The Last Oracle Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFDGDGHHII JKJL MNMNHOHOPBPBEQEQRRSS JKJL TAUAPVPVVWVWXYXYZZVV JVJV VA2VA2B2MMMC2D2C2D2M WMWHHMMJVJV CVCVC2B2C2B2CYCYME2M E2HHC2C2JVJV MHMHC2HC2HC2OC2OA2C2 A2C2F2G2D2D2JVJV

Years have risen and fallen in darkness or in twilightA
Ages waxed and waned that knew not thee nor thineB
While the world sought light by night and sought not thy lightA
Since the sad last pilgrim left thy dark mid shrineB
Dark the shrine and dumb the fount of song thence wellingC
Save for words more sad than tears of blood that saidD
Tell the king on earth has fallen the glorious dwellingC
And the watersprings that spake are quenched and deadD
Not a cell is left the God no roof no coverE
In his hand the prophet laurel flowers no moreF
And the great king's high sad heart thy true last loverE
Felt thine answer pierce and cleave it to the coreF
And he bowed down his hopeless headD
In the drift of the wild world's tideG
And dying Thou hast conquered he saidD
Galilean he said it and diedG
And the world that was thine and was oursH
When the Graces took hands with the HoursH
Grew cold as a winter waveI
In the wind from a wide mouthed graveI
As a gulf wide open to swallowJ
The light that the world held dearK
O father of all of us Paian ApolloJ
Destroyer and healer hearL
-
Age on age thy mouth was mute thy face was hiddenM
And the lips and eyes that loved thee blind and dumbN
Song forsook their tongues that held thy name forbiddenM
Light their eyes that saw the strange God's kingdom comeN
Fire for light and hell for heaven and psalms for p ansH
Filled the clearest eyes and lips most sweet of songO
When for chant of Greeks the wail of GalileansH
Made the whole world moan with hymns of wrath and wrongO
Yea not yet we see thee father as they saw theeP
They that worshipped when the world was theirs and thineB
They whose words had power by thine own power to draw theeP
Down from heaven till earth seemed more than heaven divineB
For the shades are about us that hoverE
When darkness is half withdrawnQ
And the skirts of the dead night coverE
The face of the live new dawnQ
For the past is not utterly pastR
Though the word on its lips be the lastR
And the time be gone by with its creedS
When men were as beasts that bleedS
As sheep or as swine that wallowJ
In the shambles of faith and of fearK
O father of all of us Paian ApolloJ
Destroyer and healer hearL
-
Yet it may be lord and father could we know itT
We that love thee for our darkness shall have lightA
More than ever prophet hailed of old or poetU
Standing crowned and robed and sovereign in thy sightA
To the likeness of one God their dreams enthralled theeP
Who wast greater than all Gods that waned and grewV
Son of God the shining son of Time they called theeP
Who wast older O our father than they knewV
For no thought of man made Gods to love or honourV
Ere the song within the silent soul beganW
Nor might earth in dream or deed take heaven upon herV
Till the word was clothed with speech by lips of manW
And the word and the life wast thouX
The spirit of man and the breathY
And before thee the Gods that bowX
Take life at thine hands and deathY
For these are as ghosts that waneZ
That are gone in an age or twainZ
Harsh merciful passionate pureV
They perish but thou shalt endureV
Be their flight with the swan or the swallowJ
They pass as the flight of a yearV
O father of all of us Paian ApolloJ
Destroyer and healer hearV
-
Thou the word the light the life the breath the gloryV
Strong to help and heal to lighten and to slayA2
Thine is all the song of man the world's whole storyV
Not of morning and of evening is thy dayA2
Old and younger Gods are buried or begottenB2
From uprising to downsetting of thy sunM
Risen from eastward fallen to westward and forgottenM
And their springs are many but their end is oneM
Divers births of godheads find one death appointedC2
As the soul whence each was born makes room for eachD2
God by God goes out discrowned and disanointedC2
But the soul stands fast that gave them shape and speechD2
Is the sun yet cast out of heavenM
Is the song yet cast out of manW
Life that had song for its leavenM
To quicken the blood that ranW
Through the veins of the songless yearsH
More bitter and cold than tearsH
Heaven that had thee for its oneM
Light life word witness O sunM
Are they soundless and sightless and hollowJ
Without eye without speech without earV
O father of all of us Paian ApolloJ
Destroyer and healer hearV
-
Time arose and smote thee silent at his warningC
Change and darkness fell on men that fell from theeV
Dark thou satest veiled with light behind the morningC
Till the soul of man should lift up eyes and seeV
Till the blind mute soul get speech again and eyesightC2
Man may worship not the light of life withinB2
In his sight the stars whose fires grow dark in thy sightC2
Shine as sunbeams on the night of death and sinB2
Time again is risen with mightier word of warningC
Change hath blown again a blast of louder breathY
Clothed with clouds and stars and dreams that melt in morningC
Lo the Gods that ruled by grace of sin and deathY
They are conquered they break they are strickenM
Whose might made the whole world paleE2
They are dust that shall rise not or quickenM
Though the world for their death's sake wailE2
As a hound on a wild beast's traceH
So time has their godhead in chaseH
As wolves when the hunt makes headC2
They are scattered they fly they are fledC2
They are fled beyond hail beyond holloJ
And the cry of the chase and the cheerV
O father of all of us Paian ApolloJ
Destroyer and healer hearV
-
Day by day thy shadow shines in heaven beholdenM
Even the sun the shining shadow of thy faceH
King the ways of heaven before thy feet grow goldenM
God the soul of earth is kindled with thy graceH
In thy lips the speech of man whence Gods were fashionedC2
In thy soul the thought that makes them and unmakesH
By thy light and heat incarnate and impassionedC2
Soul to soul of man gives light for light and takesH
As they knew thy name of old time could we know itC2
Healer called of sickness slayer invoked of wrongO
Light of eyes that saw thy light God king priest poetC2
Song should bring thee back to heal us with thy songO
For thy kingdom is past not awayA2
Nor thy power from the place thereof hurledC2
Out of heaven they shall cast not the dayA2
They shall cast not out song from the worldC2
By the song and the light they giveF2
We know thy works that they liveG2
With the gift thou hast given us of speechD2
We praise we adore we beseechD2
We arise at thy bidding and followJ
We cry to thee answer appearV
O father of all of us Paian ApolloJ
Destroyer and healer hearV

Algernon Charles Swinburne



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