The Altar Of Righteousness Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABBCCDDEEFFGGHHEEIIJ JKKLLMMNOPPQQRRSSOOT TGGUUJJVV AWWXXYYUULLZZPPA2A2B 2B2FFHHC2D2XXE2E2FFF 2F2F2F2A2A2EEG2G2LLH 2H2I2I2J2J2WWK2K2L2L 2M2M2N2O2JJ ALLP2P2LP2HHBBBWWWWW WWZZZQ2R2IIIS2S2F2F2 S2F2 I2S2S2T2T2U2U2EEH2H2 V2V2B2B2W2W2X2X2W2W2 HHI2I2F2F2H2H2WWWWGG ZZ EY2Y2WQ2Q2WWWLLZ2WWA 3EEHHI2ZZI2R2R2LLS2B 3B3S2AA AD2D2T2T2WWF2F2MMHHF 2F2F2F2S2S2WWLLS2S2F 2F2C3C3F2F2EEF2F2EEH 2H2D3D3L2L2I2I2LLBBE 3F3G3G3W2W2WWEEH3H3I 3I3WWS2S2H2H2IIF2F2 I2C3C3H2H2H3H3ZZBBI2 I2BBS2S2BBBB

I	A
Light and night whose clouds and glories change and mingle and divide	B
Veil the truth whereof they witness show the truth of things they hide	B
Through the darkness and the splendour of the centuries loud or dumb	C
Shines and wanes and shines the spirit lit with love of life to come	C
Man the soul made flesh that knows not death from life and fain would know	D
Sees the face of time change colour as its tides recoil and flow	D
All his hope and fear and faith and doubt if aught at all they be	E
Live the life of clouds and sunbeams born of heaven or earth or sea	E
All are buoyed and blown and brightened by their hour's evasive breath	F
All subside and quail and darken when their hour is done to death	F
Yet ere faith a wandering water froze and curdled into creeds	G
Earth elate as heaven adored the light that quickens dreams to deeds	G
Invisible eye hath not seen it and ear hath not heard as the spirit hath heard	H
From the shrine that is lit not of sunlight or starlight the sound of a limitless word	H
And visible none that hath eyes to behold what the spirit must perish or see	E
Can choose but behold it and worship a shrine that if light were as darkness would be	E
Of cloud and of change is the form of the fashion that man may behold of it wrought	I
Of iron and truth is the mystic mid altar where worship is none but of thought	I
No prayer may go up to it climbing as incense of gladness or sorrow may climb	J
No rapture of music may ruffle the silence that guards it and hears not of time	J
As the winds of the wild blind ages alternate in passion of light and of cloud	K
So changes the shape of the veil that enshrouds it with darkness and light for a shroud	K
And the winds and the clouds and the suns fall silent and fade out of hearing or sight	L
And the shrine stands fast and is changed not whose likeness was changed as a cloud in the night	L
All the storms of time and wrath of many winds may carve no trace	M
On the viewless altar though the veil bear many a name and face	M
Many a live God's likeness woven many a scripture dark with awe	N
Bids the veil seem verier iron than the word of life's own law	O
Till the might of change hath rent it with a rushing wind in twain	P
Stone or steel it seems whereon the wrath of chance is wreaked in vain	P
Stone or steel and all behind it or beyond its lifted sign	Q
Cloud and vapour no subsistence of a change unstricken shrine	Q
God by god flits past in thunder till his glories turn to shades	R
God to god bears wondering witness how his gospel flames and fades	R
More was each of these while yet they were than man their servant seemed	S
Dead are all of these and man survives who made them while he dreamed	S
Yet haply or surely if vision were surer than theirs who rejoiced that they saw	O
Man might not but see through the darkness of godhead the light that is surety and law	O
On the stone that the close drawn cloud which veils it awhile makes cloudlike stands	T
The word of the truth everlasting unspoken of tongues and unwritten of hands	T
By the sunbeams and storms of the centuries engraven and approved of the soul as it reads	G
It endures as a token dividing the light from the darkness of dreams and of deeds	G
The faces of gods on the face of it carven or gleaming behind and above	U
Star glorified Uranus thunderous Jehovah for terror or worship or love	U
Change wither and brighten as flowers that the wind of eternity sheds upon time	J
All radiant and transient and awful and mortal and leave it unmarred and sublime	J
As the tides that return and recede are the fears and the hopes of the centuries that roll	V
