Saint Romualdo Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST UVWXYZDA2B2 C2D2E2ZF2G2H2I2J2K2L 2M2N2O2P2Q2WR2S2T2U2 V2W2X2Y2X2XZ2A3 B3EC3D3X2E3X2Z2EF3G3 H3I3X2J3K3X2I3L3B3W2 X2B3X2H3X2V2M3N3B3X2 XB3X2XO3G3I3X2X2X2XL 3X2X2F3X2P3X2Q3R3X2S 3X2T3U3X2N2E3V3XX2X2 E3 W3Z2X3C3X2X2Q3YE3X2E 3X2Y3Z3A4M3B4X3C4Z2D 4Z3E4X2F4X2YC3E3P3G4 H4XX2X2I3E3V3E3I4M3J 4K4C3L4FI3E3M4N4F4O4 P4XE3X2X2FQ4O4U3I4X2 XX2E3X2F4X2P3V3 X2X2E3E3E3XP4XX2V3X2 X2AX2E3X2X2E3X2Q4J4Y R4E3ZE3E3X2E3E3X2X2F X2B4S4YE3E3B4X2T4X2E 3 X2Z3U4V4R4AX2X2X2X2E 3E3V3Z2X2X2E3XE3E3E3 X2XU3J4X2XX2XM2E3X2X 2E3X2X2E3X2X2X2W4E3X 4X2E3J4V3ZE3XX2Y

I give God thanks that I a lean old man	A
Wrinkled infirm and crippled with keen pains	B
By austere penance and continuous toil	C
Now rest in spirit and possess the peace	D
Which passeth understanding Th' end draws nigh	E
Though the beginning is yesterday	F
And a broad lifetime spreads 'twixt this and that	G
A favored life though outwardly the butt	H
Of ignominy malice and affront	I
Yet lighted from within by the clear star	J
Of a high aim and graciously prolonged	K
To see at last its utmost goal attained	L
I speak not of mine Order and my House	M
Here founded by my hands and filled with saints	N
A white society of snowy souls	O
Swayed by my voice by mine example led	P
For this is but the natural harvest reaped	Q
From labors such as mine when blessed by God	R
Though I rejoice to think my spirit still	S
Will work my purposes through worthy hands	T
After my bones are shriveled into dust	U
Yet have I gleaned a finer sweeter fruit	V
Of holy satisfaction sure and real	W
Though subtler than the tissue of the air	X
The power completely to detach the soul	Y
From her companion through this life the flesh	Z
So that in blessed privacy of peace	D
Communing with high angels she can hold	A2
Serenely rapt her solitary course	B2
	-
Ye know O saints of heaven what I have borne	C2
Of discipline and scourge the twisted lash	D2
Of knotted rope that striped my shrinking limbs	E2
Vigils and fasts protracted till my flesh	Z
Wasted and crumbled from mine aching bones	F2
And the last skin one woof of pain and sores	G2
Thereto like yellow parchment loosely clung	H2
Exposure to the fever and the frost	I2
When 'mongst the hollows of the hills I lurked	J2
From persecution of misguided folk	K2
Accustoming my spirit to ignore	L2
The burden of the cross while picturing	M2
The bliss of disembodied souls the grace	N2
Of holiness the lives of sainted men	O2
And entertaining all exalted thoughts	P2
That nowise touched the trouble of the hour	Q2
Until the grief and pain seemed far less real	W
Than the creations of my brain inspired	R2
The vision the beatitude were true	S2
The agony was but an evil dream	T2
I speak not now as one who hath not learned	U2
The purport of those lightly bandied words	V2
Evil and Fate but rather one who knows	W2
The thunders of the terrors of the world	X2
No mortal chance or change no earthly shock	Y2
Can move or reach my soul securely throned	X2
On heights of contemplation and calm prayer	X
Happy serene no less actual joy	Z2
Of present peace than faith in joys to come	A3
	-
This soft sweet yellow evening how the trees	B3
Stand crisp against the clear bright colored sky	E
How the white mountain tops distinctly shine	C3
Taking and giving radiance and the slopes	D3
Are purpled with rich floods of peach hued light	X2
Thank God my filmy old dislustred eyes	E3
Find the same sense of exquisite delight	X2
My heart vibrates to the same touch of joy	Z2
In scenes like this as when my pulse danced high	E
And youth coursed through my veins This the one link	F3
That binds the wan old man that now I am	G3
To the wild lad who followed up the hounds	H3
Among Ravenna's pine woods by the sea	I3
For there how oft would I lose all delight	X2
In the pursuit the triumph or the game	J3
To stray alone among the shadowy glades	K3
And gaze as one who is not satisfied	X2
With gazing at the large bright breathing sea	I3
The forest glooms and shifting gleams between	L3
The fine dark fringes of the fadeless trees	B3
On gold green turf sweet brier and wild pink rose	W2
How rich that buoyant air with changing scent	X2
Of pungent pine fresh flowers and salt cool seas	B3
And when all echoes of the chase had died	X2
Of horn and halloo bells and baying hounds	H3
How mine ears drank the ripple of the tide	X2
On the fair shore the chirp of unseen birds	V2
The rustling of the tangled undergrowth	M3
And the deep lyric murmur of the pines	N3
When through their high tops swept the sudden breeze	B3
