Vivia Perpetua Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMN OPQRSTUVWXYZBA2B2A2C 2D2E2F2G2GH2I2J2YRK2 L2C2M2BN2BO2P2Q2R2 D2S2BT2U2CBT2V2W2X2Y 2Z2A3 B3T2C3GD3IE3F3F2BYG3 T2H3I3T2GBB3BJ3GP2T2 T2K3T2F2Z2GL3 T2YT2T2 P2M3N3O3P3 I3K2T2I3T2I3I3L2F2I3 Q3R3BI3I3I3T2I3I3F2S 3I3I3T2I3S2M3I3CI3I3 I3T2I3T2T3I3K2T2I3U3 T2S2 V3W3I3GT2X3I3 T2I3T2T2I3BT2T2 I3I3T2I3I3JI3M3BT2Y3 BI3 Z3BQ3I3T2I3T2G3T2I3I 3I3T2BI3T2I3A4I3X2L2 T2BGB4C4I3I3R3Y2T2I3 T2I3T2T2D3I3K3D4T2GT 2I3I3E4L2BF4G4I3H4Z2 T2T2I3S2T2I3I3I3Y2T2 I4C4X3J3I3I3I3J4P2BT 2X3BT2T2I3F2I3T2BS2I 3K4T2I3CS2I3BI3T2T2T 2L4I3T2S2I3Z2M4CF2T2 T2 I3I3BBM4N4T2T2SP2T2I 3R3T2 I3BI3M4I3I3T2GT2I3BQ 3S3B I3I3BS2T2Y3I3I3I3T2I 3O4S2T2T2P2M4T2M4 P4I3M3I3I3I3QI3M4I3T 2T2T2I3BF2M4I3T2I3Q4 M4T2BS2I3QI3W3I3 I3T2I3R4BS4I3I3BT4I3 T2T2I3T2F2I3S2K2I3 T2I3K2T2T2Z2

