By The Waters Of Babylon Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDCDEDFGEGHGIJIJK JKLKLMLMMMMNMNONOPOP QPQRQSQRQTQTMTMUMUTU TVTVTWTXTXTXTYTYTYTT TTMTMTMTB C | A |
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Here where I dwell I waste to skin and bone | B |
The curse is come upon me and I waste | C |
In penal torment powerless to atone | B |
The curse is come on me which makes no haste | C |
And doth not tarry crushing both the proud | D |
Hard man and him the sinner double faced | C |
Look not upon me for my soul is bowed | D |
Within me as my body in this mire | E |
My soul crawls dumb struck sore bestead and cowed | D |
As Sodom and Gomorrah scourged by fire | F |
As Jericho before God's trumpet peal | G |
So we the elect ones perish in His ire | E |
Vainly we gird on sackcloth vainly kneel | G |
With famished faces toward Jerusalem | H |
His heart is shut against us not to feel | G |
His ears against our cry He shutteth them | I |
His hand He shorteneth that He will not save | J |
His law is loud against us to condemn | I |
And we as unclean bodies in the grave | J |
Inheriting corruption and the dark | K |
Are outcast from His presence which we crave | J |
Our Mercy hath departed from His Ark | K |
Our Glory hath departed from His rest | L |
Our Shield hath left us naked as a mark | K |
Unto all pitiless eyes made manifest | L |
Our very Father hath forsaken us | M |
Our God hath cast us from Him we oppress'd | L |
Unto our foes are even marvellous | M |
A hissing and a butt for pointing hands | M |
Whilst God Almighty hunts and grinds us thus | M |
For He hath scattered us in alien lands | M |
Our priests our princes our anointed king | N |
And bound us hand and foot with brazen bands | M |
Here while I sit my painful heart takes wing | N |
Home to the home land I may see no more | O |
Where milk and honey flow where waters spring | N |
And fail not where I dwelt in days of yore | O |
Under my fig tree and my fruitful vine | P |
There where my parents dwelt at ease before | O |
Now strangers press the olives that are mine | P |
Reap all the corners of my harvest field | Q |
And make their fat hearts wanton with my wine | P |
To them my trees to them my gardens yield | Q |
Their sweets and spices and their tender green | R |
O'er them in noontide heat outspread their shield | Q |
Yet these are they whose fathers had not been | S |
Housed with my dogs whom hip and thigh we smote | Q |
And with their blood washed their pollutions clean | R |
Purging the land which spewed them from its throat | Q |
Their daughters took we for a pleasant prey | T |
Choice tender ones on whom the fathers dote | Q |
Now they in turn have led our own away | T |
Our daughters and our sisters and our wives | M |
Sore weeping as they weep who curse the day | T |
To live remote from help dishonoured lives | M |
Soothing their drunken masters with a song | U |
Or dancing in their golden tinkling gyves | M |
Accurst if they remember through the long | U |
Estrangement of their exile twice accursed | T |
If they forget and join the accursed throng | U |
How doth my heart that is so wrung not burst | T |
When I remember that my way was plain | V |
And that God's candle lit me at the first | T |
Whilst now I grope in darkness grope in vain | V |
Desiring but to find Him Who is lost | T |
To find him once again but once again | W |
His wrath came on us to the uttermost | T |
His covenanted and most righteous wrath | X |
Yet this is He of Whom we made our boast | T |
Who lit the Fiery Pillar in our path | X |
Who swept the Red Sea dry before our feet | T |
Who in His jealousy smote kings and hath | X |
Sworn once to David One shall fill thy seat | T |
Born of thy body as the sun and moon | Y |
'Stablished for aye in sovereignty complete | T |
O Lord remember David and that soon | Y |
The Glory hath departed Ichabod | T |
Yet now before our sun grow dark at noon | Y |
Before we come to nought beneath Thy rod | T |
Before we go down quick into the pit | T |
Remember us for good O God our God | T |
Thy Name will I remember praising it | T |
Though Thou forget me though Thou hide Thy face | M |
And blot me from the Book which Thou hast writ | T |
Thy Name will I remember in my praise | M |
And call to mind Thy faithfulness of old | T |
Though as a weaver Thou cut off my days | M |
And end me as a tale ends that is told | T |
Christina Rossetti
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