Requenched and rekindled but strong as the sun is the sense of it shrined in the soul	V
	-
II	A
In the days when time was not in the time when days were none	W
Ere sorrow had life to lot ere earth gave thanks for the sun	W
Ere man in his darkness waking adored what the soul in him could	X
And the manifold God of his making was manifest evil and good	X
One law from the dim beginning abode and abides in the end	Y
In sight of him sorrowing and sinning with none but his faith for friend	Y
Dark were the shadows around him and darker the glories above	U
Ere light from beyond them found him and bade him for love's sake love	U
About him was darkness and under and over him darkness the night	L
That conceived him and bore him had thunder for utterance and lightning for light	L
The dust of death was the dust of the ways that the tribes of him trod	Z
And he knew not if just or unjust were the might of the mystery of God	Z
Strange horror and hope strange faith and unfaith were his boon and his bane	P
And the God of his trust was the wraith of the soul or the ghost of it slain	P
A curse was on death as on birth and a Presence that shone as a sword	A2
Shed menace from heaven upon earth that beheld him and hailed him her Lord	A2
Sublime and triumphant as fire or as lightning he kindled the skies	B2
And withered with dread the desire that would look on the light of his eyes	B2
Earth shuddered with worship and knew not if hell were not hot in her breath	F
If birth were not sin and the dew of the morning the sweat of her death	F
The watchwords of evil and good were unspoken of men and unheard	H
They were shadows that willed as he would that were made and unmade by his word	H
His word was darkness and light and a wisdom that makes men mad	C2
Sent blindness upon them for sight that they saw but and heard as he bade	D2
Cast forth and corrupt from the birth by the crime of creation they stood	X
Convicted of evil on earth by the grace of a God found good	X
The grace that enkindled and quickened the darkness of hell with flame	E2
Bade man though the soul in him sickened obey and give praise to his name	E2
The still small voice of the spirit whose life is as plague's hot breath	F
Bade man shed blood and inherit the life of the kingdom of death	F
Bring now for blood offering thy son to mine altar and bind him and slay	F2
That the sin of my bidding be done and the soul in the slave said Yea	F2
Yea not nay was the word and the sacrifice offered withal	F2
Was neither of beast nor of bird but the soul of a man God's thrall	F2
And the word of his servant spoken was fire and the light of a sword	A2
When the bondage of Israel was broken and Sinai shrank from the Lord	A2
With splendour of slaughter and thunder of song as the sound of the sea	E
Were the foes of him stricken in sunder and silenced as storms that flee	E
Terror and trust and the pride of the chosen approved of his choice	G2
Saw God in the whirlwind ride and rejoiced as the winds rejoice	G2
Subdued and exalted and kindled and quenched by the sense of his might	L
Faith flamed and exulted and dwindled and saw not and clung to the sight	L
The wastes of the wilderness brightened and trembled with rapture and dread	H2
When the word of him thundered and lightened and spake through the quick and the dead	H2
The chant of the prophetess louder and loftier than tempest and wave	I2
Rang triumph more ruthless and prouder than death and profound as the grave	I2
And sweet as the moon's word spoken in smiles that the blown clouds mar	J2
The psalmist's witness in token arose as the speech of a star	J2
Starlight supreme and the tender desire of the moon were as one	W
To rebuke with compassion the splendour and strength of the godlike sun	W
God softened and changed and the word of his chosen a fire at the first	K2
Bade man as a beast or a bird now slake at the springs his thirst	K2
The souls that were sealed unto death as the bones of the dead lie sealed	L2
Rose thrilled and redeemed by the breath of the dawn on the flame lit field	L2
The glories of darkness cloven with music of thunder shrank	M2
