The Mass Of Christ Poem Rhyme Scheme

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I	A
DOWN in the woodlands where the streamlet runs	B
Close to the breezy river by the dells	B
Of ferns and flowers that shun the summer suns	B
But gather round the lizard haunted wells	B
And listen to the birds' sweet syllables	B
Down in the woodlands lying in the shade	C
Among the rushes green that shook and gleamed	D
I I whose songs were of my heart's blood made	C
Found weary rest from wretchedness it seemed	D
And fell asleep and as I slept I dreamed	D
II	A
I dreamed I stood beside a pillar vast	E
Close to a little open door behind	F
Whence the small light there was stole in aghast	E
And for a space this troubled all my mind	F
To lose the sunlight and the sky and the wind	F
For I could know I felt how all before	G
Though high and wonderful and to be praised	H
In heart and soul and mind oppressed me sore	G
Nevertheless I turned and my face raised	H
And on that pageant and its glory gazed	H
The pillars vast as this whereby I stood	I
Hedged all the place about and towered up high	A
Up and were lost within a billowy cloud	J
Of slow blue wreathing smoke that fragrantly	K
Rose from below And a great chaunt and cry	A
Of multitudinous voices with sweet notes	B
Mingled of music solemn glad serene	L
Swayed all the air and gave its echoes throats	B
And priests and singers various with proud mien	L
Filled all the choir a strange and wondrous scene	L
And men and women and children in all hues	B
Of colour and fresh raiment filled the nave	M
And yet it seemed this vast place did refuse	B
Room for the mighty army that did crave	M
And only to the vanguard harbourage gave	M
And as I gazed and watched them while they knelt	N
Their prayers I watched with the incense disappear	O
And could not know my thoughts of it I felt	N
A touch upon mine arm and in mine ear	P
Some words and turned my face to see and hear	P
There was a man beside me In that light	Q
Tho' dim remote and shadowy I could see	B
His face swarthy yet pale and eyes like night	Q
With a strange far sadness looking at me	B
It seemed as if the buffets of some sea	B
Had beaten on him as he faced it long	R
The salty foam the spittle of its wrath	S
Had blurred the bruises of its fingers strong	R
Striking him pitilessly from out its path	S
Yet had he braved it as the willow hath	S
He turned his look from me and where we stood	I
His far strange look of sadness and it seemed	D
This temple vast this prayerful multitude	T
These priests and singers celebrant who streamed	D
In gorgeous ranks towards the fane that gleamed	D
Were to him as some vision is untrue	U
Tho' true we take it undeceived the while	K
But since it was unknown to him all through	U
And hid some meaning it might be of guile	K
He turned once more and spake in gentle style	K
'Nay this ' he said 'is not the Temple nor	G
The children of Israel these whom less sufficed	V
Of chaunt and ritual They whom we abhor	G
The Phoenicians to their gods have sacrificed '	W
I said 'Nay sir this is the Mass of Christ '	W
'The Mass of Christ ' he murmured And I said	X
'This is the day on which He came below	K
And this is Rome and far up overhead	X
Soars the great dome that bids the wide world know	K
St Peter still rules o'er his Church below '	W
'The Christ ' he said 'and Peter who are they '	W
I answered 'Jesus was he in the days long past	E
And Peter was his chief disciple ' 'Nay '	W
He answered 'for of these the lot was cast	E
On poverty ' I said 'That is all past '	W
Then as I might as for some stranger great	Y
Who saw all things under an unknown sun	Z
I told him of these things both soon and late	Y
Then when I paused and turned lo he was gone	A2
Had left me and I saw him passing on	B2
On up the aisle he passed his long black hair	C2
Upon his brown and common coat his head	X
Raised and his mien such aspect fixed did wear	C2
As one may have whose spirit long is sped	X
Though he still lives among the mighty dead	X
He paused not neither swerved not till he came	D2
Unto the fane and steps Nor there he learned	E2
Awe but went on till rose a shrill acclaim	D2
And the High Priest from the great altar turned	E2
