Vesalius In Zante Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDAE FGHIJ KLMNOPQK RSTUTVWNJVNXYJTVZA2B 2 C2AD2XE2F2XG2K H2I2J2K2L2M2N2O2JP2Q 2R2YS2CT2U2V2W2W2MW2 X2I2Y2JOZ2IK A3B3W2C3PD3E3F3G3H3I 3 LJ3K3VL3W2AQIM3W2S2F 2UZN3AW2O3P3Q3 R3S3W2T3U3V3W3W2U2F2 JU2X3W2JMUAJU2U2U2W2 U2W2B3 IW2JW2W2U2U2U2SY3W2Z 3W2U2Y2A4W2B4AB2U2 C4W2IU2K2W2JD4U2W2U2 K2XIU2U2JU2W2W2E4W2 W2OK2F4W2G4H4W2W2W2U 2U2W2W2W2W2I4E3U2U2J 4U2Y2W2K4IW2W2U2W2L4 X2W2W2D4U2W2U2U2K2SU 2W2U2W2U2W2X3B3 U2U2W2B4

Set wide the window Let me drink the dayA
I loved light ever light in eye and brainB
No tapers mirrored in long palace floorsC
Nor dedicated depths of silent aislesD
But just the common dusty wind blown dayA
That roofs earth's millionsE
-
O too long I walkedF
In that thrice sifted air that princes breatheG
Nor felt the heaven wide jostling of the windsH
And all the ancient outlawry of earthI
Now let me breathe and seeJ
-
This pilgrimageK
They call a penance let them call it thatL
I set my face to the East to shrive my soulM
Of mortal sin So be it If my bladeN
Once questioned living flesh if once I toreO
The pages of the Book in opening itP
See what the torn page yielded ere the lightQ
Had paled its buried characters and judgeK
-
The girl they brought me pinioned hand and footR
In catalepsy say I should have knownS
That trance had not yet darkened into deathT
And held my scalpel Well suppose I knewU
Sum up the facts her life against her deathT
Her life The scum upon the pools of pleasureV
Breeds such by thousands And her death PerchanceW
The obolus to appease the ferrying ShadeN
And waft her into immortalityJ
Think what she purchased with that one heart flutterV
That whispered its deep secret to my bladeN
For just because her bosom fluttered stillX
It told me more than many rifled gravesY
Because I spoke too soon she answered meJ
Her vain life ripened to this bud of deathT
As the whole plant is forced into one flowerV
All her blank past a scroll on which God wroteZ
His word of healing so that the poor fleshA2
Which spread death living died to purchase lifeB2
-
Ah no The sin I sinned was mine not theirsC2
Not that they sent me forth to wash awayA
None of their tariffed frailties but a deedD2
So far beyond their grasp of good or illX
That set to weigh it in the Church's balanceE2
Scarce would they know which scale to cast it inF2
But I I know I sinned against my willX
Myself my soul the God within the breastG2
Can any penance wash such sacrilegeK
-
When I was young in Venice years agoH2
I walked the hospice with a Spanish monkI2
A solitary cloistered in high thoughtsJ2
The great Loyola whom I reckoned thenK2
A mere refurbisher of faded creedsL2
Expert to edge anew the arms of faithM2
As who should say a Galenist resolvedN2
To hold the walls of dogma against factO2
Experience insight his own self if need beJ
Ah how I pitied him mine own eyes setP2
Straight in the level beams of Truth who gropedQ2
In error's old deserted catacombsR2
And lit his tapers upon empty gravesY
Ay but he held his own the monk more manS2
Than any laurelled cripple of the warsC
Charles's spent shafts for what he willed he willedT2
As those do that forerun the wheels of fateU2
Not take their dust that force the virgin hoursV2
Hew life into the likeness of themselvesW2
And wrest the stars from their concurrencesW2
So firm his mould but mine the ductile soulM
That wears the livery of circumstanceW2
And hangs obsequious on its suzerain's eyeX2
For who rules now The twilight flitting monkI2
Or I that took the morning like an AlpY2
He held his own I let mine slip from meJ
The birthright that no sovereign can restoreO
And so ironic Time beholds us nowZ2
Master and slave he lord of half the earthI
I ousted from my narrow heritageK
-
For there's the sting My kingdom knows me notA3
Reach me that folio my usurper's titleB3
Fallopius reigning vice nay not soW2
Successor not usurper I am deadC3
My throne stood empty he was heir to itP
Ay but who hewed his kingdom from the wasteD3
Cleared inch by inch the acres for his sowingE3
Won back for man that ancient fief o' the ChurchF3
His body Who flung Galen from his seatG3
And founded the great dynasty of truthH3
In error's central kingdomI3
-
Ask men thatL
And see their answer just a wondering stareJ3
To learn things were not always as they areK3
The very fight forgotten with the fighterV
Already grows the moss upon my graveL3
Ay and so meet hold fast to that VesaliusW2
They only who re conquer day by dayA
The inch of ground they camped on over nightQ
Have right of foothold on this crowded earthI
I left mine own he seized it with it wentM3
My name my fame my very self it seemsW2
Till I am but the symbol of a manS2
The sign board creaking o'er an empty innF2
He names me true Oh give the door its dueU
I entered by Only I pray you noteZ
Had door been none a shoulder thrust of mineN3
Had breached the crazy wall he seems to sayA
So meet and yet a word of thanks of praiseW2
Of recognition that the clue was foundO3
Seized followed clung to by some hand now dustP3
Had this obscured his quartering of my shieldQ3
-
How the one weakness stirs again I thoughtR3