As the web of the word was unwoven that spake and the soul's tide sank	M2
And the starshine of midnight that covered Arabia with light as a robe	N2
Waxed fiery with utterance that hovered and flamed through the whirlwind on Job	O2
And prophet to prophet and vision to vision made answer sublime	J
Till the valley of doom and decision was merged in the tides of time	J
	-
III	A
Then soft as the dews of night	L
As the star of the sundawn bright	L
As the heart of the sea's hymn deep	P2
And sweet as the balm of sleep	P2
Arose on the world a light	L
Too pure for the skies to keep	P2
With music sweeter and stranger than heaven had heard	H
When the dark east thrilled with light from a saviour's word	H
And a God grew man to endure as a man and abide	B
The doom of the will of the Lord of the loud world's tide	B
Whom thunders utter and tempest and darkness hide	B
With larger light than flamed from the peak whereon	W
Prometheus bound as the sun to the world's wheel shone	W
A presence passed and abode but on earth a span	W
And love's own light as a river before him ran	W
And the name of God for awhile upon earth was man	W
O star that wast not and wast for the world a sun	W
O light that was quenched of priests and its work undone	W
O Word that wast not as man's or as God's if God	Z
Be Lord but of hosts whose tread was as death's that trod	Z
On souls that felt but his wrath as an unseen rod	Z
What word what praise what passion of hopeless prayer	Q2
May now rise up to thee loud as in years that were	R2
From years that gaze on the works of thy servants wrought	I
While strength was in them to satiate the lust of thought	I
That craved in thy name for blood as the quest it sought	I
From the dark high places of Rome	S2
Far over the westward foam	S2
God's heaven and the sun saw swell	F2
The fires of the high priest's hell	F2
And shrank as they curled and clomb	S2
And revelled and ravaged and fell	F2
	-
IV	I2
Yet was not the work of thy word all withered with wasting flame	S2
By the sons of the priests that had slain thee whose evil was wrought in thy name	S2
From the blood sodden soil that was blasted with fires of the Church and her creed	T2
Sprang rarely but surely by grace of thy spirit a flower for a weed	T2
Thy spirit unfelt of thy priests who blasphemed thee enthralled and enticed	U2
To deathward a child that was even as the child we behold in Christ	U2
The Moors they told her beyond bright Spain and the strait brief sea	E
Dwelt blind in the light that for them was as darkness and knew not thee	E
But the blood of the martyrs whose mission was witness for God they said	H2
Might raise to redemption the souls that were here in the sun's sight dead	H2
And the child rose up in the night when the stars were as friends that smiled	V2
And sought her brother and wakened the younger and tenderer child	V2
From the heaven of a child's glad sleep to the heaven of the sight of her eyes	B2
He woke and brightened and hearkened and kindled as stars that rise	B2
And forth they fared together to die for the stranger's sake	W2
For the souls of the slayers that should slay them and turn from their sins and wake	W2
And the light of the love that lit them awhile on a brief blind quest	X2
Shines yet on the tear lit smile that salutes them belated and blest	X2
And the girl full grown to the stature of godhead in womanhood spake	W2
The word that sweetens and lightens her creed for her great love's sake	W2
From the godlike heart of Theresa the prayer above all prayers heard	H
The cry as of God made woman a sweet blind wonderful word	H
Sprang sudden as flame and kindled the darkness of faith with love	I2
And the hollow of hell from beneath shone quickened of heaven from above	I2
Yea hell at her word grew heaven as she prayed that if God thought well	F2
She there might stand in the gateway that none might pass into hell	F2
Not Hermes guardian and guide God herald and comforter shed	H2
Such lustre of hope from the life of his light on the night of the dead	H2
Not Pallas wiser and mightier in mercy than Rome's God shone	W
Wore ever such raiment of love as the soul of a saint put on	W
