
And spake not of it to a single soul	L2
Until the ulcer eating thro' my skin	B
Betray'd my secret penance so that all	Y2
My brethren marvell'd greatly More than this	Z2
I bore whereof O God thou knowest all	Y2
	-
	-
Three winters that my soul might grow to thee	D
I lived up there on yonder mountain side	P2
My right leg chain'd into the crag I lay	Z
Pent in a roofless close of ragged stones	A3
Inswathed sometimes in wandering mist and twice	B3
Black'd with thy branding thunder and sometimes	C3
Sucking the damps for drink and eating not	D3
Except the spare chance gift of those that came	E3
To touch my body and be heal'd and live	F3
And they say then that I work'd miracles	G3
Whereof my fame is loud amongst mankind	A
Cured lameness palsies cancers Thou O God	H
Knowest alone whether this was or no	B
Have mercy mercy cover all my sin	B
	-
	-
Then that I might be more alone with thee	D
Three years I lived upon a pillar high	F2
Six cubits and three years on one of twelve	H3
And twice three years I crouch'd on one that rose	I3
Twenty by measure last of all I grew	I2
Twice ten long weary weary years to this	Z2
That numbers forty cubits from the soil	J3
	-
	-
I think that I have borne as much as this	Z2
Or else I dream and for so long a time	K3
If I may measure time by yon slow light	L3
And this high dial which my sorrow crowns	M3
	-
So much even so	B
	-
And yet I know not well	W2
	-
For that the evil ones come here and say	Z
'Fall down O Simeon thou hast suffer'd long	N3
For ages and for ages ' then they prate	L3
Of penances I cannot have gone thro'	I2
Perplexing me with lies and oft I fall	Y2
Maybe for months in such blind lethargies	Z
That Heaven and Earth and Time are choked	L3
	-
But yet	L3
	-
Bethink thee Lord while thou and all the saints	Z
Enjoy themselves in heaven and men on earth	O3
House in the shade of comfortable roofs	Z
Sit with their wives by fires eat wholesome food	L3
And wear warm clothes and even beasts have stalls	Z
I 'tween the spring and downfall of the light	L3
Bow down one thousand and two hundred times	Z
To Christ the Virgin Mother and the saints	Z
Or in the night after a little sleep	P3
I wake the chill stars sparkle I am wet	L3
With drenching dews or stiff with crackling frost	L3
I wear an undress'd goatskin on my back	Q3
A grazing iron collar grinds my neck	R3
And in my weak lean arms I lift the cross	Z
And strive and wrestle with thee till I die	L3
O mercy mercy wash away my sin	B
	-
	-
O Lord thou knowest what a man I am	G2
A sinful man conceived and born in sin	B
'Tis their own doing this is none of mine	B
Lay it not to me Am I to blame for this	Z
That here come those that worship me Ha ha	S3
They think that I am somewhat What am I	L3
The silly people take me for a saint	L3
And bring me offerings of fruit and flowers	Z
And I in truth thou wilt bear witness here	I2
Have all in all endured as much and more	I2
Than many just and holy men whose names	Z
Are register'd and calendar'd for saints	Z
	-
	-
Good people you do ill to kneel to me	D
What is it I can have done to merit this	Z
I am a sinner viler than you all	Y2
It may be I have wrought some miracles	Z
And cured some halt and maim'd but what of that	L3
It may be no one even among the saints	Z
May match his pains with mine but what of that	L3
Yet do not rise for you may look on me	D
And in your looking you may kneel to God	L3
Speak is there any of you halt or maim'd	L3
I think you know I have some power with Heaven	B
From my long penance let him speak his wish	T3
	-
	-
Yes I can heal him Power goes forth from me	D
They say that they are heal'd Ah hark they shout	L3
'St Simeon Stylites ' Why if so	Z
God reaps a harvest in me O my soul	L2
God reaps a harvest in thee If this be	D
Can I work miracles and not be saved	L3
This is not told of any They were saints	Z
It cannot be but that I shall be saved	L3
Yea crown'd a saint They shout 'Behold a saint '	-
And lower voices saint me from above	U3
Courage St Simeon This dull chrysalis	Z
Cracks into shining wings and hope ere death	O2
Spreads more and more and more that God hath now	B
Sponged and made blank of crimeful record all	Y2
My mortal archives	Z
	-
O my sons my sons	Z
	-
I Simeon of the pillar by surname	E3
Stylites among men I Simeon	B
The watcher on the column till the end	L3
I Simeon whose brain the sunshine bakes	Z
I whose bald brows in silent hours become	H2
Unnaturally hoar with rime do now	B
From my high nest of penance here proclaim	E3
That Pontius and Iscariot by my side	L3
Show'd like fair seraphs On the coals I lay	Z
A vessel full of sin all hell beneath	V3
Made me boil over Devils pluck'd my sleeve	W3
Abaddon and Asmodeus caught at me	D
I smote them with the cross they swarm'd again	B
In bed like monstrous apes they crush'd my chest	L3
They flapp'd my light out as I read I saw	Z
Their faces grow between me and my book	X3
With colt like whinny and with hoggish whine	B
They burst my prayer Yet this way was left	L3
And by this way I 'scaped them Mortify	L3
Your flesh like me with scourges and with thorns	Z
Smite shrink not spare not If it may be fast	L3
Whole Lents and pray I hardly with slow steps	Z
With slow faint steps and much exceeding pain	B
Have scrambled past those pits of fire that still	U
Sing in mine ears But yield not me the praise	Z
God only thro' his bounty hath thought fit	L3
Among the powers and princes of this world	L3
To make me an example to mankind	L3
Which few can reach to Yet I do not say	Z
But that a time may come yea even now	B
Now now his footsteps smite the threshold stairs	Z
Of life I say that time is at the doors	Z
When you may worship me without reproach	Y3
For I will leave my relics in your land	L3
And you may carve a shrine about my dust	L3
And burn a fragrant lamp before my bones	Z
When I am gather'd to the glorious saints	Z
	-
	-
While I spake then a sting of shrewdest pain	B
Ran shrivelling thro' me and a cloudlike change	Z3
In passing with a grosser film made thick	A4
These heavy horny eyes The end the end	L3
Surely the end What's here a shape a shade	L3
A flash of light Is that the angel there	I2
That holds a crown Come blessed brother come	H2
I know thy glittering face I waited long	N3
My brows are ready What deny it now	B
Nay draw draw draw nigh So I clutch it Christ	L3
'Tis gone 'tis here again the crown the crown	B
So now 'tis fitted on and grows to me	D
And from it melt the dews of Paradise	Z
Sweet sweet spikenard and balm and frankincense	Z
Ah let me not be fool'd sweet saints I trust	L3
That I am whole and clean and meet for Heaven	B
	-
	-
Speak if there be a priest a man of God	L3
Among you there and let him presently	D
Approach and lean a ladder on the shaft	L3
And climbing up into my airy home	R2
Deliver me the blessed sacrament	L3
For by the warning of the Holy Ghost	L3
I prophesy that I shall die to night	L3
A quarter before twelve	H3
	-
But thou O Lord	L3
	-
Aid all this foolish people let them take	B4
Example pattern lead them to thy light	L3