A Mystery Play Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BA CDCDEFGFG H IG I JG H JKLK M LNMN H IJOJ I PQMQ H IRLR L SJST H MNLN M UVLV H PJWJ I PXLP YZYZWWLWL H MA2PA2 I NLML H B2HJH C2 LLND2E2F2LJCF2LC I WYIYI I G2H2A2WWA2 I WH2I2II L VTVTLLVJ2J2K2K2L2L2V V LVLVCCLCLCHARACTERS | A |
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The Father The Child Death Angels | B |
Two Travellers | A |
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The even settles still and deep | C |
In the cold sky the last gold burns | D |
Across the colour snow flakes creep | C |
Each one from grey to glory turns | D |
Then flutters into nothingness | E |
The frost down falls with mighty stress | F |
Through the swift cloud that parts on high | G |
The great stars shrivel into less | F |
In the hard depth of the iron sky | G |
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The Child | H |
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What is that light dear father | I |
That light in the dark dark sky | G |
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The Father | I |
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Those are the lights of the city | J |
And the villages thereby | G |
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The Child | H |
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There must be fire in the city | J |
To throw that yellow glare | K |
And fire in the little villages | L |
On all the hearthstones there | K |
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The Father musing | M |
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Yea flames are on the hearthstones | L |
The ovens are full of bread | N |
But here the coals are dying | M |
And the flames are dead | N |
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The Child | H |
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What is the cold dear father | I |
It stings like an angry bee | J |
Wherever it stings my hand turns white | O |
See | J |
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The Father | I |
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The cold is a beast my dear one | P |
With his paws he tears at the thatch | Q |
His breath is a curse and a warning | M |
You can see it creep on the latch | Q |
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The Child | H |
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If 'tis a wolf dear father | I |
That lies with his paw on the floor | R |
Let us heat the spade in the embers | L |
And drive him away from the door | R |
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Angels | L |
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God is the power of growth | S |
In the snail and the tree | J |
God is the power of growth | S |
In the heart of the man | T |
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The Child | H |
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Did you not hear the singing | M |
Voices overhead | N |
Mother's voice and Ruth's voice | L |
Voices of the dead | N |
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The Father musing | M |
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Our Ruth died in the springtime | U |
With the spade I turned the sod | V |
We buried her by the brier rose | L |
Her life is hid with God | V |
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The Child | H |
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All summer long in the garden | P |
No roses came to the tree | J |
Father was it for sorrow | W |
Sorrow for thee and me | J |
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The Father | I |
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Roses grew in the garden | P |
I saw them at morning and even | X |
Shadows of earthly roses | L |
They bloomed for fingers in heaven | P |
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The air is very clear and still | Y |
The moonlight falls from half the sphere | Z |
The shadow from the silver hill | Y |
Fills half the vale and half is clear | Z |
As the moon's self with cloudless snow | W |
By the dead stream the alders throw | W |
Their shadows shot with tingling spars | L |
On the sheer height the elm trees glow | W |
Their tops are tangled with the stars | L |
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The Child | H |
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Father the coals are dying | M |
See I have heated the spade | A2 |
Let me throw the door wide open | P |
I will not be afraid | A2 |
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The Father | I |
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Let me kiss you once on the forehead | N |
And once on your darling eyes | L |
We may see them both at the dawning | M |
In the dales of Paradise | L |
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The Child | H |
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And if I only see them | B2 |
I will tell them how you smiled | H |
For the wolf you know is angry | J |
And I am a little child | H |
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Death | C2 |
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Undaunted spirits | L |
I give thee peace | L |
For a world of dread | N |
Calm | D2 |
For desperate toil | E2 |
Rest | F2 |
Thou who didst say | L |
When the waters of poverty | J |
Waxed deep deep | C |
What we bear is best | F2 |
Just ones | L |
I give thee sleep | C |
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First Traveller | I |
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Keep up your spirits I know | W |
There's a cabin under the hill | Y |
The fellow will make a roaring fire | I |
We'll heat our hands and drink our fill | Y |
And go warm to our heart's desire | I |
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Second Traveller | I |
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The door is open Heigho | G2 |
This pair will claim neither crown nor groat | H2 |
The man has gripped his garden spade | A2 |
As if he would dig his grave in the snow | W |
The boy has the face of a saint I trow | W |
His brow says I was not afraid | A2 |
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First Traveller | I |
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Ah well these things must be you know | W |
Gather your sables around your throat | H2 |
Give us that story about the monk | I2 |
His niece and the wandering conjurer | I |
Just to keep our blood astir | I |
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The Angels | L |
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The heart of God | V |
The worlds and man | T |
Are fashioned and moulded | V |
In a subtle plan | T |
Passion outsurges | L |
Sweeps far but converges | L |
Nothing is lost | V |
Sod or stone | J2 |
But comes to its own | J2 |
Bear well thy joy | K2 |
'Tis mixed with alloy | K2 |
Bear well thy grief | L2 |
'Tis a rich full sheaf | L2 |
Gather the souls that have passed in the night | V |
Theirs is the peace and the light | V |
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The moon is gone the dawning brings | L |
A deeper dark with silver blent | V |
Above the wells where myriad springs | L |
Light from the crimson orient | V |
The elms are born the shadows creep | C |
Tremble and melt away one sweep | C |
The great soft color floods and flows | L |
Where under snow the roses sleep | C |
The morn has turned the snow to rose | L |
Duncan Campbell Scott
(1)
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