Rev. Percy Ferguson Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Edgar Lee Masters

Rev. Percy Ferguson Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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The Rev Percy Ferguson patrician	A
Vicar of Christ companion of the strong	B
And member of the inner shrine where men	C
Observe the rituals of the golden calf	D
A dilettante and writer for the press	E
Upon such themes as optimism order	F
Obedience beauty law while Elenor Murray's	G
Life was being weighed by Merival	H
Preached in disparagement of Merival	H
Upon a fatal Sunday as it chanced	I
Too near to doom's day for the clergyman	A
For as the word had gone about that waste	I
In lives preoccupied this Merival	H
And many talked of waste and spoke a life	J
Where waste had been in whole or part the pulpit	I
Should take a hand thought Ferguson And so	K
The Reverend Percy Ferguson preached thus	L
To a great audience and fashionable	H
The hour's need is a firmer faith in Christ	I
A closer hold on God belief again	C
In sin's reality the age's vice	M
Is laughter over sin the attitude	I
That sin is not And then to prove that sin	N
Is something real he spoke of money sins	O
That bring the money panics of the beauty	I
That lust corrupts wound up with Athen's story	I
Which sin decayed And touching on this waste	I
Which was the current talk what is this waste	I
Except a sin in life the moral law	H
Transgressed God mocked the order of man's life	J
And God's will disobeyed Show me a life	J
That lives through Christ and none shall find a waste	I
This clergyman some fifteen years before	P
Went on a hunt for Alma Bell who taught	I
The art department of the school and found	I
Enough to scare the school directors that	I
She burned with lawless love for Elenor Murray	I
	-
And made it seem the teacher's reprimand	I
In school of Elenor Murray for her ways	Q
Of strolling riding with young men at night	I
Was moved by jealousy of Elenor Murray	I
Being herself in love with Elenor Murray	I
This clergyman laid what he found before	P
The school directors Alma Bell was sent	I
Out of the school her way and disappeared	I
But now though fifteen years had passed the story	I
Of Alma Bell and Elenor Murray crept	I
Like poisonous mist scarce seen around LeRoy	R
It had been so always And all these years	S
No one would touch or talk in open words	T
The loathsome matter since girls grown to women	A
And married in the town might have their names	U
Relinked to Alma Bell's And was it true	V
That Elenor Murray strayed as a young girl	H
In those far days of strolls and buggy rides	W
	-
But after Percy Ferguson had thundered	I
Against the inquest Warren Henderson	A
A banker of the city who had dealt	I
In paper of the clergyman and knew	V
The clergyman had interests near Victoria	X
Was playing at the money game and knew	V
He tottered on the brink and held to hands	Y
That feared to hold him longer Henderson	A
A wise man cynical contemptuous	L
Of frocks so sure of ways to avoid the waste	I
So unforgiving of the tangled moods	Z
And baffled eyes of men contemptuous	L
Of frocks so avid for the downy beds	A2
Place honors money admiration praise	Q
Much wished to see the clergyman come down	B2
And lay his life beside the other sinners	C2
But more he knew admired this Alma Bell	H
Did not believe she burned with guilty love	D2
For Elenor Murray thought the moral hunt	I
Or Alma Bell had made a waste of life	J
As ignorance might pluck a flower for thinking	E2
It was a weed on Elenor Murray too	V
Had brought a waste by scenting up her life	J
With something faint but ineradicable	H
And Warren Henderson would have revenge	F2
And waited till old Jacob Bangs should fix	G2
His name to paper once again of Ferguson's	H2
To tell old Jacob Bangs he should be wary	I
Since banks and agencies were tremulous	L
With hints of failure at Victoria	X
	-
So meeting Jacob Bangs the banker told him	I2
What things were bruited and warned the man	J2
To fix his name no more to Ferguson's paper	F
It was the very day the clergyman	A
Sought Jacob Bangs to get his signature	F
Upon a note for money at the bank	K2
And Jacob Bangs was silent and evasive	L2
Demurred a little and refused at last	I
Which sent the anxious clergyman adrift	I
To look for other help He looked and looked	I
And found no other help Associates	M2
Depending more on men than God fell down	B2
And in a day the bubble burst The Times	N2
Had columns of the story	I
	-
In a week	O2
At Sunday service Percy Ferguson	A
Stood in the pulpit to confess his sin	N
The Murray jury sat and fed their joy	R
For hearing Ferguson confess his sin	N
This is the way he did it	I
	-
First my friends	P2
I do not say I have betrayed the trust	I
My friends have given me Some years ago	K
I thought to make provision for my wife	J
I wished to start some certain young men right	I
I had another plan I can't disclose	Q2
Not selfish you'll believe me So I took	R2
My savings made as lecturer and writer	F
