Pilate's Wife's Dream. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCC DEDEFF GHGHII JKJLII MNONJJ PQPQRR SISIRR KTKTNN UEUEFF JIJIVV WXWXEE YTYTZZ A2TB2TII C2D2C2E2NN F2PF2PG2G2 IH2II2J2J2 JIJIZK2 L2JL2JM2M2 TITIN2N2 FO2FDTT P2IP2IWW QEQEJJ QKQKQ2R2 S2QS2QQQ IRIRSS T2T2NNIII've quench'd my lamp I struck it in that start | A |
Which every limb convulsed I heard it fall | B |
The crash blent with my sleep I saw depart | A |
Its light even as I woke on yonder wall | B |
Over against my bed there shone a gleam | C |
Strange faint and mingling also with my dream | C |
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It sank and I am wrapt in utter gloom | D |
How far is night advanced and when will day | E |
Retinge the dusk and livid air with bloom | D |
And fill this void with warm creative ray | E |
Would I could sleep again till clear and red | F |
Morning shall on the mountain tops be spread | F |
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I'd call my women but to break their sleep | G |
Because my own is broken were unjust | H |
They've wrought all day and well earn'd slumbers steep | G |
Their labours in forgetfulness I trust | H |
Let me my feverish watch with patience bear | I |
Thankful that none with me its sufferings share | I |
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Yet oh for light one ray would tranquillize | J |
My nerves my pulses more than effort can | K |
I'll draw my curtain and consult the skies | J |
These trembling stars at dead of night look wan | L |
Wild restless strange yet cannot be more drear | I |
Than this my couch shared by a nameless fear | I |
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All black one great cloud drawn from east to west | M |
Conceals the heavens but there are lights below | N |
Torches burn in Jerusalem and cast | O |
On yonder stony mount a lurid glow | N |
I see men station'd there and gleaming spears | J |
A sound too from afar invades my ears | J |
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Dull measured strokes of axe and hammer ring | P |
From street to street not loud but through the night | Q |
Distinctly heard and some strange spectral thing | P |
Is now uprear'd and fix'd against the light | Q |
Of the pale lamps defined upon that sky | R |
It stands up like a column straight and high | R |
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I see it all I know the dusky sign | S |
A cross on Calvary which Jews uprear | I |
While Romans watch and when the dawn shall shine | S |
Pilate to judge the victim will appear | I |
Pass sentence yield Him up to crucify | R |
And on that cross the spotless Christ must die | R |
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Dreams then are true for thus my vision ran | K |
Surely some oracle has been with me | T |
The gods have chosen me to reveal their plan | K |
To warn an unjust judge of destiny | T |
I slumbering heard and saw awake I know | N |
Christ's coming death and Pilate's life of woe | N |
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I do not weep for Pilate who could prove | U |
Regret for him whose cold and crushing sway | E |
No prayer can soften no appeal can move | U |
Who tramples hearts as others trample clay | E |
Yet with a faltering an uncertain tread | F |
That might stir up reprisal in the dead | F |
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Forced to sit by his side and see his deeds | J |
Forced to behold that visage hour by hour | I |
In whose gaunt lines the abhorrent gazer reads | J |
A triple lust of gold and blood and power | I |
A soul whom motives fierce yet abject urge | V |
Rome's servile slave and Judah's tyrant scourge | V |
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How can I love or mourn or pity him | W |
I who so long my fetter'd hands have wrung | X |
I who for grief have wept my eyesight dim | W |
Because while life for me was bright and young | X |
He robb'd my youth he quench'd my life's fair ray | E |
He crush'd my mind and did my freedom slay | E |
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And at this hour although I be his wife | Y |
He has no more of tenderness from me | T |
Than any other wretch of guilty life | Y |
Less for I know his household privacy | T |
I see him as he is without a screen | Z |
And by the gods my soul abhors his mien | Z |
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Has he not sought my presence dyed in blood | A2 |
Innocent righteous blood shed shamelessly | T |
And have I not his red salute withstood | B2 |
Ay when as erst he plunged all Galilee | T |
In dark bereavement in affliction sore | I |