I had done with that old thirst for gratitudeS3
That lured me to the desert years agoW2
I did my work and was not that enoughT3
No but because the idlers sneered and shruggedU3
The envious whispered the traducers liedV3
And friendship doubted where it should have cheeredW3
I flung aside the unfinished task sought praiseW2
Outside my soul's esteem and learned too lateU2
That victory like God's kingdom is withinF2
Nay let the folio rest upon my kneeJ
I do not feel its weight IngratitudeU2
The hurrying traveller does not ask the nameX3
Of him who points him on his way and thisW2
Fallopius sits in the mid heart of meJ
Because he keeps his eye upon the goalM
Cuts a straight furrow to the end in viewU
Cares not who oped the fountain by the wayA
But drinks to draw fresh courage for his journeyJ
That was the lesson that Ignatius taughtU2
The one I might have learned from him but would notU2
That we are but stray atoms on the windU2
A dancing transiency of summer evesW2
Till we become one with our purpose mergedU2
In that vast effort of the race which makesW2
Mortality immortalB3
-
He that losethI
His life shall find it so the Scripture runsW2
But I so hugged the fleeting self in meJ
So loved the lovely perishable hoursW2
So kissed myself to death upon their lipsW2
That on one pyre we perished in the endU2
A grimmer bonfire than the Church e'er litU2
Yet all was well or seemed so till I heardU2
That younger voice an echo of my ownS
And like a wanderer turning to his homeY3
Who finds another on the hearth and learnsW2
Half dazed that other is his actual selfZ3
In name and claim as the whole parish swearsW2
So strangely suddenly stood dispossessedU2
Of that same self I had sold all to keepY2
A baffled ghost that none would see or hearA4
Vesalius Who's Vesalius This FallopiusW2
It is who dragged the Galen idol downB4
Who rent the veil of flesh and forced a wayA
Into the secret fortalice of lifeB2
Yet it was I that bore the brunt of itU2
-
Well better so Better awake and liveC4
My last brief moment as the man I wasW2
Than lapse from life's long lethargy to deathI
Without one conscious interval At leastU2
I repossess my past am once againK2
No courtier med'cining the whims of kingsW2
In muffled palace chambers but the freeJ
Friendless Vesalius with his back to the wallD4
And all the world against him O for thatU2
Best gift of all Fallopius take my thanksW2
That and much more At first when Padua wroteU2
Master Fallopius dead resume againK2
The chair even he could not completely fillX
And see what usury age shall take of youthI
In honours forfeited why just at firstU2
I was quite simply credulously gladU2
To think the old life stood ajar for meJ
Like a fond woman's unforgetting heartU2
But now that death waylays me now I knowW2
This isle is the circumference of my daysW2
And I shall die here in a little whileE4
So also best FallopiusW2
-
For I seeW2
The gods may give anew but not restoreO
And though I think that in my chair againK2
I might have argued my supplanters wrongF4
In this or that this Cesalpinus sayW2
With all his hot foot blundering in the darkG4
Fabricius with his over cautious clutchH4
On Galen systole and diastoleW2
Of Truth's mysterious heart yet other waysW2
It may be that this dying serves the causeW2
For Truth stays not to build her monumentU2
For this or that co operating handU2
But props it with her servants' failures nayW2
Cements its courses with their blood and brainsW2
A living substance that shall clinch her wallsW2
Against the assaults of time Already seeW2
Her scaffold rises on my hidden toilI4
I but the accepted premiss whence must springE3
The airy structure of her argumentU2
Nor could the bricks it rests on serve to buildU2
The crowning finials I abide her lawJ4
A different substance for a different endU2
Content to know I hold the building upY2
Though men agape at dome and pinnaclesW2
Guess not the whole must crumble like a dreamK4
But for that buried labour underneathI
Yet Padua I had still my word to sayW2
Let others say it Ah but will they guessW2
Just the one word Nay Truth is many tonguedU2
What one man failed to speak another findsW2
Another word for May not all convergeL4
In some vast utterance of which you and IX2
Fallopius were but halting syllablesW2
So knowledge come no matter how it comesW2
No matter whence the light falls so it fallD4
Truth's way not mine that I whose service failedU2
In action yet may make amends in praiseW2
Fabricius Cesalpinus say your wordU2
Not yours or mine but Truth's as you receive itU2
You miss a point I saw See others thenK2
Misread my meaning Yet expound your ownS
Obscure one space I cleared The sky is wideU2
And you may yet uncover other starsW2
For thus I read the meaning of this endU2
There are two ways of spreading light to beW2
The candle or the mirror that reflects itU2
I let my wick burn out there yet remainsW2
To spread an answering surface to the flameX3
That others kindleB3
-
Turn me in my bedU2
The window darkens as the hours swing roundU2
But yonder look the other casement glowsW2
Let me face westward as my sun goes downB4

Edith Wharton



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