And put them in this venture I'm ashamed	I
To say how great those savings were in view	V
Of what the poor earn those who work with hands	Y
Ashamed too when I think these savings grew	V
Because I spoke the things the rich desired	I
And squared my words with what the strong would have	S2
Therein Christ was betrayed The end has come	T2
I too have been betrayed my confidence	U2
Wronged by my fellows in the enterprise	V2
I hope to pay my debts Hard poverty	I
Has come to me to bring me back to Christ	I
	-
But listen now These years I lived perturbed	I
Lest this life which I grew into would mould	I
Young men and ministers lead them astray	W2
To public life sensation lecture platforms	X2
Prosperity away from Christ like service	L
Obscure and gentle To those souls I owe	K
My heart's confession I have loved my books	Y2
More than the poor position more than service	L
Office and honor over love of men	C
Lived thus when all my strength belonged to thought	I
To work for schools the sick the poor the friendless	L
To boys and girls with hungry minds My friends	L
Here I abase my soul before God's throne	Z2
And ask forgiveness for the pious zeal	H
With which I smote the soul of Alma Bell	H
And smudged the robe of Elenor Murray God	I
Thou who has taken Elenor Murray home	A3
After great service in the war O grant	I
Thy servant yet to kneel before the soul	H
Of Elenor Murray For who am I to judge	B3
What was I then to judge who coveted honors	L
When solitude where I might dwell apart	I
And listen to the voice of God was mine	C3
By calling and for seeking I have broken	A
The oath I took to take no purse or scrip	D3
I have loved money even while I knew	V
No servant of Christ can work for Christ and strive	E3
For money And if anywhere there be	I
A noble boy who would become a minister	F
Who has heard me or read my books and grown	Z2
Thereby to cherish secular ideas	L
Of Christ's work in the world to him I say	L
Repent the thought reject me there are men	C
And women missionaries here abroad	I
And nameless workers in poor settlements	L
Whose latchets to stoop down and to unloose	L
I am unworthy	I
	-
Gift of life too short	I
O beautiful gift of God too brief at best	I
For all a man can do how have I wasted	I
This precious gift How wasted it in pride	I
In seeking out the powerful the great	I
The hands with honors gold to give when nothing	E2
Is profitable to a servant of the Christ	I
Except to shepherd Christ's poor O young men	C
Interpret not your ministry in terms	L
Of intellect alone forefront the heart	I
That at the end of life you may look up	F3
And say to God Behind these are the sheep	G3
Thou gavest me and not a one is lost	I
	-
As to my enemies for enemies	L
A clergyman must have whose fault is mine	C3
Plato would have us harden hearts to sorrow	K
And Zeno roofs of slate for souls to slide	I
The storm of evil Christ in sorrow did	I
For evil good For me my prayer is this	L
My faith as well that I may be perfected	I
Through suffering	E2
	-
That ended the confession	A
Then Love Divine All Love Excelling sounded	I
The congregation rose and some went up	F3
To take the pastor's hand but others left	I
To think the matter over	F
	-
For some said	I
He married fortunate And others said	I
We know through Jacob Bangs he has investments	L
In wheat lands what's the truth In any case	L
What avarice is this that made him anxious	L
About the comfort of his wife and family	I
The thing won't work He's only middle way	L
In solving his soul's problem This confession	A
Is just a poor beginning Others said	I
He drove out Alma Bell let's drive him out	I
And others said you note we never heard	I
About this speculation till it failed	I
And he was brought to grief If it had prospered	I
The man had never told what do you think	H3
But in a year as health failed Ferguson	A
Took leave of absence and the silence of life	J
Which closes over men however noisy	I
With sermons lectures covered him His riffle	H
Died out in distant waters	L
	-
There was a Doctor Burke lived at LeRoy	R
Neurologist and student On a night	I
When Merival had the jury at his house	L
Llewellyn George was telling of his travels	L
In China and Japan had mutual friends	L
With Franklin Hollister the cousin of Elenor	R
And son of dead Corinne who hid her letters	L
Under the eaves The talk went wide and far	R
For David Borrow sunny pessimist	I
Thrust logic words at Maiworm the juryman	A
And said our life was bad and must be so	K
While Maiworm trusted God said life was good	I
And Winthrop Marion let play his wit	I
The riches of his reading over all	H
Thus as they talked this Doctor Burke came in	A
You'll pardon this intrusion I'll go on	A
If this is secret business Let me say	L
This inquest holds my interest and I've come	T2
To tell of Elenor's ancestry Thus he spoke	I3
There'll be another time if I must go	K
And Merival spoke up and said why stay	L
And tell us what you know or think and so	K
The coroner and jury sat and heard	I