Margaret Of Cortona Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFFGHIFCJKLMJ NNONNHNNNNNPFFFQJF FDNRNRNFLFHSFHDNTPUQ NDNN NFVFWPCNNXFFYZFA2B2F NHC2F D2E2FNFCNNHWNNFFFLFF FFNHNF2FFNNNFHZNFFFG 2NFHNFFFWNFC2FQH2HDN FDF CI2DNNN FNFNFDFFHI2 J2NSFPHFNFNCPC2N FN CF2 D

Fra Paolo since they say the end is nearA
And you of all men have the gentlest eyesB
Most like our father Francis since you knowC
How I have toiled and prayed and scourged and strivenD
Mothered the orphan waked beside the sickE
Gone empty that mine enemy might eatF
Given bread for stones in famine years and channelledF
With vigilant knees the pavement of this cellG
Till I constrained the Christ upon the wallH
To bend His thorn crowned Head in mute forgivenessI
Three times He bowed it but the whole stands writF
Sealed with the Bishop's signet as you knowC
Once for each person of the Blessed ThreeJ
A miracle that the whole town attestsK
The very babes thrust forward for my blessingL
And either parish plotting for my bonesM
Since this you know sit near and bear with meJ
-
I have lain here these many empty daysN
I thought to pack with Credos and Hail MarysN
So close that not a fear should force the doorO
But still between the blessed syllablesN
That taper up like blazing angel headsN
Praise over praise to the UnutterableH
Strange questions clutch me thrusting fiery armsN
As though athwart the close meshed litaniesN
My dead should pluck at me from hell with eyesN
Alive in their obliterated facesN
I have tried the saints' names and our blessed Mother'sN
Fra Paolo I have tried them o'er and o'erP
And like a blade bent backward at first thrustF
They yield and fail me and the questions stayF
And so I thought into some human heartF
Pure and yet foot worn with the tread of sinQ
If only I might creep for sanctuaryJ
It might be that those eyes would let me restF
-
Fra Paolo listen How should I forgetF
The day I saw him first You know the oneD
I had been laughing in the market placeN
With others like me I the youngest thereR
Jostling about a pack of mountebanksN
Like flies on carrion I the youngest thereR
Till darkness fell and while the other girlsN
Turned this way that way as perdition beckonedF
I wondering what the night would bring half hopingL
If not this once a child's sleep in my garretF
At least enough to buy that two pronged coralH
The others covet 'gainst the evil eyeS
Since after all one sees that I'm the youngestF
So muttering my litany to hellH
The only prayer I knew that was not LatinD
Felt on my arm a touch as kind as yoursN
And heard a voice as kind as yours say ComeT
I turned and went and from that day I neverP
Looked on the face of any other manU
So much is known so much effaced the sinQ
Cast like a plague struck body to the seaN
Deep deep into the unfathomable pardonD
The Head bowed thrice as the whole town attestsN
What more then To what purpose Bear with meN
-
It seems that he a stranger in the placeN
First noted me that afternoon and wonderedF
How grew so white a bud in such black slimeV
And why not mine the hand to pluck it outF
Why so Christ deals with souls you cry what thenW
Not so Not so When Christ the heavenly gardenerP
Plucks flowers for Paradise do I not knowC
He snaps the stem above the root and pressesN
The ransomed soul between two convent wallsN
A lifeless blossom in the Book of LifeX
But when my lover gathered me he liftedF
Stem root and all ay and the clinging mudF
And set me on his sill to spread and bloomY
After the common way take sun and rainZ
And make a patch of brightness for the streetF
Though raised above rough fingers so you makeA2
A weed a flower and others passing thinkB2
Next ditch I cross I'll lift a root from itF
And dress my window and the blessing spreadsN
Well so I grew with every root and tendrilH
Grappling the secret anchorage of his loveC2
And so we loved each other till he diedF
-
Ah that black night he left me that dead dawnD2
I found him lying in the woods aliveE2
To gasp my name out and his life blood with itF
As though the murderer's knife had probed for meN
In his hacked breast and found me in each woundF
Well it was there Christ came to me you knowC
And led me home just as that other led meN
Just as that other Father bear with meN
My lover's death they tell me saved my soulH
And I have lived to be a light to menW
And gather sinners to the knees of graceN
All this you say the Bishop's signet coversN
But stay Suppose my lover had not diedF
At last my question Father help me face itF
I say Suppose my lover had not diedF
Think you I ever would have left him livingL
Even to be Christ's blessed MargaretF
We lived in sin Why to the sin I died toF
That other was as Paradise when GodF
Walks there at eventide the air pure goldF
And angels treading all the grass to flowersN
He was my Christ he led me out of hellH
He died to save me so your casuists sayN
Could Christ do more Your Christ out pity mineF2
Why yours but let the sinner bathe His feetF
Mine raised her to the level of his heartF
And then Christ's way is saving as man's wayN
Is squandering and the devil take the shardsN
But this man kept for sacramental useN
The cup that once had slaked a passing thirstF
This man declared The same clay serves to modelH
A devil or a saint the scribe may stainZ
The same fair parchment with obscenitiesN
Or gild with benedictions nay he criedF
Because a satyr feasted in this woodF
And fouled the grasses with carousing footF
Shall not a hermit build his chapel hereG2
And cleanse the echoes with his litaniesN
The sodden grasses spring again why notF
The trampled soul Is man less mercifulH
Than nature good more fugitive than grassN
And so if after all he had not diedF
And suddenly that door should know his handF
And with that voice as kind as yours he saidF
Come Margaret forth into the sun againW
Back to the life we fashioned with our handsN
Out of old sins and follies fragments scornedF
Of more ambitious builders yet by LoveC2
The patient architect so shaped and fittedF
That not a crevice let the winter inQ
Think you my bones would not arise and walkH2
This bruised body as once the bruised soulH
Turn from the wonders of the seventh heavenD
As from the antics of the market placeN
If this could be as I so oft have dreamedF
I who have known both loves divine and humanD
Think you I would not leave this Christ for thatF
-
I rave you say You start from me Fra PaoloC
Go then your going leaves me not aloneI2
I marvel rather that I feared the questionD
Since now I name it it draws near to meN
With such dear reassurance in its eyesN
And takes your place beside meN
-
Nay I tell youF
Fra Paolo I have cried on all the saintsN
If this be devil's prompting let them drown itF
In Alleluias Yet not one repliesN
And for the Christ there is He silent tooF
Your Christ Poor father you that have but oneD
And that one silent how I pity youF
He will not answer Will not help you castF
The devil out But hangs there on the wallH
Blind wood and boneI2
-
How if I call on HimJ2
I whom He talks with as the town attestsN
If ever prayer hath ravished me so highS
That its wings failed and dropped me in Thy breastF
Christ I adjure Thee By that naked hourP
Of innermost commixture when my soulH
Contained Thee as the paten holds the hostF
Judge Thou alone between this priest and meN
Nay rather Lord between my past and presentF
Thy Margaret and that other's whose she isN
By right of salvage and whose call should followC
Thine Silent still Or his who stooped to herP
And drew her to Thee by the bands of loveC2
Not Thine Then hisN
-
Ah Christ the thorn crowned HeadF
Bends bends again down on your kneesN
-
Fra PaoloC
If his then ThineF2
-
Kneel priest for this is heavenD

Edith Wharton



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