Now being on the eve of death discharged	A
From every mortal hope and earthly care	B
I questioned how my soul might best employ	C
This hand and this still wakeful flame of mind	D
In the brief hours yet left me for their use	E
Wherefore have I bethought me of my friend	F
Of you Philarchus and your company	G
Yet wavering in the faith and unconfirmed	H
Perchance that I may break into thine heart	I
Some sorrowful channel for the love divine	J
I make this simple record of our proof	K
In diverse sufferings for the name of Christ	L
Whereof the end already for the most	M
Is death this day with steadfast faith endured	N
	-
We were in prison many days close pent	O
In the black lower dungeon housed with thieves	P
And murderers and divers evil men	Q
So foul a pressure we had almost died	R
Even there in struggle for the breath of life	S
Amid the stench and unendurable heat	T
Nor could we find each other save by voice	U
Or touch to know that we were yet alive	V
So terrible was the darkness Yea 'twas hard	W
To keep the sacred courage in our hearts	X
When all was blind with that unchanging night	Y
And foul with death and on our ears the taunts	Z
And ribald curses of the soldiery	B
Fell mingled with the prisoners' cries a load	A2
Sharper to bear more bitter than their blows	B2
At first what with that dread of our abode	A2
Our sudden apprehension and the threats	C2
Ringing perpetually in our ears we lost	D2
The living fire of faith and like poor hinds	E2
Would have denied our Lord and fallen away	F2
Even Perpetua whose joyous faith	G2
Was in the later holier days to be	G
The stay and comfort of our weaker ones	H2
Was silent for long whiles Perchance she shrank	I2
In the mere sickness of the flesh confused	J2
And shaken by our new and horrible plight	Y
The tender flesh untempered and untried	R
Not quickened yet nor mastered by the soul	K2
For she was of a fair and delicate make	L2
Most gently nurtured to whom stripes and threats	C2
And our foul prison house were things undreamed	M2
But little by little as our spirits grew	B
Inured to suffering with clasped hands and tongues	N2
That cheered each other to incessant prayer	B
We rose and faced our trouble we recalled	O2
Our Master's sacred agony and death	P2
Setting before our eyes the high reward	Q2
Of steadfast faith the martyr's deathless crown	R2
	-
So passed some days whose length and count we lost	D2
Our bitterest trial Then a respite came	S2
One who had interest with the governor	B
Wrought our removal daily for some hours	T2
Into an upper chamber where we sat	U2
And held each other's hands in childish joy	C
Receiving the sweet gift of light and air	B
With wonder and exceeding thankfulness	T2
And then began that life of daily growth	V2
In mutual exaltation and sweet help	W2
That bore us as a gently widening stream	X2
Unto the ocean of our martyrdom	Y2
Uniting all our feebler souls in one	Z2
A mightier we reached forth with this to God	A3
	-
Perpetua had been troubled for her babe	B3
Robbed of the breast and now these many days	T2
Wasting for want of food but when that change	C3
Whereof I spake of light and liberty	G
Relieved the horror of our prison gloom	D3
They brought it to her and she sat apart	I
And nursed and tended it and soon the child	E3
Would not be parted from her arms but throve	F3
And fattened and she kept it night and day	F2
And always at her side with sleepless care	B
Hovered the young Felicitas a slight	Y
And spiritual figure every touch and tone	G3
Charged with premonitory tenderness	T2
Herself so near to her own motherhood	H3
Thus lightened and relieved Perpetua	I3
Recovered from her silent fit Her eyes	T2
Regained their former deep serenity	G
Her tongue its gentle daring for she knew	B
Her life should not be taken till her babe	B3
Had strengthened and outgrown the need of her	B
Daily we were amazed at her soft strength	J3
Her pliant and untroubled constancy	G
Her smiling soldierly contempt of death	P2
Her beauty and the sweetness of her voice	T2
	-
Her father when our first few bitterest days	T2
Were over like a gust of grief and rage	K3
Came to her in the prison with wild eyes	T2
And cried 'How mean you daughter when you say	F2
You are a Christian How can any one	Z2
Of honoured blood the child of such as me	G
Be Christian 'Tis an odious name the badge	L3
Only of outcasts and rebellious slaves '	-
And she grief touched but with unyielding gaze	T2
Showing the fulness of her slender height	Y
'This vessel father being what it is	T2
An earthen pitcher would you call it thus	T2
Or would you name it by some other name '	-