There was my world there would my heart dilate	X2
And my aspiring soul dissolve in prayer	X
Unto that Spirit of Love whose energies	B3
Were active round me yet whose presence sphered	X2
In the unsearchable unbodied air	X
Made itself felt but reigned invisible	O3
This ere the day that made me what I am	G3
Still can I see the hot bright sky the sea	I3
Illimitably sparkling as they showed	X2
That morning Though I deemed I took no note	X2
Of heaven or earth or waters yet my mind	X2
Retains to day the vivid portraiture	X
Of every line and feature of the scene	L3
Light hearted 'midst the dewy lanes I fared	X2
Unto the sea whose jocund gleam I caught	X2
Between the slim boles when I heard the clink	F3
Of naked weapons then a sudden thrust	X2
Sickening to hear and then a stifled groan	P3
And pressing forward I beheld the sight	X2
That seared itself for ever on my brain	Q3
My kinsman Ser Ranieri on the turf	R3
Fallen upon his side his bright young head	X2
Among the pine spurs and his cheek pressed close	S3
Unto the moist chill sod his fingers clutched	X2
A handful of loose weeds and grass and earth	T3
Uprooted in his anguish as he fell	U3
And slowly from his heart the thick stream flowed	X2
Fouling the green leaving the fair sweet face	N2
Ghastly transparent with blue stony eyes	E3
Staring in blankness on that other one	V3
Who triumphed over him With hot desire	X
Of instant vengeance I unsheathed my sword	X2
To rush upon the slayer when he turned	X2
In his first terror of blood guiltiness	E3
	-
Within my heart a something snapped and brake	W3
What was it but the chord of rapturous joy	Z2
For ever stilled I tottered and would fall	X3
Had I not leaned against the friendly pine	C3
For all realities of life unmoored	X2
From their firm anchorage appeared to float	X2
Like hollow phantoms past my dizzy brain	Q3
The strange delusion wrought upon my soul	Y
That this had been enacted ages since	E3
This very horror curdled at my heart	X2
This net of trees spread round these iron heavens	E3
Were closing over me when I had stood	X2
Unnumbered cycles back and fronted HIM	Y3
My father and he felt mine eyes as now	Z3
Yet saw me not and then as now that form	A4
The one thing real lay stretched between us both	M3
The fancy passed and I stood sane and strong	B4
To grasp the truth Then I remembered all	X3
A few fierce words between them yester eve	C4
Concerning some poor plot of pasturage	Z2
Soon silenced into courteous frigid calm	D4
This was the end I could not meet him now	Z3
To curse him to accuse him or to save	E4
And draw him from the red entanglement	X2
Coiled by his own hands round his ruined life	F4
God pardon me My heart that moment held	X2
No drop of pity toward this wretched soul	Y
And cowering down as though his guilt were mine	C3
I fled amidst the savage silences	E3
Of that grim wood resolved to nurse alone	P3
My boundless desolation shame and grief	G4
	-
There in that thick leaved twilight of high noon	H4
The quiet of the still suspended air	X
Once more my wandering thoughts were calmly ranged	X2
Shepherded by my will I wept I prayed	X2
A solemn prayer conceived in agony	I3
Blessed with response instant miraculous	E3
For in that hour my spirit was at one	V3
With Him who knows and satisfies her needs	E3
The supplication and the blessing sprang	I4
From the same source inspired divinely both	M3
I prayed for light self knowledge guidance truth	J4
And these like heavenly manna were rained down	K4
To feed my hungered soul His guilt was mine	C3
What angel had been sent to stay mine arm	L4
Until the fateful moment passed away	F
That would have ushered an eternity	I3
Of withering remorse I found the germs	E3
In mine own heart of every human sin	M4
That waited but occasion's tempting breath	N4
To overgrow with poisoned bloom my life	F4
What God thus far had saved me from myself	O4
Here was the lofty truth revealed that each	P4
Must feel himself in all must know where'er	X
The great soul acts or suffers or enjoys	E3
His proper soul in kinship there is bound	X2
Then my life purpose dawned upon my mind	X2
Encouraging as morning As I lay	F
Crushed by the weight of universal love	Q4
Which mine own thoughts had heaped upon myself	O4
I heard the clear chime of a slow sweet bell	U3
I knew it whence it came and what it sang	I4
From the gray convent nigh the wood it pealed	X2
And called the monks to prayer Vigil and prayer	X
Clean lives white days of strict austerity	X2
Such were the offerings of these holy saints	E3
