The Mass Of Christ Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABBBBBCDCDDAEFEFFGHG HHIAJKABLBLLBMBMMNON PPQBQBBRSRSSIDTDDUKU KKGVGWWXKXKWWEWEWYZY A2B2C2XC2XXD2E2D2E2E 2KHKHHBTBIF2XG2XG2WH 2EH2EEI2J2I2K2K2L2AL 2AWM2BM2BBPXPXXBKBKK N2BABKBKKBO2BP2P2KKK KKBBBBBBZBQ2A2R2XR2X XUD2UD2D2S2BS2BI | 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
(1)
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