Friar Yves Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDEEFFGDF HIIGHGJKLKMCNOJPQCQ RSTUTVUWGXGYYCCZA2A2 B2B2C2C2D2 E2ZA2F2E2F2E2D2QHQQG 2G2H2D2D2I2J2HJ2I2HH K2K2L2M2L2N2O2N2P2 HHQ2Q2HR2S2S2R2T2S2Q QU2T2U2S2S2U2U2S2S2 QU2U2QU2IU2IV2D2D2V2 HHD2 G2G2W2S2X2W2S2X2QQU2 U2U2U2S2Y2 S2Z2CCCZ2CS2S2CCCC S2S2D2D2QA3HQB3B3U2H U2S2C3S2D3 CHHE3HHE3HHS2HS2H S2S2Said Friar Yves God will bless | A |
Saint Louis' other worldliness | B |
Whatever the fate be still I fare | C |
To fight for the Holy Sepulcher | C |
If I survive I shall return | D |
With precious things from Palestine | E |
Gold for my purse spices and wine | E |
Glory to wear among my kin | F |
Fame as a warrior I shall win | F |
But otherwise if I am slain | G |
In Jesus' cause my soul shall earn | D |
Immortal life washed white from sin | F |
- | |
Said Friar Yves Come what will | H |
Riches and glory death and woe | I |
At dawn to Palestine I go | I |
Whether I live or die I gain | G |
To fly the tepid good and ill | H |
Of daily living in Champagne | G |
Where those who reach salvation lose | J |
The treasures raptures of the earth | K |
Captured possessed and made to serve | L |
The gospel love of Jesus' birth | K |
Sacrifice death where even those | M |
Passing from pious works and prayer | C |
To paradise are not received | N |
As those who battled strove and lived | O |
And periled bodies as I choose | J |
To peril mine and thus to use | P |
Body and soul to build the throne | Q |
Of Louis the Saint where Joseph's care | C |
Lay Jesus under a granite stone | Q |
- | |
Then Friar Yves buckled on | R |
His breastplate and at break of dawn | S |
With crossboy halberd took his way | T |
Walked without resting without pause | U |
Till the sun hovered at midday | T |
Over a tree of glistening leaves | V |
Where a spring gurgled Hunger gnaws | U |
My stomach whispered Friar Yves | W |
If I he sighed could only gain | G |
Like yonder spring an inner source | X |
Of life and need not dew or rain | G |
Of human love or human friends | Y |
And thus accomplish my soul's ends | Y |
Within myself No said the friar | C |
There is one water and one fire | C |
There is one Spirit which is God | Z |
And what are we but streams and springs | A2 |
Through which He takes His wanderings | A2 |
Lord I am weak I am afraid | B2 |
Show me the way the friar prayed | B2 |
Where do I flow and to what end | C2 |
Am I of Thee or do I blend | C2 |
Hereafter with Thee | D2 |
- | |
Yves heard | E2 |
While praying sounds as when the sod | Z |
Teems with a swarm of insect things | A2 |
He dropped his halberd to look down | F2 |
And then his waking vision blurred | E2 |
As one before a light will frown | F2 |
His inner ear was caught and stirred | E2 |
By voices then the chestnut tree | D2 |
Became a step beside a throne | Q |
Breathless he lay and fearfully | H |
While on his brain a vision shone | Q |
Said a Great Voice of sweetest tone | Q |
The time has come when I must take | G2 |
The form of man for mankind's sake | G2 |
This drama is played long enough | H2 |
By creatures who have naught of me | D2 |
Save what comes up from foam of the sea | D2 |
To crawling moss or swimming weeds | I2 |
At last to man From heaven in flame | J2 |
Pure whole and vital down I fly | H |
And take a mortal's form and name | J2 |
And labor for the race's needs | I2 |
Then Friar Yves dreamed the sky | H |
Flushed like a bride's face rosily | H |
And shot to lightning from its bloom | K2 |
The world leaped like a babe in the womb | K2 |
And choral voices from heaven's cope | L2 |
Circled the earth like singing stars | M2 |
O wondrous hope O sweetest hope | L2 |
O passion realized at last | N2 |
O end of hunger fear and wars | O2 |
O victory over the bottomless vast | N2 |
Valley of Death | P2 |
- | |
A silence fell | H |
Broke by the voice of Gabriel | H |
Music may follow this O Lord | Q2 |