So blooms as a flower of the darkness a star of the midnight born	W
Of the midnight's womb and the blackness of darkness and flames like morn	W
Nor yet may the dawn extinguish or hide it when churches and creeds	G
Are withered and blasted with sunlight as poisonous and blossomless weeds	G
So springs and strives through the soil that the legions of darkness have trod	Z
From the root that is man from the soul in the body the flower that is God	Z
	-
V	E
Ages and creeds that drift	Y2
Through change and cloud uplift	Y2
The soul that soars and seeks her sovereign shrine	W
Her faith's veiled altar there	Q2
To find when praise and prayer	Q2
Fall baffled if the darkness be divine	W
Lights change and shift through star and sun	W
Night clothed with might of immemorial years is one	W
Day born and slain of night	L
Hath hardly life in sight	L
As she that bears and slays him and survives	Z2
And gives us back for one	W
Cloud thwarted fiery sun	W
The myriad mysteries of the lambent lives	A3
Whose starry soundless music saith	E
That light and life wax perfect even through night and death	E
In vain had darkness heard	H
Light speak the lustrous word	H
That cast out faith in all save truth and love	I2
In vain death's quickening rod	Z
Bade man rise up as God	Z
Touched as with life unknown in heaven above	I2
Fear turned his light of love to fire	R2
That wasted earth yet might not slay the soul's desire	R2
Though death seem life and night	L
Bid fear call darkness light	L
Time faith and hope keep trust through sorrow and shame	S2
Till Christ by Paul cast out	B3
Return and all the rout	B3
Of raging slaves whose prayer defiles his name	S2
Rush headlong to the deep and die	A
And leave no sign to say that faith once heard them lie	A
	-
VI	A
Since man with a child's pride proud and abashed as a child and afraid	D2
Made God in his likeness and bowed him to worship the Maker he made	D2
No faith more dire hath enticed man's trust than the saint's whose creed	T2
Made Caiaphas one with Christ that worms on the cross might feed	T2
Priests gazed upon God in the eyes of a babe new born and therein	W
Beheld not heaven and the wise glad secret of love but sin	W
Accursed of heaven and baptized with the baptism of hatred and hell	F2
They spat on the name they despised and adored as a sign and a spell	F2
Lord Christ thou art God and a liar they were children of wrath not of grace	M
Unbaptized unredeemed from the fire they were born for who smiled in thy face	M
Of such is the kingdom he said it of heaven and the heavenly word	H
Shall live when religion is dead and when falsehood is dumb shall be heard	H
And the message of James and of John was as Christ's and as love's own call	F2
But wrath passed sentence thereon when Annas replied in Paul	F2
The dark old God who had slain him grew one with the Christ he slew	F2
And poison was rank in the grain that with growth of his gospel grew	F2
And the blackness of darkness brightened and red in the heart of the flame	S2
Shone down as a blessing that lightened the curse of a new God's name	S2
Through centuries of burning and trembling belief as a signal it shone	W
Till man soul sick of dissembling bade fear and her frauds begone	W
God Cerberus yelps from his throats triune but his day which was night	L
Is quenched with its stars and the notes of its night birds in silence and light	L
The flames of its fires and the psalms of their psalmists are darkened and dumb	S2
Strong winter has withered the palms of his angels and stricken them numb	S2
God father of lies God son of perdition God spirit of ill	F2
Thy will that for ages was done is undone as a dead God's will	F2
Not Mahomet's sword could slay thee nor Borgia's or Calvin's praise	C3
But the scales of the spirit that weigh thee are weighted with truth and it slays	C3
The song of the day of thy fury when nature and death shall quail	F2
Rings now as the thunders of Jewry the ghost of a dead world's tale	F2
That day and its doom foreseen and foreshadowed on earth when thou	E
Lord God wast lord of the keen dark season are sport for us now	E
Thy claws were clipped and thy fangs plucked out by the hands that slew	F2