And raised the golden sign that blazed and burned	E2
And a slow horror grew upon us all	K
On priests and people and on us who gazed	H
As that Great King alive beneath the pall	K
Heard his own death service that moaned and praised	H
So all we were fearful expectant dazed	H
Then unknown murmurs round the High Priest rose	B
Of men in doubt and all the multitude	T
Swayed as one seized in a keen travail's throes	B
Where on the last steps of the altar stood	I
The Man the altar steps all red like blood	F2
The singing ceased the air grew clear and dead	X
Save for the organ tones that sobbed and sighed	G2
In a hushed voice the High Priest gazing said	X
'Who are you ' and the Man straightway replied	G2
'I I am Jesus whom they crucified '	W
His voice was low yet every ear there heard	H2
And every eye was fixed upon him fast	E
And when he spake the people all shuddered	H2
As a great corn field at the south wind's blast	E
And the Man paused but spake again at last	E
'I am the Galilean I was born	I2
Of Joseph and of Mary in Nazareth	J2
But God our Father left me not forlorn	I2
But breath d in my soul his sacred breath	K2
That I should be his prophet and fear not death	K2
'I taught the Kingdom of Heaven the poor the oppressed	L2
I loved The rich the priests did hear my cry	A
Of hate and retribution that lashed their rest	L2
Wherefore they caught and took and scourged me I	A
Was crucified with the thieves on Calvary '	W
At that it seemed the very stones did quake	M2
And a great rumour grew and filled the place	B
The pillars the roof the dome above did shake	M2
And a fierce cry and arms surged up apace	B
Like to a storm cloud round that dark pale face	B
And yet once more he spake and we did hear	P
'Who are you What is this you do ' he said	X
'I was the Christ Who is this here	P
You worship ' From that silence of the dead	X
'Tear him in pieces ' cried a voice and fled	X
Howls yells and execrations blazing eyes	B
And threatening arms it was unloosened hell	K
And in the midst seized dragged along with cries	B
Of hate exultant still I saw him well	K
His strange sad face then sickened swooned and fell	K
The Emperor Charles V mightiest of mediaeval kings had the weird	N2
fancy to assist at a representation of his own death service	B
III	A
Slowly from out that trance did I arouse	B
Slowly with pain and all was weary and still	K
Even as a dreamer dreams some sweet carouse	B
And faints at touch of breath and lips that thrill	K
And yet awakes and yet is dreaming still	K
So I And when my tired eyes look mine ears	B
Echoing those late noises listen and	O2
I seek to know what 'fore me now appears	B
For long I cannot know nor understand	P2
But lie as some wrecked sailor on the strand	P2
Then bit by bit I knew it how I lay	K
On the hard stones crouched by a pillar tall	K
The wind blew bleak and raw the skies were grey	K
Up broad stone steps folk passed into the wall	K
Both men and women there was no sun at all	K
I moved I rose I came close to and saw	B
And then I knew the place wherein I was	B
Here in the city high the ravening maw	B
Of all men's toil and kindly Nature's laws	B
I stood and felt the dreary winter's flaws	B
And by me rose that lampless edifice	B
Of England's soul shrunk to a skeleton	Z
Whose dingy cross the grimy air doth pierce	B
London that hell of wastefulness and stone	Q2
The piled bones of the sufferers dead and gone	A2
And when I knew all this and thought of it	R2
And thought of all the hateful hours and dread	X
That smirched my youth here struck and stabbed and lit	R2
The plundered shrine of trust and love that fled	X
And left my soul stripped bleeding worse than dead	X
Wrath grew in me For all around I knew	U
The accurs d city worked on all the same	D2
For all the toiling sufferers The idle few	U
The vermin foul that from this dung heap came	D2
Made of our agony their feast and game	D2
And when with hands clenched tight with eyes of fire	S2
Sombre and desperate I moved on apace	B
Within my soul brooded a dark desire	S2
I reached the stream of those who sought this place	B

Francis William Lauderdale Adams

The Mass Of Christ Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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