The Ballad Of The Battle Of Gibeon Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDEFFCCGG HHHHIIA JJCCK HHCCHHILM AAN JJOOBB OOKKOO PPKKJJJ IIJJAAHH QQJJ JJAAJJJJIIBBKK IIHHAAHHCCII JJRRSTJJI AAJJUUHHV AAIIWWHHFive kings rule o'er the Amorite | A |
Mighty as fear and old as night | A |
Swathed with unguent and gold and jewel | B |
Waxed they merry and fat and cruel | B |
Zedek of Salem a terror and glory | C |
Whose face was hid while his robes were gory | C |
And Hoham of Hebron whose loathly face is | D |
Heavy and dark o'er the ruin of races | E |
And Piram of Jarmuth drunk with strange wine | F |
Who dreamed he had fashioned all stars that shine | F |
And Debir of Eglon wild without pity | C |
Who raged like a plague in the midst of his city | C |
And Japhia of Lachish a fire that flameth | G |
Who did in the daylight what no man nameth | G |
- | |
These five kings said one to another | H |
'King unto king o'er the world is brother | H |
Seeing that now for a sign and a wonder | H |
A red eclipse and a tongue of thunder | H |
A shape and a finger of desolation | I |
Is come against us a kingless nation | I |
Gibeon hath failed us it were not good | A |
That a man remember where Gibeon stood ' | - |
Then Gibeon sent to our captain crying | J |
'Son of Nun let a shaft be flying | J |
For unclean birds are gathering greedily | C |
Slack not thy hand but come thou speedily | C |
Yea we are lost save thou maintain'st us | K |
For the kings of the mountains are gathered against us ' | - |
- | |
Then to our people spake the Deliverer | H |
'Gibeon is high yet a host may shiver her | H |
Gibeon hath sent to me crying for pity | C |
For the lords of the cities encompass the city | C |
With chariot and banner and bowman and lancer | H |
And I swear by the living God I will answer | H |
Gird you O Israel quiver and javelin | I |
Shield and sword for the road we travel in | L |
Verily as I have promised pay I | M |
Life unto Gibeon death unto Ai ' | - |
- | |
Sudden and still as a bolt shot right | A |
Up on the city we went by night | A |
Never a bird of the air could say | N |
'This was the children of Israel's way ' | - |
- | |
Only the hosts sprang up from sleeping | J |
Saw from the heights a dark stream sweeping | J |
Sprang up straight as a great shout stung them | O |
And heard the Deliverer's war cry among them | O |
Heard under cupola turret and steeple | B |
The awful cry of the kingless people | B |
- | |
Started the weak of them shouted the strong of them | O |
Crashed we a thunderbolt into the throng of them | O |
Blindly with heads bent and shields forced before us | K |
We heard the dense roar of the strife closing o'er us | K |
And drunk with the crash of the song that it sung them | O |
We drove the great spear blade in God's name among them | O |
- | |
Redder and redder the sword flash fell | P |
Our eyes and our nostrils were hotter than hell | P |
Till full all the crest of the spear surge shocking us | K |
Hoham of Hebron cried out mocking us | K |
'Nay what need of the war sword's plying | J |
Out of the desert the dust comes flying | J |
A little red dust if the wind be blowing | J |
Who shall reck of its coming or going ' | - |
Back the Deliverer spake as a clarion | I |
'Mock at thy slaves thou eater of carrion | I |
Laughest thou at us in thy kingly clowning | J |
We that laughed upon Ramases frowning | J |
We that stood up proud unpardoned | A |
When his face was dark and his heart was hardened | A |
Pharaoh we knew and his steeds not faster | H |
Than the word of the Lord in thine ear O master | H |
- | |
Sheer through the turban his wantons wove him | Q |
Clean to the skull the Deliverer clove him | Q |
And the two hosts reeled at the sign appalling | J |
As the great king fell like a great house falling | J |
- | |
Loudly we shouted and living and dying | J |
Bore them all backward with strength and strong crying | J |
And Caleb struck Zedek hard at the throat | A |
And Japhia of Lachish Zebulon smote | A |
The war swords and axes were clashing and groaning | J |
The fallen were fighting and foaming and moaning | J |
The war spears were breaking the war horns were braying | J |
Ere the hands of the slayers were sated with slaying | J |
And deep in the grasses grown gory and sodden | I |
The treaders of all men were trampled and trodden | I |
And over them routed and reeled like cattle | B |
High over the turn of the tide of the battle | B |
High over noises that deafen and cover us | K |
Rang the Deliverer's voice out over us | K |
- | |
'Stand thou still thou sun upon Gibeon | I |
Stand thou moon in the valley of Ajalon | I |
Shout thou people a cry like thunder | H |
For the kings of the earth are broken asunder | H |
Now we have said as the thunder says it | A |
Something is stronger than strength and slays it | A |
Now we have written for all time later | H |
Five kings are great yet a law is greater | H |
Stare O sun in thine own great glory | C |
This is the turn of the whole world's story | C |
Stand thou still thou sun upon Gibeon | I |
Stand thou moon in the valley of Ajalon | I |
- | |
'Smite amid spear blades blazing and breaking | J |
More than we know of is rising and making | J |
Stab with the javelin crash with the car | R |
Cry for we know not the thing that we are | R |
Stand O sun that in horrible patience | S |
Smiled on the smoke and the slaughter of nations | T |
Thou shalt grow sad for a little crying | J |
Thou shalt be darkened for one man's dying | J |
Stand thou still thou sun upon Gibeon | I |
Stand thou moon in the valley of Ajalon ' | - |
- | |
After the battle was broken and spent | A |
Up to the hill the Deliverer went | A |
Flung up his arms to the storm clouds flying | J |
And cried unto Israel mightily crying | J |
'Come up O warriors come up O brothers | U |
Tribesmen and herdsmen maidens and mothers | U |
The bondman's son and the bondman's daughter | H |
The hewer of wood and the drawer of water | H |
He that carries and he that brings | V |
And set your foot on the neck of kings ' | - |
- | |
This is the story of Gibeon fight | A |
Where we smote the lords of the Amorite | A |
Where the banners of princes with slaughter were sodden | I |
And the beards of seers in the rank grass trodden | I |
Where the trees were wrecked by the wreck of cars | W |
And the reek of the red field blotted the stars | W |
Where the dead heads dropped from the swords that sever | H |
Because His mercy endureth for ever | H |
G. K. Chesterton
(1)
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