Men lovers of man whose pangs bore witness if truth were true	F2
Man crucified rose again from the sepulchre builded to be	E
No grave for the souls of the men who denied thee but Lord for thee	E
When Bruno's spirit aspired from the flames that thy servants fed	H2
The spirit of faith was fired to consume thee and leave thee dead	H2
When the light of the sunlike eyes whence laughter lightened and flamed	D3
Bade France and the world be wise faith saw thee naked and shamed	D3
When wisdom deeper and sweeter than Rabelais veiled and revealed	L2
Found utterance diviner and meeter for truth whence anguish is healed	L2
Whence fear and hate and belief in thee fed by thy grace from above	I2
Fall stricken and utmost grief takes light from the lustre of love	I2
When Shakespeare shone into birth and the world he beheld grew bright	L
Thy kingdom was ended on earth and the darkness it shed was light	L
In him all truth and the glory thereof and the power and the pride	B
The song of the soul and her story bore witness that fear had lied	B
All hope all wonder all trust all doubt that knows not of fear	E3
The love of the body the lust of the spirit to see and to hear	F3
All womanhood fairer than love could conceive or desire or adore	G3
All manhood radiant above all heights that it held of yore	G3
Lived by the life of his breath with the speech of his soul's will spake	W2
And the light lit darkness to death whence never the dead shall wake	W2
For the light that lived in the sound of the song of his speech was one	W
With the light of the wisdom that found earth's tune in the song of the sun	W
His word with the word of the lord most high of us all on earth	E
Whose soul was a lyre and a sword whose death was a deathless birth	E
Him too we praise as we praise our own who as he stand strong	H3
Him schylus ancient of days whose word is the perfect song	H3
When Caucasus showed to the sun and the sea what a God could endure	I3
When wisdom and light were one and the hands of the matricide pure	I3
A song too subtle for psalmist or prophet of Jewry to know	W
Elate and profound as the calmest or stormiest of waters that flow	W
A word whose echoes were wonder and music of fears overcome	S2
Bade Sinai bow and the thunder of godhead on Horeb be dumb	S2
The childless children of night strong daughters of doom and dread	H2
The thoughts and the fears that smite the soul and its life lies dead	H2
Stood still and were quelled by the sound of his word and the light of his thought	I
And the God that in man lay bound was unbound from the bonds he had wrought	I
Dark fear of a lord more dark than the dreams of his worshippers knew	F2
Fell dead and the corpse lay stark in the sunlight of truth shown true	F2
	-
VII	I2
Time and truth his child though terror set earth and heaven at odds	C3
See the light of manhood rise on the twilight of the Gods	C3
Light is here for souls to see though the stars of faith be dead	H2
All the sea that yearned and trembled receives the sun instead	H2
All the shadows on the spirit when fears and dreams were strong	H3
All perdition all redemption blind rain stars watched so long	H3
Love whose root was fear thanksgiving that cowered beneath the rod	Z
Feel the light that heals and withers night weeps upon her God	Z
All the names wherein the incarnate Lord lived his day and died	B
Fade from suns to stars from stars into darkness undescried	B
Christ the man lives yet remembered of man as dreams that leave	I2
Light on eyes that wake and know not if memory bid them grieve	I2
Fire sublime as lightning shines and exults in thunder yet	B
Where the battle wields the name and the sword of Mahomet	B
Far above all wars and gospels all ebb and flow of time	S2
Lives the soul that speaks in silence and makes mute earth sublime	S2
Still for her though years and ages be blinded and bedinned	B
Mazed with lightnings crazed with thunders life rides and guides the wind	B
Death may live or death may die and the truth be light or night	B
Not for gain of heaven may man put away the rule of right	B

Algernon Charles Swinburne

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