The Three Taverns Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABC CCDDEFGEHIJKLMNDOCOC PCLQCRSTDCUCCOVWKKX CYZA2DFB2CCXUC2CTKD2 DE2F2CG2H2FI2J2MCT KLCCCDK2TL2C2FTM2N2D 2O2FCCCXP2LCCQ2C2XQ2 XR2S2CCT2CU2XCD2V2HW 2D2N2TYKFN2IX2DMY2CZ 2DTE2HQ2A3P2B3J2CGCC 3CTCCXDZCZKCD3CCGC2C Q2OXCXCTC2CE2Y2 V2E3E3CE3LF3CCCCE3A2 H2E3CDD3G3CG3D2E3YE3 CCE3DC E3E3CH3KI3M2E3CCDE3J 3CJ2TE3CCE3CE3THN2E3 E3E3CK3O2E3DM2XDL3CE 3E3CCCE3Q2M3 DK2M3DCXXCN3CE3CE3E3 CK2E3E3E3M3E3CO3V2E3 P3CDQ3E2CCCCXE3 E3CCE3R3CCCS3T3XE3U2 E3JCE3F2E3E3P2E3N3TC CK2CCE3U3E3V3DD3E3CD CF3V3XCK2CK2E3W3K2CC LX3E3CWN2CE3E3O2UF3K L

When the brethren heard of us they came to meet us	A
as far as Appii Forum and The Three Taverns	B
Acts	C
	-
	-
Herodion Apelles Amplias	C
And Andronicus Is it you I see	C
At last And is it you now that are gazing	D
As if in doubt of me Was I not saying	D
That I should come to Rome I did say that	E
And I said furthermore that I should go	F
On westward where the gateway of the world	G
Lets in the central sea I did say that	E
But I say only now that I am Paul	H
A prisoner of the Law and of the Lord	I
A voice made free If there be time enough	J
To live I may have more to tell you then	K
Of western matters I go now to Rome	L
Where Caesar waits for me and I shall wait	M
And Caesar knows how long In Caesarea	N
There was a legend of Agrippa saying	D
In a light way to Festus having heard	O
My deposition that I might be free	C
Had I stayed free of Caesar but the word	O
Of God would have it as you see it is	C
And here I am The cup that I shall drink	P
Is mine to drink the moment or the place	C
Not mine to say If it be now in Rome	L
Be it now in Rome and if your faith exceed	Q
The shadow cast of hope say not of me	C
Too surely or too soon that years and shipwreck	R
And all the many deserts I have crossed	S
That are not named or regioned have undone	T
Beyond the brevities of our mortal healing	D
The part of me that is the least of me	C
You see an older man than he who fell	U
Prone to the earth when he was nigh Damascus	C
Where the great light came down yet I am he	C
That fell and he that saw and he that heard	O
And I am here at last and if at last	V
I give myself to make another crumb	W
For this pernicious feast of time and men	K
Well I have seen too much of time and men	K
To fear the ravening or the wrath of either	X
	-
Yes it is Paul you see the Saul of Tarsus	C
That was a fiery Jew and had men slain	Y
For saying Something was beyond the Law	Z
And in ourselves I fed my suffering soul	A2
Upon the Law till I went famishing	D
Not knowing that I starved How should I know	F
More then than any that the food I had	B2
What else it may have been was not for me	C
My fathers and their fathers and their fathers	C
Had found it good and said there was no other	X
And I was of the line When Stephen fell	U
Among the stones that crushed his life away	C2
There was no place alive that I could see	C
For such a man Why should a man be given	T
To live beyond the Law So I said then	K
As men say now to me How then do I	D2
Persist in living Is that what you ask	D
If so let my appearance be for you	E2
No living answer for Time writes of death	F2
On men before they die and what you see	C
Is not the man The man that you see not	G2
The man within the man is most alive	H2
Though hatred would have ended long ago	F
The bane of his activities I have lived	I2
Because the faith within me that is life	J2
Endures to live and shall till soon or late	M
Death like a friend unseen shall say to me	C
My toil is over and my work begun	T
	-
How often and how many a time again	K
Have I said I should be with you in Rome	L
He who is always coming never comes	C
Or comes too late you may have told yourselves	C
And I may tell you now that after me	C
Whether I stay for little or for long	D
The wolves are coming Have an eye for them	K2
And a more careful ear for their confusion	T
Than you need have much longer for the sound	L2
Of what I tell you should I live to say	C2
More than I say to Caesar What I know	F
Is down for you to read in what is written	T
And if I cloud a little with my own	M2
Mortality the gleam that is immortal	N2
I do it only because I am I	D2
Being on earth and of it in so far	O2
As time flays yet the remnant This you know	F
And if I sting men as I do sometimes	C
With a sharp word that hurts it is because	C
Man's habit is to feel before he sees	C
And I am of a race that feels Moreover	X
The world is here for what is not yet here	P2
For more than are a few and even in Rome	L
Where men are so enamored of the Cross	C
That fame has echoed and increasingly	C
The music of your love and of your faith	Q2
To foreign ears that are as far away	C2
As Antioch and Haran yet I wonder	X
How much of love you know and if your faith	Q2
Be the shut fruit of words If so remember	X
Words are but shells unfilled Jews have at least	R2
A Law to make them sorry they were born	S2
If they go long without it and these Gentiles	C
For the first time in shrieking history	C
Have love and law together if so they will	T2
For their defense and their immunity	C
In these last days Rome if I know the name	U2
Will have anon a crown of thorns and fire	X
Made ready for the wreathing of new masters	C
