The Burden Of Nineveh Poem Rhyme Scheme

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In our Museum galleries	A
To day I lingered o'er the prize	B
Dead Greece vouchsafes to living eyes	B
Her Art for ever in fresh wise	B
From hour to hour rejoicing me	C
Sighing I turned at last to win	D
Once more the London dirt and din	D
And as I made the swing door spin	D
And issued they were hoisting in	D
A wing d beast from Nineveh	E
A human face the creature wore	F
And hoofs behind and hoofs before	F
And flanks with dark runes fretted o'er	G
'Twas bull 'twas mitred Minotaur	G
A dead disbowelled mystery	G
The mummy of a buried faith	H
Stark from the charnel without scathe	H
Its wings stood for the light to bathe	H
Such fossil cerements as might swathe	H
The very corpse of Nineveh	E
The print of its first rush wrapping	I
Wound ere it dried still ribbed the thing	I
What song did the brown maidens sing	I
From purple mouths alternating	I
When that was woven languidly	J
What vows what rites what prayers preferr'd	K
What songs has the strange image heard	K
In what blind vigil stood interr'd	K
For ages till an English word	K
Broke silence first at Nineveh	E
Oh when upon each sculptured court	L
Where even the wind might not resort	L
O'er which Time passed of like import	L
With the wild Arab boys at sport	L
A living face looked in to see	G
Oh seemed it not the spell once broke	M
As though the carven warriors woke	M
As though the shaft the string forsook	N
The cymbals clashed the chariots shook	N
And there was life in Nineveh	E
On London stones our sun anew	O
The beast's recovered shadow threw	O
No shade that plague of darkness knew	O
No light no shade while older grew	O
By ages the old earth and sea	G
Lo thou could all thy priests have shown	P
Such proof to make thy godhead known	P
From their dead Past thou liv'st alone	P
And still thy shadow is thine own	P
Even as of yore in Nineveh	E
That day whereof we keep record	Q
When near thy city gates the Lord	Q
Sheltered His Jonah with a gourd	Q
This sun I said here present pour'd	Q
Even thus this shadow that I see	G
This shadow has been shed the same	R
From sun and moon from lamps which came	R
For prayer from fifteen days of flame	R
The last while smouldered to a name	R
Sardanapalus' Nineveh	E
Within thy shadow haply once	S
Sennacherib has knelt whose sons	T
Smote him between the altar stones	U
Or pale Semiramis her zones	U
Of gold her incense brought to thee	G
In love for grace in war for aid	V
Ay and who else till 'neath thy shade	V
Within his trenches newly made	V
Last year the Christian knelt and pray'd	V
Not to thy strength in Nineveh	E
Now thou poor god within this hall	J
Where the blank windows blind the wall	J
From pedestal to pedestal	J
The kind of light shall on thee fall	J
Which London takes the day to be	G
While school foundations in the act	W
Of holiday three files compact	W
Shall learn to view thee as a fact	W
Connected with that zealous tract	W
ROME Babylon and Nineveh	E
Deemed they of this those worshippers	X
When in some mythic chain of verse	Y
Which man shall not again rehearse	Y
The faces of thy ministers	X
Yearned pale with bitter ecstasy	G
Greece Egypt Rome did any god	Z
Before whose feet men knelt unshod	Z
Deem that in this unblest abode	Z
Another scarce more unknown god	Z
Should house with him from Nineveh	E
Ah in what quarries lay the stone	P
From which this pillared pile has grown	P
Unto man's need how long unknown	P
Since those thy temples court and cone	P
Rose far in desert history	G
Ah what is here that does not lie	J
All strange to thine awakened eye	J
Ah what is here can testify	J
Save that dumb presence of the sky	J
Unto thy day and Nineveh	E
Why of those mummies in the room	A2
Above there might indeed have come	B2
One out of Egypt to thy home	C2
An alien Nay but were not some	B2
Of these thine own antiquity	G
And now they and their gods and thou	H
All relics here together now	H
Whose profit whether bull or cow	H
Isis or Ibis who or how	H
Whether of Thebes or Nineveh	E
The consecrated metals found	Z
And ivory tablets underground	Z
Winged teraphim and creatures crown'd	Z
When air and daylight filled the mound	Z
Fell into dust immediately	G
And even as these the images	D2
Of awe and worship even as these	A
So smitten with the sun's increase	E2
Her glory mouldered and did cease	E2
From immemorial Nineveh	E
The day her builders made their halt	Z
Those cities of the lake of salt	Z
Stood firmly 'stablished without fault	Z
Made proud with pillars of basalt	Z
With sardonyx and porphyry	G
The day that Jonah bore abroad	Z
To Nineveh the voice of God	Z
A brackish lake lay in his road	Z
Where erst Pride fixed her sure abode	Z
As then in royal Nineveh	E
The day when he Pride's lord and Man's	F2
Showed all the kingdoms at a glance	G2
To Him before whose countenance	S
The years recede the years advance	G2
And said Fall down and worship me	G
'Mid all the pomp beneath that look	N
Then stirred there haply some rebuke	H2
Where to the wind the Salt Pools shook	N
And in those tracts of life forsook	N
That knew thee not O Nineveh	E
Delicate harlot On thy throne	P
Thou with a world beneath thee prone	P
In state for ages sat'st alone	P
And needs were years and lustres flown	P
Ere strength of man could vanquish thee	G
Whom even thy victor foes must bring	I
Still royal among maids that sing	I
As with doves' voices taboring	I
Upon their breasts unto the King	I
A kingly conquest Nineveh	E
Here woke my thought The wind's slow sway	I2
Had waxed and like the human play	I2
Of scorn that smiling spreads away	I2
The sunshine shivered off the day	I2
The callous wind it seemed to me	G
Swept up the shadow from the ground	Z
And pale as whom the Fates astound	Z
The god forlorn stood winged and crown'd	Z
Within I knew the cry lay bound	Z
Of the dumb soul of Nineveh	E
And as I turned my sense half shut	Z
Still saw the crowds of kerb and rut	Z
Go past as marshalled to the strut	Z
Of ranks in gypsum quaintly cut	Z
It seemed in one same pageantry	G
They followed forms which had been erst	Z
To pass till on my sight should burst	Z
That future of the best or worst	Z
When some may question which was first	Z
Of London or of Nineveh	E
For as that Bull god once did stand	Z
And watched the burial clouds of sand	Z
Till these at last without a hand	Z
Rose o'er his eyes another land	Z
And blinded him with destiny	G
So may he stand again till now	H
In ships of unknown sail and prow	H
Some tribe of the Australian plough	H
Bear him afar a relic now	H
Of London not of Nineveh	E
Or it may chance indeed that when	J2
Man's age is hoary among men	J2
His centuries threescore and ten	J2
His furthest childhood shall seem then	J2
More clear than later times may be	G
Who finding in this desert place	K2
This form shall hold us for some race	K2
That walked not in Christ's lowly ways	L2
But bowed its pride and vowed its praise	L2
Unto the God of Nineveh	E
The smile rose first anon drew nigh	J
The thought Those heavy wings spread high	J
So sure of flight which do not fly	J
That set gaze never on the sky	J
Those scriptured flanks it cannot see	G
Its crown a brow contracting load	Z
Its planted feet which trust the sod	Z
So grew the image as I trod	Z
O Nineveh was this thy God	Z
Thine also mighty Nineveh	E

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Burden Of Nineveh Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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