Mingling their very offerings with their gore | I |
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Then came he in his eyes a serpent smile | C2 |
Upon his lips some false endearing word | D2 |
And through the streets of Salem clang'd the while | C2 |
His slaughtering hacking sacrilegious sword | E2 |
And I to see a man cause men such woe | N |
Trembled with ire I did not fear to show | N |
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And now the envious Jewish priests have brought | F2 |
Jesus whom they in mock'ry call their king | P |
To have by this grim power their vengeance wrought | F2 |
By this mean reptile innocence to sting | P |
Oh could I but the purposed doom avert | G2 |
And shield the blameless head from cruel hurt | G2 |
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Accessible is Pilate's heart to fear | I |
Omens will shake his soul like autumn leaf | H2 |
Could he this night's appalling vision hear | I |
This just man's bonds were loosed his life were safe | I2 |
Unless that bitter priesthood should prevail | J2 |
And make even terror to their malice quail | J2 |
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Yet if I tell the dream but let me pause | J |
What dream Erewhile the characters were clear | I |
Graved on my brain at once some unknown cause | J |
Has dimm'd and razed the thoughts which now appear | I |
Like a vague remnant of some by past scene | Z |
Not what will be but what long since has been | K2 |
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I suffer'd many things I heard foretold | L2 |
A dreadful doom for Pilate lingering woes | J |
In far barbarian climes where mountains cold | L2 |
Built up a solitude of trackless snows | J |
There he and grisly wolves prowl'd side by side | M2 |
There he lived famish'd there methought he died | M2 |
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But not of hunger nor by malady | T |
I saw the snow around him stain'd with gore | I |
I said I had no tears for such as he | T |
And lo my cheek is wet mine eyes run o'er | I |
I weep for mortal suffering mortal guilt | N2 |
I weep the impious deed the blood self spilt | N2 |
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More I recall not yet the vision spread | F |
Into a world remote an age to come | O2 |
And still the illumined name of Jesus shed | F |
A light a clearness through the unfolding gloom | D |
And still I saw that sign which now I see | T |
That cross on yonder brow of Calvary | T |
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What is this Hebrew Christ to me unknown | P2 |
His lineage doctrine mission yet how clear | I |
Is God like goodness in his actions shown | P2 |
How straight and stainless is his life's career | I |
The ray of Deity that rests on him | W |
In my eyes makes Olympian glory dim | W |
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The world advances Greek or Roman rite | Q |
Suffices not the inquiring mind to stay | E |
The searching soul demands a purer light | Q |
To guide it on its upward onward way | E |
Ashamed of sculptured gods Religion turns | J |
To where the unseen Jehovah's altar burns | J |
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Our faith is rotten all our rites defiled | Q |
Our temples sullied and methinks this man | K |
With his new ordinance so wise and mild | Q |
Is come even as He says the chaff to fan | K |
And sever from the wheat but will his faith | Q2 |
Survive the terrors of to morrow's death | R2 |
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I feel a firmer trust a higher hope | S2 |
Rise in my soul it dawns with dawning day | Q |
Lo on the Temple's roof on Moriah's slope | S2 |
Appears at length that clear and crimson ray | Q |
Which I so wished for when shut in by night | Q |
Oh opening skies I hail I bless pour light | Q |
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Part clouds and shadows Glorious Sun appear | I |
Part mental gloom Come insight from on high | R |
Dusk dawn in heaven still strives with daylight clear | I |
The longing soul doth still uncertain sigh | R |
Oh to behold the truth that sun divine | S |
How doth my bosom pant my spirit pine | S |
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This day Time travails with a mighty birth | T2 |
This day Truth stoops from heaven and visits earth | T2 |
Ere night descends I shall more surely know | N |
What guide to follow in what path to go | N |
I wait in hope I wait in solemn fear | I |
The oracle of God the sole true God to hear | I |
Charlotte Bronte
(1)
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