Before The Altar Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDEFFC CGHIGHJGKK JJGGLMLN MOOPNQQPGGKPRRSTRRP IGRRGG UU| Before the Altar bowed he stands | A |
| With empty hands | A |
| Upon it perfumed offerings burn | B |
| Wreathing with smoke the sacrificial urn | B |
| Not one of all these has he given | C |
| No flame of his has leapt to Heaven | C |
| Firesouled vermilion hearted | D |
| Forked and darted | E |
| Consuming what a few spare pence | F |
| Have cheaply bought to fling from hence | F |
| In idly asked petition | C |
| - | |
| His sole condition | C |
| Love and poverty | G |
| And while the moon | H |
| Swings slow across the sky | I |
| Athwart a waving pine tree | G |
| And soon | H |
| Tips all the needles there | J |
| With silver sparkles bitterly | G |
| He gazes while his soul | K |
| Grows hard with thinking of the poorness of his dole | K |
| - | |
| Shining and distant Goddess hear my prayer | J |
| Where you swim in the high air | J |
| With charity look down on me | G |
| Under this tree | G |
| Tending the gifts I have not brought | L |
| The rare and goodly things | M |
| I have not sought | L |
| Instead take from me all my life | N |
| - | |
| Upon the wings | M |
| Of shimmering moonbeams | O |
| I pack my poet's dreams | O |
| For you | P |
| My wearying strife | N |
| My courage my loss | Q |
| Into the night I toss | Q |
| For you | P |
| Golden Divinity | G |
| Deign to look down on me | G |
| Who so unworthily | K |
| Offers to you | P |
| All life has known | R |
| Seeds withered unsown | R |
| Hopes turning quick to fears | S |
| Laughter which dies in tears | T |
| The shredded remnant of a man | R |
| Is all the span | R |
| And compass of my offering to you | P |
| - | |
| Empty and silent I | I |
| Kneel before your pure calm majesty | G |
| On this stone in this urn | R |
| I pour my heart and watch it burn | R |
| Myself the sacrifice but be | G |
| Still unmoved Divinity | G |
| - | |
| From the altar bathed in moonlight | U |
| The smoke rose straight in the quiet night | U |
Amy Lowell
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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