Of whom we are appointed you and I	D2
And you are still to be when I am gone	V2
Should I go presently Let the word fall	H
Meanwhile upon the dragon ridden field	W2
Of circumstance either to live or die	D2
Concerning which there is a parable	N2
Made easy for the comfort and attention	T
Of those who preach fearing they preach in vain	Y
You are to plant and then to plant again	K
Where you have gathered gathering as you go	F
For you are in the fields that are eternal	N2
And you have not the burden of the Lord	I
Upon your mortal shoulders What you have	X2
Is a light yoke made lighter by the wearing	D
Till it shall have the wonder and the weight	M
Of a clear jewel shining with a light	Y2
Wherein the sun and all the fiery stars	C
May soon be fading When Gamaliel said	Z2
That if they be of men these things are nothing	D
But if they be of God they are for none	T
To overthrow he spoke as a good Jew	E2
And one who stayed a Jew and he said all	H
And you know by the temper of your faith	Q2
How far the fire is in you that I felt	A3
Before I knew Damascus A word here	P2
Or there or not there or not anywhere	B3
Is not the Word that lives and is the life	J2
And you therefore need weary not yourselves	C
With jealous aches of others If the world	G
Were not a world of aches and innovations	C
Attainment would have no more joy of it	C3
There will be creeds and schisms creeds in creeds	C
And schisms in schisms myriads will be done	T
To death because a farthing has two sides	C
And is at last a farthing Telling you this	C
I who bid men to live appeal to Caesar	X
Once I had said the ways of God were dark	D
Meaning by that the dark ways of the Law	Z
Such is the glory of our tribulations	C
For the Law kills the flesh that kills the Law	Z
And we are then alive We have eyes then	K
And we have then the Cross between two worlds	C
To guide us or to blind us for a time	D3
Till we have eyes indeed The fire that smites	C
A few on highways changing all at once	C
Is not for all The power that holds the world	G
Away from God that holds himself away	C2
Farther away than all your works and words	C
Are like to fly without the wings of faith	Q2
Was not nor ever shall be a small hazard	O
Enlivening the ways of easy leisure	X
Or the cold road of knowledge When our eyes	C
Have wisdom we see more than we remember	X
And the old world of our captivities	C
May then become a smitten glimpse of ruin	T
Like one where vanished hewers have had their day	C2
Of wrath on Lebanon Before we see	C
Meanwhile we suffer and I come to you	E2
At last through many storms and through much night	Y2
	-
Yet whatsoever I have undergone	V2
My keepers in this instance are not hard	E3
But for the chance of an ingratitude	E3
I might indeed be curious of their mercy	C
And fearful of their leisure while I wait	E3
A few leagues out of Rome Men go to Rome	L
Not always to return but not that now	F3
Meanwhile I seem to think you look at me	C
With eyes that are at last more credulous	C
Of my identity You remark in me	C
No sort of leaping giant though some words	C
Of mine to you from Corinth may have leapt	E3
A little through your eyes into your soul	A2
I trust they were alive and are alive	H2
Today for there be none that shall indite	E3
So much of nothing as the man of words	C
Who writes in the Lord's name for his name's sake	D
And has not in his blood the fire of time	D3
To warm eternity Let such a man	G3
If once the light is in him and endures	C
Content himself to be the general man	G3
Set free to sift the decencies and thereby	D2
To learn except he be one set aside	E3
For sorrow more of pleasure than of pain	Y
Though if his light be not the light indeed	E3
But a brief shine that never really was	C
And fails leaving him worse than where he was	C
Then shall he be of all men destitute	E3
And here were not an issue for much ink	D
Or much offending faction among scribes	C
	-
The Kingdom is within us we are told	E3
And when I say to you that we possess it	E3
In such a measure as faith makes it ours	C
I say it with a sinner's privilege	H3
Of having seen and heard and seen again	K
After a darkness and if I affirm	I3
To the last hour that faith affords alone	M2
The Kingdom entrance and an entertainment	E3
I do not see myself as one who says	C
To man that he shall sit with folded hands	C
Against the Coming If I be anything	D
I move a driven agent among my kind	E3
Establishing by the faith of Abraham	J3
And by the grace of their necessities	C
The clamoring word that is the word of life	J2
Nearer than heretofore to the solution	T
Of their tomb serving doubts If I have loosed	E3
A shaft of language that has flown sometimes	C
A little higher than the hearts and heads	C
Of nature's minions it will yet be heard	E3
Like a new song that waits for distant ears	C
I cannot be the man that I am not	E3
And while I own that earth is my affliction	T
I am a man of earth who says not all	H
To all alike That were impossible	N2
Even as it were so that He should plant	E3
A larger garden first But you today	E3
Are for the larger sowing and your seed	E3
A little mixed will have as He foresaw	C
The foreign harvest of a wider growth	K3
And one without an end Many there are	O2