Music I hear I hear discord | Q2 |
Through ages yet to be as well | H |
There will be wars because of this | R2 |
And wars will come in its despite | S2 |
It's noon on the world now blackest night | S2 |
Will follow soon And men will miss | R2 |
The meaning Lord There will be strife | T2 |
'Twixt Montanist and Ebionite | S2 |
Gnostic Mithraist Manichean | Q |
'Twixt Christian and the Saracen | Q |
There will be war to win the place | U2 |
Where you bend death to sovereign life | T2 |
Armed kings will battle for the grace | U2 |
Of rulership for power and gold | S2 |
In the name of Jesus Men will hold | S2 |
Conclaves of swords to win surcease | U2 |
Of doctrines of the Prince of Peace | U2 |
The seed is good Lord make the ground | S2 |
Good for the seed you scatter round | S2 |
- | |
Said the Great Voice of sweetest tone | Q |
The gardener sprays his plants and trees | U2 |
To drive out lice and stop disease | U2 |
After the spraying fruit is grown | Q |
Ruddy and plump The shortened eyes | U2 |
Of men can see this end although | I |
Leaves wither or a whole tree dies | U2 |
From what the gardener does to grow | I |
Apples and plums of sweeter flesh | V2 |
The gardener lives outside the tree | D2 |
The gardener knows the tree can see | D2 |
What cure is needed plans afresh | V2 |
An end foreseen and there's the will | H |
Wherewith the gardener may fulfil | H |
The orchard's destiny | D2 |
- | |
So He spake | G2 |
And Friar Yves seemed to wake | G2 |
But did not wake and only sunk | W2 |
Into another dreaming state | S2 |
Wherein he saw a woman's form | X2 |
Leaning against the chestnut's trunk | W2 |
Her body was virginal white and straight | S2 |
And glowed like a dawning golden warm | X2 |
Behind a robe of writhing green | Q |
As when a rock's wall makes a screen | Q |
Whereon the crisscross reflect moves | U2 |
Of circling water under the rays | U2 |
Of April sunlight through the sprays | U2 |
Of budding branches in willow groves | U2 |
A liquid mosaic of green and gold | S2 |
Thus was her robe | Y2 |
- | |
But to behold | S2 |
Her face was to forget the youth | Z2 |
Of her white bosom All her hair | C |
Was tangled serpents she did wear | C |
A single eye in the middle brow | C |
Her cheeks were shriveled and one tooth | Z2 |
Stuck from shrunken gums A bough | C |
O'ershadowed her the while she gripped | S2 |
A pail in either hand One dripped | S2 |
Clear water one ethereal fire | C |
Then to the Graia spoke the friar | C |
Have mercy Tell me your desire | C |
And what you are | C |
- | |
Then the Graia said | S2 |
My body is Nature and my head | S2 |
Is Man and God has given me | D2 |
A seeing spirit strong and free | D2 |
Though by a single eye as even | Q |
Man has one vision at a time | A3 |
I lift my pails up mark them well | H |
With this fire I will burn up heaven | Q |
And with this water I will quench | B3 |
The flames of hell's remotest trench | B3 |
That men may work in righteousness | U2 |
Not for the fears of an after hell | H |
Nor for the rewards which heaven will bless | U2 |
The soul with when the mountains nod | S2 |
And the sun darkens but for love | C3 |
Of Man and Life and love of God | S2 |
Now look | D3 |
- | |
She dashed the pail of fire | C |
Against the vault of heaven It fell | H |
As would a canopy of blue | H |
Burned by a soldier's careless torch | E3 |
She dashed the water into hell | H |
And a great steam rose up with the smell | H |
Of gaseous coals which seemed to scorch | E3 |
All things which on the good earth grew | H |
Now said the Graia loiterer | H |
Awake from slumber rise and speed | S2 |
To fight for the Holy Sepulcher | H |
Nothing is left but Life indeed | S2 |
I have burned heaven I have quenched hell | H |
- | |
Friar Yves no longer slept | S2 |
Friar Yves awoke and wept | S2 |
Edgar Lee Masters
(1)
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