'Nay surely ' said the old man catching breath	P2
And pausing and she answered 'Nor can I	M3
Call myself aught but what I surely am	N3
A Christian ' and her father flashing back	O3
In silent anger left her for that time	P3
	-
A special favour to Perpetua	I3
Seemed daily to be given and her soul	K2
Was made the frequent vessel of God's grace	T2
Wherefrom we all less gifted sore athirst	I3
Drank courage and fresh joy for glowing dreams	T2
Were sent her full of forms august and fraught	I3
With signs and symbols of the glorious end	I3
Whereto God's love hath aimed us for Christ's sake	L2
Once at what hour I know not for we lay	F2
In that foul dungeon where all hours were lost	I3
And day and night were indistinguishable	Q3
We had been sitting a long silent while	R3
Some lightly sleeping others bowed in prayer	B
When on a sudden like a voice from God	I3
Perpetua spake to us and all were roused	I3
Her voice was rapt and solemn 'Friends ' she said	I3
'Some word hath come to me in a dream I saw	T2
A ladder leading to heaven all of gold	I3
Hung up with lances swords and hooks A land	I3
Of darkness and exceeding peril lay	F2
Around it and a dragon fierce as hell	S3
Guarded its foot We doubted who should first	I3
Essay it but you Saturus at last	I3
So God hath marked you for especial grace	T2
Advancing and against the cruel beast	I3
Aiming the potent weapon of Christ's name	S2
Mounted and took me by the hand and I	M3
The next one following and so the rest	I3
In order and we entered with great joy	C
Into a spacious garden filled with light	I3
And balmy presences of love and rest	I3
And there an old man sat smooth browed white haired	I3
Surrounded by unnumbered myriads	T2
Of spiritual shapes and faces angel eyed	I3
Milking his sheep and lifting up his eyes	T2
He welcomed us in strange and beautiful speech	T3
Unknown yet comprehended for it flowed	I3
Not through the ears but forth right to the soul	K2
God's language of pure love Between the lips	T2
Of each he placed a morsel of sweet curd	I3
And while the curd was yet within my mouth	U3
I woke and still the taste of it remains	T2
Through all my body flowing like white flame	S2
Sweet as of some immaculate spiritual thing '	-
And when Perpetua had spoken all	V3
Were silent in the darkness pondering	W3
But Saturus spake gently for the rest	I3
'How perfect and acceptable must be	G
Your soul to God Perpetua that thus	T2
He bends to you and through you speaks his will	X3
We know now that our martyrdom is fixed	I3
Nor need we vex us further for this life '	-
	-
While yet these thoughts were bright upon our souls	T2
There came the rumour that a day was set	I3
To hear us Many of our former friends	T2
Some with entreaties some with taunts and threats	T2
Came to us to pervert us with the rest	I3
Again Perpetua's father worn with care	B
Nor could we choose but pity his distress	T2
So miserably with abject cries and tears	T2
He fondled her and called her 'Domina '	-
And bowed his ag d body at her feet	I3
Beseeching her by all the names she loved	I3
To think of him his fostering care his years	T2
And also of her babe whose life he said	I3
Would fail without her but Perpetua	I3
Sustaining by a gift of strength divine	J
The fulness of her noble fortitude	I3
Answered him tenderly 'Both you and I	M3
And all of us my father at this hour	B
Are equally in God's hands and what he wills	T2
Must be' but when the poor old man was gone	Y3
She wept and knelt for many hours in prayer	B
Sore tried and troubled by her tender heart	I3
	-
One day while we were at our midday meal	Z3
Our cell was entered by the soldiery	B
And we were seized and borne away for trial	Q3
A surging crowd had gathered and we passed	I3
From street to street hemmed in by tossing heads	T2
And faces cold or cruel yet we caught	I3
At moments from masked lips and furtive eyes	T2
Of friends some known to as and some unknown	G3
Many veiled messages of love and praise	T2
The floorways of the long basilica	I3
Fronted us with an angry multitude	I3
And scornful eyes and threatening foreheads frowned	I3
In hundreds from the columned galleries	T2
We were placed all together at the bar	B
And though at first unsteadied and confused	I3
By the imperial presence of the law	T2
The pomp of judgment and the staring crowd	I3
None failed or faltered with unshaken tongue	A4
Each met the stern Proconsul's brief demand	I3
In clear profession Rapt as in a dream	X2
Scarce conscious of my turn nor how I spake	L2
I watched with wondering eyes the delicate face	T2
And figure of Perpetua for her	B
We that were youngest of our company	G