How far might such not tend to expiate	X2
A riotous world's indulgence Here my life	F4
Doubly austere and doubly sanctified	X2
Might even for that other one atone	P3
So bound to mine till both should be forgiven	V3
	-
They sheltered me not questioning the need	X2
That led me to their cloistered solitude	X2
How rich how freighted with pure influence	E3
With dear security of perfect peace	E3
Was the first day I passed within those walls	E3
The holy habit of perpetual prayer	X
The gentle greetings the rare temperate speech	P4
The chastening discipline the atmosphere	X
Of settled and profound tranquillity	X2
Were even as living waters unto one	V3
Who perisheth of thirst Was this the world	X2
That yesterday seemed one huge battlefield	X2
For brutish passions Could the soul of man	A
Withdraw so easily and erect apart	X2
Her own fair temple for her own high ends	E3
But this serene contentment slowly waned	X2
As I discerned the broad disparity	X2
Betwixt the form and spirit of the laws	E3
That bound the order in strait brotherhood	X2
Yet when I sought to gain a larger love	Q4
More rigid discipline severer truth	J4
And more complete surrender of the soul	Y
Unto her God this was to my reproach	R4
And scoffs and gibes beset me on all sides	E3
In mine own cell I mortified my flesh	Z
I held aloof from all my brethren's feasts	E3
To wrestle with my viewless enemies	E3
Till they should leave their blessing on my head	X2
For nightly was I haunted by that face	E3
White bloodless as I saw it 'midst the ferns	E3
Now staring out of darkness and it held	X2
Mine eyes from slumber and my brain from rest	X2
And drove me from my straw to weep and pray	F
Rebellious thoughts such subtle torture wrought	X2
Upon my spirit that I lay day long	B4
In dumb despair until the blessed hope	S4
Of mercy dawned again upon my soul	Y
As gradual as the slow gold moon that mounts	E3
The airy steps of heaven My faith arose	E3
With sure perception that disaster wrong	B4
And every shadow of man's destiny	X2
Are merely circumstance and cannot touch	T4
The soul's fine essence they exist or die	X2
Only as she affirms them or denies	E3
	-
This faith sustain me even to the end	X2
It floods my heart with peace as surely now	Z3
As on that day the friars drove me forth	U4
Urging that my asceticism too harsh	V4
Endured through pride would bring into reproach	R4
Their customs and their order Then began	A
My exile in the mountains where I bode	X2
A hunted man The elements conspired	X2
Against me and I was the seasons' sport	X2
Drenched parched and scorched and frozen alternately	X2
Burned with shrewd frosts prostrated by fierce heats	E3
Shivering 'neath chilling dews and gusty rains	E3
And buffeted by all the winds of heaven	V3
Yet was this period my time of joy	Z2
My daily thoughts perpetual converse held	X2
With angels ministrant mine ears were charmed	X2
With sweet accordance of celestial sounds	E3
Song harp and choir clear ringing through the air	X
And visions were revealed unto mine eyes	E3
By night and day of Heaven's very courts	E3
In shadowless undimmed magnificence	E3
I gave God thanks not that He sheltered me	X2
And fed me as He feeds the fowls of air	X
For had I perished this too had been well	U3
But for the revelation of His truth	J4
The glory the beatitude vouchsafed	X2
To exalt to heal to quicken to inspire	X
So that the pinched lean excommunicate	X2
Was crowned with joy more solid more secure	X
Than all the comfort of the vales could bring	M2
Then the good Lord touched certain fervid hearts	E3
Aspiring toward His love to come to me	X2
Timid and few at first but as they heard	X2
From mine own lips the precious oracles	E3
That soothed the trouble of their souls appeased	X2
Their spiritual hunger and disclosed	X2
All of the God within them to themselves	E3
They flocked about me and they hailed me saint	X2
And sware to follow and to serve the good	X2
Which my word published and my life declared	X2
Thus the lone hermit of the mountain top	W4
Descended leader of a band of saints	E3
And midway 'twixt the summit and the vale	X4
I perched my convent Yet I bated not	X2
One whit of strict restraint and abstinence	E3
And they who love me and who serve the truth	J4
Have learned to suffer with me and have won	V3
The supreme joy that is not of the flesh	Z
Foretasting the delights of Paradise	E3
This faith to them imparted will endure	X
After my tongue hath ceased to utter it	X2
And the great peace hath settled on my soul	Y

Emma Lazarus

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