And are to be that shall partake of it	E3
Though none may share it with an understanding	D
That is not his alone We are all alone	M2
And yet we are all parcelled of one order	X
Jew Gentile or barbarian in the dark	D
Of wildernesses that are not so much	L3
As names yet in a book And there are many	C
Finding at last that words are not the Word	E3
And finding only that will flourish aloft	E3
Like heads of captured Pharisees on pikes	C
Our contradictions and discrepancies	C
And there are many more will hang themselves	C
Upon the letter seeing not in the Word	E3
The friend of all who fail and in their faith	Q2
A sword of excellence to cut them down	M3
	-
As long as there are glasses that are dark	D
And there are many we see darkly through them	K2
All which have I conceded and set down	M3
In words that have no shadow What is dark	D
Is dark and we may not say otherwise	C
Yet what may be as dark as a lost fire	X
For one of us may still be for another	X
A coming gleam across the gulf of ages	C
And a way home from shipwreck to the shore	N3
And so through pangs and ills and desperations	C
There may be light for all There shall be light	E3
As much as that you know You cannot say	C
This woman or that man will be the next	E3
On whom it falls you are not here for that	E3
Your ministration is to be for others	C
The firing of a rush that may for them	K2
Be soon the fire itself The few at first	E3
Are fighting for the multitude at last	E3
Therefore remember what Gamaliel said	E3
Before you when the sick were lying down	M3
In streets all night for Peter's passing shadow	E3
Fight and say what you feel say more than words	C
Give men to know that even their days of earth	O3
To come are more than ages that are gone	V2
Say what you feel while you have time to say it	E3
Eternity will answer for itself	P3
Without your intercession yet the way	C
For many is a long one and as dark	D
Meanwhile as dreams of hell See not your toil	Q3
Too much and if I be away from you	E2
Think of me as a brother to yourselves	C
Of many blemishes Beware of stoics	C
And give your left hand to grammarians	C
And when you seem as many a time you may	C
To have no other friend than hope remember	X
That you are not the first or yet the last	E3
	-
The best of life until we see beyond	E3
The shadows of ourselves and they are less	C
Than even the blindest of indignant eyes	C
Would have them is in what we do not know	E3
Make then for all your fears a place to sleep	R3
With all your faded sins nor think yourselves	C
Egregious and alone for your defects	C
Of youth and yesterday I was young once	C
And there's a question if you played the fool	S3
With a more fervid and inherent zeal	T3
Than I have in my story to remember	X
Or gave your necks to folly's conquering foot	E3
Or flung yourselves with an unstudied aim	U2
Less frequently than I Never mind that	E3
Man's little house of days will hold enough	J
Sometimes to make him wish it were not his	C
But it will not hold all Things that are dead	E3
Are best without it and they own their death	F2
By virtue of their dying Let them go	E3
But think you not the world is ashes yet	E3
And you have all the fire The world is here	P2
Today and it may not be gone tomorrow	E3
For there are millions and there may be more	N3
To make in turn a various estimation	T
Of its old ills and ashes and the traps	C
Of its apparent wrath Many with ears	C
That hear not yet shall have ears given to them	K2
And then they shall hear strangely Many with eyes	C
That are incredulous of the Mystery	C
Shall yet be driven to feel and then to read	E3
Where language has an end and is a veil	U3
Not woven of our words Many that hate	E3
Their kind are soon to know that without love	V3
Their faith is but the perjured name of nothing	D
I that have done some hating in my time	D3
See now no time for hate I that have left	E3
Fading behind me like familiar lights	C
That are to shine no more for my returning	D
Home friends and honors I that have lost all else	C
For wisdom and the wealth of it say now	F3
To you that out of wisdom has come love	V3
That measures and is of itself the measure	X
Of works and hope and faith Your longest hours	C
Are not so long that you may torture them	K2
And harass not yourselves and the last days	C
Are on the way that you prepare for them	K2
And was prepared for you here in a world	E3
Where you have sinned and suffered striven and seen	W3
If you be not so hot for counting them	K2
Before they come that you consume yourselves	C
Peace may attend you all in these last days	C
And me as well as you Yes even in Rome	L
Well I have talked and rested though I fear	X3
My rest has not been yours in which event	E3
Forgive one who is only seven leagues	C
From Caesar When I told you I should come	W
I did not see myself the criminal	N2
You contemplate for seeing beyond the Law	C
That which the Law saw not But this indeed	E3
Was good of you and I shall not forget	E3
No I shall not forget you came so far	O2
To meet a man so dangerous Well farewell	U
They come to tell me I am going now	F3
With them I hope that we shall meet again	K
But none may say what he shall find in Rome	L

Edwin Arlington Robinson

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