Loved with a sacred and absorbing love	B4
A passion that our martyr's brotherly vow	C4
Had purified and made divine She stood	I3
In dreamy contemplation slightly bowed	I3
A glowing stillness that was near a smile	R3
Upon her soft closed lips Her turn had come	Y2
When like a puppet struggling up the steps	T2
Her father from the pierced and swaying crowd	I3
Appeared unveiling in his ag d arms	T2
The smiling visage of her babe He grasped	I3
Her robe and strove to draw her down All eyes	T2
Were bent upon her With a softening glance	T2
And voice less cold and heavy with death's doom	D3
The old Proconsul turned to her and said	I3
'Lady have pity on your father's age	K3
Be mindful of your tender babe this grain	D4
Of harmless incense offer for the peace	T2
And welfare of the Emperor' but she	G
Lifting far forth her large and noteless eyes	T2
As one that saw a vision only said	I3
'I cannot sacrifice' and he harsh tongued	I3
Bending a brow upon her rough as rock	E4
With eyes that struck like steel seeking to break	L2
Or snare her with a sudden stroke of fear	B
'Art thou a Christian ' and she answered 'Yea	F4
I am a Christian ' In brow blackening wrath	G4
He motioned a contemptuous hand and bade	I3
The lictors scourge the old man down and forth	H4
With rods and as the cruel deed was done	Z2
Perpetua stood white with quivering lips	T2
And her eyes filled with tears While yet his cries	T2
Were mingling with the curses of the crowd	I3
Hilarianus calling name by name	S2
Gave sentence and in cold and formal phrase	T2
Condemned us to the beasts and we returned	I3
Rejoicing to our prison Then we wished	I3
Our martyrdom could soon have followed not	I3
As doubting for our constancy but some	Y2
Grew sick under the anxious long suspense	T2
Perpetua again was weighed upon	I4
By grief and trouble for her babe whom now	C4
Her father seeking to depress her will	X3
Withheld and would not send it but at length	J3
Word being brought her that the child indeed	I3
No longer suffered nor desired the breast	I3
Her peace returned and giving thanks to God	I3
All were united in new bonds of hope	J4
Now being fixed in certitude of death	P2
We stripped our souls of all their earthly gear	B
The useless raiment of this world and thus	T2
Striving together with a single will	X3
In daily increment of faith and power	B
We were much comforted by heavenly dreams	T2
And waking visitations of God's grace	T2
Visions of light and glory infinite	I3
Were frequent with us and by night or day	F2
Woke at the very name of Christ the Lord	I3
Taken at any moment on our lips	T2
So that we had no longer thought or care	B
Of life or of the living but became	S2
As spirits from this earth already freed	I3
Scarce conscious of the dwindling weight of flesh	K4
To Saturus appeared in dreams the space	T2
And splendour of the heavenly house of God	I3
The glowing gardens of eternal joy	C
The halls and chambers of the cherubim	S2
In wreaths of endless myriads involved	I3
The blinding glory of the angel choir	B
Rolling through deeps of wheeling cloud and light	I3
The thunder of their vast antiphonies	T2
The visions of Perpetua not less	T2
Possessed us with their homely tenderness	T2
As one wherein she saw a rock set pool	L4
And weeping o'er its rim a little child	I3
Her brother long since dead Dinocrates	T2
Though sore athirst he could not reach the stream	S2
Being so small and her heart grieved thereat	I3
She looked again and lo the pool had risen	Z2
And the child filled his goblet and drank deep	M4
And prattling in a tender childish joy	C
Ran gaily off as infants do to play	F2
By this she knew his soul had found release	T2
From torment and had entered into bliss	T2
	-
Quickly as by a merciful gift of God	I3
Our vigil passed unbroken Yesternight	I3
They moved us to the amphitheatre	B
Our final lodging place on earth and there	B
We sat together at our agap	M4
For the last time In silence rapt and pale	N4
We hearkened to the aged Saturus	T2
Whose speech touched with a ghostly eloquence	T2
Canvassed the fraud and littleness of life	S
God's goodness and the solemn joy of death	P2
Perpetua was silent but her eyes	T2
Fell gently upon each of us suffused	I3
With inward and eradiant light a smile	R3
Played often upon her lips	T2
	-
While yet we sat	I3
A tribune with a band of soldiery	B
Entered our cell and would have had us bound	I3
In harsher durance fearing our escape	M4
By fraud or witchcraft but Perpetua	I3
Facing him gently with a noble note	I3
Of wonder in her voice and on her lips	T2
A lingering smile of mournful irony	G
'Sir are ye not unwise to harass us	T2
