Shakespeare Himself: For The Unveiling Of Mr. Partridge's Statue Of The Poet Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABACDBDEDEFEFGFG DGDHHHIH IJIKLJLHMH NHNOPOHQHRHSHBHHHH THUHUHHHHVHVWVWHW HWHWWWWWWW XWYZXZA2ZA2HA2 HHHHB2HB2BB2C2

The body is no prison where we lieA
Shut out from our true heritage of sunB
It is the wings wherewith the soul may flyA
Save through this flesh so scorned and spat uponC
No ray of light had reached the caverned mindD
No thrill of pleasure through the life had runB
No love of nature or of humankindD
Were it but love of self had stirred the heartE
To its first deed Such freedom as we findD
We find but through its service not apartE
And as an eagle's wings upbear him higherF
Than Andes or Himalaya and chartE
Rivers and seas beneath so our desireF
With more celestial members yet may soarG
Into the space of empyrean fireF
Still bodied but more richly than beforeG
-
The body is the man what lurks behindD
Through it alone unveils itself ThereforeG
We are not wrong who seek to keep in mindD
The form and feature of the mighty deadH
So back of all the giving is divinedH
The giver back of all things done or saidH
The man himself in elemental speechI
Of flesh and bone and sinew utter dH
-
This is thy language Sculpture Thine to reachI
Beneath all thoughts all feelings all desiresJ
To that which thinks and lives and loves and teachI
The world the primal selfhood of its siresK
Its heroes and its lovers and its godsL
So shall Apollo flame in marble firesJ
The mien of Zeus suffice before he nodsL
So Gautama in ivory dream outH
The calm of Time's untrammelled periodsM
So Sigurd's lips be in themselves a shoutH
-
Mould us our Shakespeare sculptor in the formN
His comrades knew rare Ben and all the routH
That found the taproom of the Mermaid warmN
With wit and wine and fellowship the faceO
Wherein the men he chummed with found a charmP
To make them love him carve for us the graceO
That caught Anne Hathaway in Shottery sideH
The hand that clasped Southampton's in the daysQ
Ere that dark dame of passion and of prideH
Burned in his heart the brand of her disdainR
The eyes that wept when little Hamnet diedH
The lips that learned from Marlowe's and againS
Taught riper lore to Fletcher and the restH
The presence and demeanor sovereignB
At last at Stratford calm and manifestH
That rested on the seventh day and scannedH
His work and knew it good and left the questH
And like his own enchanter broke his wandH
-
No viewless mind The very shape no lessT
He used to speak and smile with move and standH
God is most God not in his lonelinessU
Unfellowed discreationed unrevealedH
Nor thundering on Sinai pitilessU
Nor when the seven vials are unsealedH
But when his spirit companions with our thoughtH
And in his fellowship our pain is healedH
And we are likest God when we are broughtH
Most near to all men Bring us near to himV
The gentle human soul whose calm might wroughtH
Imperious Lear and made our eyes grow dimV
For Imogen who though he heard the spheresW
Still choiring to the young eyed cherubimV
Could laugh with Falstaff and his loose compeersW
And love the rascal with the same big heartH
That o'er Cordelia could not stay its tearsW
-
For still the man is greater than his artH
And though thy men and women Shakespeare riseW
Like giants in our fancy and departH
Thyself art more than all their masteriesW
Thy wisdom more than Hamlet's questioningsW
Or the cold searching of Ulysses' eyesW
Thy mirth more sweet than Benedick's flouts and flingsW
Thy smiling dearer than Mercutio'sW
Thy dignity past that of all thy kingsW
And thy enchantment more than Prospero'sW
-
For thou couldst not have had Othello's flawX
Not erred with Brutus greater then than thoseW
For all their nobleness Oh albeit with aweY
Leave we the mighty phantoms and draw nearZ
The man that fashioned them and gave them lawX
The Master Poet found with scarce a peerZ
In all the ages his domain to shareA2
Yet of all singers gentlest and most dearZ
Oh how shall words thy proper praise declareA2
Divine in thy supreme humanityH
And near as the inevitable airA2
-
So he that wrought this image deemed of theeH
So I thy lover keep thee in my heartH
So may this figure set for men to seeH
Where the world passes eager for the martH
Be as a sudden insight of the soulB2
That makes a darkness into order startH
And lift thee up for all men fair and wholeB2
Till scholar merchant farmer artisanB
Seeing divine beneath the aureoleB2
The fellow heart and know thee for a manC2

Bliss Carman (william)



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