The Singing Of The Magnificat Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Edith Nesbit

The Singing Of The Magnificat Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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A LEGEND	A
	-
IN midst of wide green pasture lands cut through	B
By lines of alders bordering deep banked streams	C
Where bulrushes and yellow iris grew	B
And rest and peace and all the flowers of dreams	C
The Abbey stood so still it seemed a part	D
Of the marsh country's almost pulseless heart	D
	-
	-
Where grey green willows fringed the stream and pool	E
The lazy meek faced cattle strayed to graze	F
Sheep in the meadows cropped the grasses cool	E
And silver fish shone through the watery ways	F
And many a load of fruit and load of corn	G
Into the Abbey storehouses was borne	G
	-
	-
Yet though so much they had of life's good things	H
The monks but held them as a sacred trust	I
Lent from the storehouse of the King of kings	H
Till they His stewards should crumble back to dust	I
'Not as our own ' they said 'but as the Lord's	J
All that the stream yields or the land affords '	-
	-
	-
And all the villages and hamlets near	K
Knew the monks' wealth and how their wealth was spent	L
In tribulation sickness want or fear	K
First to the Abbey all the peasants went	L
Certain to find a welcome and to be	M
Helped in the hour of their extremity	M
	-
	-
When plague or sickness smote the people sore	N
The Brothers prayed beside the dying bed	O
And nursed the sick back into health once more	N
And through the horror and the danger said	O
'How good is God Who has such love for us	P
He lets us tend His suffering children thus '	-
	-
	-
They in their simple ways and works were glad	Q
Yet all men must have sorrows of their own	R
And so a bitter grief the Brothers had	Q
Nor mourned for others' heaviness alone	R
This was the secret of their sorrowing	S
That not a monk in all the house could sing	S
	-
	-
Was it the damp air from the lovely marsh	T
Or strain of scarcely intermitted prayer	U
That made their voices when they sang as harsh	T
As any frog's that croaks in evening air	U
That made less music in their hymns to lie	V
Than in the hoarsest wild fowl's hoarsest cry	V
	-
	-
If love could sweeten voice to sing a song	S
Theirs had been sweetest song was ever sung	S
But their hearts' music reached their lips all wrong	S
The soul's intent foiled by the traitorous tongue	S
That marred the chapel's peace and seemed to scare	U
The rapt devotion lingering in the air	U
	-
	-
The birds that in the chapel built their nests	W
And in the stone work found their small lives fair	U
Flew thence with hurled wings and fluttering breasts	W
When rang the bell to call the monks to prayer	U
'Why will they sing ' they twittered 'why at all	X
In heaven their silence must be festival '	-
	-
	-
The brothers prayed with penance and with tears	Y
That God would let them give some little part	D
Out for the solace of their own sad ears	Z
Of all the music crowded in their heart	D
Their nature and the marsh air had their way	A2
And still they sang more vilely every day	A2
	-
	-
And all their prayers and fasts availing not	B2
To give them voices sweet their souls' desire	C2
The Abbot said 'Gifts He did not allot	B2
God at our hands will not again require	C2
The love He gives us He will ask again	D2
In love to Him and to our fellow men	D2
	-
	-
'Praise Him we must and since we cannot praise	F
As we would choose we praise Him as we can	E2
In heaven we shall be taught the angels' ways	F
Of singing we afford to wait a span	E2
In singing as in toil do ye your best	F2
God will adjust the balance do the rest '	-
	-
	-
But one good Brother anxious to remove	G2
This the reproach now laid on them so long	S
Rejected counsel and for very love	H2
Besought a Brother skilled in art of song	S
To come to them his cloister far to leave	I2
And sing Magnificat on Christmas Eve	I2
	-
	-
So when each brown monk duly sought his place	J2
By two and two slow pacing to the choir	C2
Shrined in his dark oak stall the strange monk's face	J2
Shone with a light as of devotion's fire	C2
Good young and fair his seemed a form wherein	K2
Pure beauty left no room at all for sin	K2
	-