And rob us of our natural food and rest	I3
Should ye not rather tend us with soft care	B
And so provide a comely spectacle	Q3
We shall not honour C sar's birthday well	S3
If we be waste and weak a piteous crew	B
Poor playthings for your proud and pampered beasts '	-
The noisy tribune whether touched indeed	I3
Or by her grave and tender grace abashed	I3
Muttered and stormed a while and then withdrew	B
The short night passed in wakeful prayer for some	S2
For others in brief sleep broken by dreams	T2
And spiritual visitations Earliest dawn	Y3
Found us arisen and Perpetua	I3
Moving about with smiling lips soft tongued	I3
Besought us to take food lest so she said	I3
For all the strength and courage of our hearts	T2
Our bodies should fall faint We heard without	I3
Already ere the morning light was full	O4
The din of preparation and the hum	S2
Of voices gathering in the upper tiers	T2
Yet had we seen so often in our thoughts	T2
The picture of this strange and cruel death	P2
Its festal horror and its bloody pomp	M4
The nearness scarcely moved us and our hands	T2
Met in a steadfast and unshaken clasp	M4
	-
The day is over Ah my friend how long	P4
With its wild sounds and bloody sights it seemed	I3
Night comes and I am still alive even I	M3
The least and last with other two reserved	I3
To grace to morrow's second day The rest	I3
Have suffered and with holy rapture passed	I3
Into their glory Saturus and the men	Q
Were given to bears and leopards but the crowd	I3
Feasted their eyes upon no cowering shape	M4
Nor hue of fear nor painful cry They died	I3
Like arm d men face foremost to the beasts	T2
With prayers and sacred songs upon their lips	T2
Perpetua and the frail Felicitas	T2
Were seized before our eyes and roughly stripped	I3
And shrinking and entreating not for fear	B
Nor hurt but bitter shame were borne away	F2
Into the vast arena and hung up	M4
In nets naked before the multitude	I3
For a fierce bull maddened by goads to toss	T2
Some sudden tumult of compassion seized	I3
The crowd and a great murmur like a wave	Q4
Rose at the sight and grew and thundered up	M4
From tier to tier deep and imperious	T2
So white so innocent they were so pure	B
Their tender limbs so eloquent of shame	S2
And so our loved ones were brought back all faint	I3
And covered with light raiment and again	Q
Led forth and now with smiling lips they passed	I3
Pale but unbowed into the awful ring	W3
Holding each other proudly by the hand	I3
	-
Perpetua first was tossed and her robe rent	I3
But conscious only of the glaring eyes	T2
She strove to hide herself as best she could	I3
In the torn remnants of her flimsy robe	R4
And putting up her hands clasped back her hair	B
So that she might not die as one in grief	S4
Unseemly and dishevelled Then she turned	I3
And in her loving arms caressed and raised	I3
The dying bruised Felicitas Once more	B
Gored by the cruel beast they both were borne	T4
Swooning and mortally stricken from the field	I3
Perpetua pale and beautiful her lips	T2
Parted as in a lingering ecstasy	T2
Could not believe the end had come but asked	I3
When they were to be given to the beasts	T2
The keepers gathered round her even they	F2
In wondering pity while with fearless hand	I3
Bidding us all be faithful and stand firm	S2
She bared her breast and guided to its goal	K2
The gladiator's sword that pierced her heart	I3
	-
The night is passing In a few short hours	T2
I too shall suffer for the name of Christ	I3
A boundless exaltation lifts my soul	K2
I know that they who left us Saturus	T2
Perpetua and the other blessed ones	T2
Await me at the opening gates of heaven	Z2

Archibald Lampman

Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation

<< The City Of The End Of Things Poem Next Poem

Write your comment about Vivia Perpetua poem by Archibald Lampman

Best Poems of Archibald Lampman

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 15 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Wonderful Women
by Umaru Kanneh Boima
Freedom To Scratch In Peace
by Olute Aete
Happy New Year
by Felix Menda
Human Beings
by Dana Graslie
Lust
by Wisdom Greatness
An Isolated Tree's Song
by Sayeed Abubakar
A Strange Boy
by Sayeed Abubakar
O Soil
by Sayeed Abubakar
No War, No War-monger
by Sayeed Abubakar
Night's Town
by Sayeed Abubakar

Popular Poets

1. Emily Dickinson(2414 poems)
2. Madison Julius Cawein(1231 poems)
3. Ella Wheeler Wilcox(1136 poems)
4. William Wordsworth(1016 poems)
5. Robert Burns(986 poems)
6. Edgar Albert Guest(945 poems)
7. Thomas Moore(849 poems)
8. Robert Service(831 poems)