The Last Oracle Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFDGDGHHII JKJL MNMNHOHOPBPBEQEQRRSS JKJL TAUAPVPVVWVWXYXYZZVV JVJV VA2VA2B2MMMC2D2C2D2M WMWHHMMJVJV CVCVC2B2C2B2CYCYME2M E2HHC2C2JVJV MHMHC2HC2HC2OC2OA2C2 A2C2F2G2D2D2JVJVYears have risen and fallen in darkness or in twilight | A |
Ages waxed and waned that knew not thee nor thine | B |
While the world sought light by night and sought not thy light | A |
Since the sad last pilgrim left thy dark mid shrine | B |
Dark the shrine and dumb the fount of song thence welling | C |
Save for words more sad than tears of blood that said | D |
Tell the king on earth has fallen the glorious dwelling | C |
And the watersprings that spake are quenched and dead | D |
Not a cell is left the God no roof no cover | E |
In his hand the prophet laurel flowers no more | F |
And the great king's high sad heart thy true last lover | E |
Felt thine answer pierce and cleave it to the core | F |
And he bowed down his hopeless head | D |
In the drift of the wild world's tide | G |
And dying Thou hast conquered he said | D |
Galilean he said it and died | G |
And the world that was thine and was ours | H |
When the Graces took hands with the Hours | H |
Grew cold as a winter wave | I |
In the wind from a wide mouthed grave | I |
As a gulf wide open to swallow | J |
The light that the world held dear | K |
O father of all of us Paian Apollo | J |
Destroyer and healer hear | L |
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Age on age thy mouth was mute thy face was hidden | M |
And the lips and eyes that loved thee blind and dumb | N |
Song forsook their tongues that held thy name forbidden | M |
Light their eyes that saw the strange God's kingdom come | N |
Fire for light and hell for heaven and psalms for p ans | H |
Filled the clearest eyes and lips most sweet of song | O |
When for chant of Greeks the wail of Galileans | H |
Made the whole world moan with hymns of wrath and wrong | O |
Yea not yet we see thee father as they saw thee | P |
They that worshipped when the world was theirs and thine | B |
They whose words had power by thine own power to draw thee | P |
Down from heaven till earth seemed more than heaven divine | B |
For the shades are about us that hover | E |
When darkness is half withdrawn | Q |
And the skirts of the dead night cover | E |
The face of the live new dawn | Q |
For the past is not utterly past | R |
Though the word on its lips be the last | R |
And the time be gone by with its creed | S |
When men were as beasts that bleed | S |
As sheep or as swine that wallow | J |
In the shambles of faith and of fear | K |
O father of all of us Paian Apollo | J |
Destroyer and healer hear | L |
- | |
Yet it may be lord and father could we know it | T |
We that love thee for our darkness shall have light | A |
More than ever prophet hailed of old or poet | U |
Standing crowned and robed and sovereign in thy sight | A |
To the likeness of one God their dreams enthralled thee | P |
Who wast greater than all Gods that waned and grew | V |
Son of God the shining son of Time they called thee | P |
Who wast older O our father than they knew | V |
For no thought of man made Gods to love or honour | V |
Ere the song within the silent soul began | W |
Nor might earth in dream or deed take heaven upon her | V |
Till the word was clothed with speech by lips of man | W |
And the word and the life wast thou | X |
The spirit of man and the breath | Y |
And before thee the Gods that bow | X |
Take life at thine hands and death | Y |
For these are as ghosts that wane | Z |
That are gone in an age or twain | Z |
Harsh merciful passionate pure | V |
They perish but thou shalt endure | V |
Be their flight with the swan or the swallow | J |
They pass as the flight of a year | V |
O father of all of us Paian Apollo | J |
Destroyer and healer hear | V |
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Thou the word the light the life the breath the glory | V |
Strong to help and heal to lighten and to slay | A2 |
Thine is all the song of man the world's whole story | V |
Not of morning and of evening is thy day | A2 |
Old and younger Gods are buried or begotten | B2 |
From uprising to downsetting of thy sun | M |
Risen from eastward fallen to westward and forgotten | M |
And their springs are many but their end is one | M |
Divers births of godheads find one death appointed | C2 |
As the soul whence each was born makes room for each | D2 |
God by God goes out discrowned and disanointed | C2 |
But the soul stands fast that gave them shape and speech | D2 |
Is the sun yet cast out of heaven | M |
Is the song yet cast out of man | W |
Life that had song for its leaven | M |
To quicken the blood that ran | W |
Through the veins of the songless years | H |
More bitter and cold than tears | H |
Heaven that had thee for its one | M |
Light life word witness O sun | M |
Are they soundless and sightless and hollow | J |
Without eye without speech without ear | V |
O father of all of us Paian Apollo | J |
Destroyer and healer hear | V |
- | |
Time arose and smote thee silent at his warning | C |
Change and darkness fell on men that fell from thee | V |
Dark thou satest veiled with light behind the morning | C |
Till the soul of man should lift up eyes and see | V |
Till the blind mute soul get speech again and eyesight | C2 |
Man may worship not the light of life within | B2 |
In his sight the stars whose fires grow dark in thy sight | C2 |
Shine as sunbeams on the night of death and sin | B2 |
Time again is risen with mightier word of warning | C |
Change hath blown again a blast of louder breath | Y |
Clothed with clouds and stars and dreams that melt in morning | C |
Lo the Gods that ruled by grace of sin and death | Y |
They are conquered they break they are stricken | M |
Whose might made the whole world pale | E2 |
They are dust that shall rise not or quicken | M |
Though the world for their death's sake wail | E2 |
As a hound on a wild beast's trace | H |
So time has their godhead in chase | H |
As wolves when the hunt makes head | C2 |
They are scattered they fly they are fled | C2 |
They are fled beyond hail beyond hollo | J |
And the cry of the chase and the cheer | V |
O father of all of us Paian Apollo | J |
Destroyer and healer hear | V |
- | |
Day by day thy shadow shines in heaven beholden | M |
Even the sun the shining shadow of thy face | H |
King the ways of heaven before thy feet grow golden | M |
God the soul of earth is kindled with thy grace | H |
In thy lips the speech of man whence Gods were fashioned | C2 |
In thy soul the thought that makes them and unmakes | H |
By thy light and heat incarnate and impassioned | C2 |
Soul to soul of man gives light for light and takes | H |
As they knew thy name of old time could we know it | C2 |
Healer called of sickness slayer invoked of wrong | O |
Light of eyes that saw thy light God king priest poet | C2 |
Song should bring thee back to heal us with thy song | O |
For thy kingdom is past not away | A2 |
Nor thy power from the place thereof hurled | C2 |
Out of heaven they shall cast not the day | A2 |
They shall cast not out song from the world | C2 |
By the song and the light they give | F2 |
We know thy works that they live | G2 |
With the gift thou hast given us of speech | D2 |
We praise we adore we beseech | D2 |
We arise at thy bidding and follow | J |
We cry to thee answer appear | V |
O father of all of us Paian Apollo | J |
Destroyer and healer hear | V |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1)
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