The Two Ages Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIIJC KAILMNOPI QRSTUVWXGYZ CA2IYIIB2C2ID2E2F2Y| On a great cathedral window I have seen | A |
| A Summer sunset swoon and sink away | B |
| Lost in the splendours of immortal art | C |
| Angels and saints and all the heavenly hosts | D |
| With smiles undimmed by half a thousand years | E |
| From wall and niche have met my lifted gale | F |
| Sculpture and carving and illumined page | G |
| And the fair lofty dreams of architects | H |
| That speak of beauty to the centuries | I |
| All these have fed me with divine repasts | I |
| Yet in my mouth is left a bitter taste | J |
| The taste of blood that stained that age of art | C |
| - | |
| Those glorious windows shine upon the black | K |
| And hideous structure of the guillotine | A |
| Beside the haloed countenance of saints | I |
| There hangs the multiple and knotted lash | L |
| The Christ of love benign and beautiful | M |
| Looks at the torture rack by hate conceived | N |
| And bigotry sustained The prison cell | O |
| With blood stained walls where starving men went mad | P |
| Lies under turrets matchless in their grace | I |
| - | |
| God what an age How was it that You let | Q |
| Colossal genius and colossal crime | R |
| Walk for a hundred years across the earth | S |
| Like giant twins How was it then that men | T |
| Conceiving such vast beauty for the world | U |
| And such large hopes of heaven could entertain | V |
| Such hellish projects for their human kin | W |
| How could the hand that with consummate skill | X |
| And loving patience limned the luminous page | G |
| Drop pen and brush and seize the branding rod | Y |
| To scourge a brother for his differing faith | Z |
| - | |
| Not great this age in beauty or in art | C |
| Nothing is wrought to day that shall endure | A2 |
| For earth's adornment through long centuries | I |
| Not ours the fervid worship of a God | Y |
| That wastes its splendid opulence on glass | I |
| Leaving but hate for hungry human hearts | I |
| Yet great this age its mighty work is man | B2 |
| Knowing himself the universal life | C2 |
| And great our faith which shows itself in works | I |
| For human freedom and for racial good | D2 |
| The true religion lies in being kind | E2 |
| No age is greater than its faith is broad | F2 |
| Through liberty and love men climb to God | Y |
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
(2)
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