	-
And when the time for singing it had come	L2
'Magnificat ' face raised and voice he sang	S
Each in his stall the monks stood glad and dumb	L2
As through the chancel's dusk his voice outrang	S
Pure clear and perfect as the thrushes sing	S
Their first impulsive welcome of the spring	S
	-
	-
At the first notes the Abbot's heart spoke low	M2
'Oh God accept this singing seeing we	M
Had we the power would ever praise Thee so	M2
Would ever Lord Thou know'st sing thus for Thee	M
Thus in our hearts Thy hymns are ever sung	S
As he Thou blessest sings them with his tongue '	-
	-
	-
But as the voice rose higher and more sweet	N2
The Abbot's heart said 'Thou hast heard us grieve	I2
And sent an angel from beside Thy feet	N2
To sing Magnificat on Christmas Eve	I2
To ease our ache of soul and let us see	M
How we some day in heaven shall sing to Thee '	-
	-
	-
Through the cold Christmas night the hymn rang out	O2
In perfect cadence clear as sunlit rain	P2
Such heavenly music that the birds without	O2
Beat their warm wings against the window pane	P2
Scattering the frosted crystal snow outspread	O2
Upon the stone lace and the window lead	O2
	-
	-
The white moon through the window seemed to gaze	F
On the pure face and eyes the singer raised	O2
The storm wind hushed the clamour of its ways	F
God seemed to stoop to hear Himself thus praised	O2
And breathless all the Brothers stood and still	Q2
Reached longing souls out to the music's thrill	Q2
	-
	-
Old years came back and half remembered hours	R2
Dreams of delight that never was to be	M
Mothers' remembered kiss the funeral flowers	R2
Laid on the grave of life's felicity	M
An infinite dear passion of regret	O2
Swept through their hearts and left their eyelids wet	O2
	-
	-
The birds beat ever at the window till	Q2
They broke the pane and so could entrance win	K2
Their slender feet clung to the window sill	Q2
And though with them the bitter air came in	K2
The monks were glad that the birds too should hear	S2
Since to God's creatures all His praise is dear	K
	-
	-
The lovely music waxed and waned and sank	S
And brought less conscious sadness in its train	P2
Unrecognised despair that thinks to thank	S
God for a joy renounced a chosen pain	P2
And deems that peace which is but stifled life	T2
Dulled by a too prolonged unfruitful strife	T2
	-
	-
When service done the Brothers gathered round	O2
To thank the singer modest eyed said he	M
'Not mine the grace if grace indeed abound	O2
God gave the power if any power there be	M
If I in hymn or psalm clear voice can raise	F
As His the gift so His be all the praise '	-
	-
	-
That night the Abbot lying on his bed	O2
A sudden flood of radiance on him fell	U2
Poured from the crucifix above his head	O2
And cast a stream of light across his cell	U2
And in the fullest fervour of the light	O2
An Angel stood glittering and great and white	O2
	-
	-
His wings of thousand rainbow clouds seemed made	O2
A thousand lamps of love shone in his eyes	V2
The light of dawn upon his brows was laid	O2
Odours of thousand flowers of Paradise	W2
Filled all the cell and through the heart there stirred	O2
A sense of music that could not be heard	O2
	-
	-
The Angel spoke his voice was low and sweet	O2
As the sea's murmur on low lying shore	N
Or whisper of the wind in ripened wheat	O2
'Brother ' he said 'the God we both adore	N
Has sent me down to ask is all not right	O2
Why was Magnificat not sung to night '	-
	-
	-
Tranced in the joy the Angel's presence brought	O2
The Abbot answered 'All these weary years	Z
We have sung our best but always have we thought	O2
Our voices were unworthy heavenly ears	Z
And so to night we found a clearer tongue	S
And by it the Magnificat was sung '	-
	-
	-
The Angel answered 'All these happy years	Z
In heaven has your Magnificat been heard	O2
This night alone the angels' listening ears	Z
Of all its music caught no single word	O2
Say who is he whose goodness is not strong	S
Enough to bear the burden of his song '	-
	-
	-
The Abbot named his name 'Ah why ' he cried	O2
'Have angels heard not what we found so dear '	-
'Only pure hearts ' the Angel's voice replied	O2
'Can carry human songs up to God's ear	S2
To night in heaven was missed the sweetest	O2