Tenebrae Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFFFF FGHFFHIFJFJFJF KLMF NFFOPF QRSKTUSTVWXWYW ZFA2ZB2F YC2D2E2FFFF F2G2FFHe was so tired that he was scarcely able to hear a note of the songs he felt imprisoned in a cold region where his brain was numb and his spirit was isolated | A |
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Requite this angel whose | B |
flushed and thirsting face | C |
stoops to the sacrifice | D |
out of which it arose | E |
This is the lord Eros | F |
of grief who pities | F |
no one it is | F |
Lazarus with his sores | F |
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And you who with your soft but searching voice | F |
drew me out of the sleep where I was lost | G |
who held me near your heart that I might rest | H |
confiding in the darkness of your choice | F |
possessed by you I chose to have no choice | F |
fulfilled in you I sought no further quest | H |
You keep me now in dread that quenches trust | I |
in desolation where my sins rejoice | F |
As I am passionate so you with pain | J |
turn my desire as you seem passionless | F |
so I recoil from all that I would gain | J |
wounding myself upon forgetfulness | F |
false ecstasies which you in truth sustain | J |
as you sustain each item of your cross | F |
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Veni Redemptor but not in our time | K |
Christus Resurgens quite out of this world | L |
Ave we cry the echoes are returned | M |
Amor Carnalis is our dwelling place | F |
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O light of light supreme delight | N |
grace on our lips to our disgrace | F |
Time roosts on all such golden wrists | F |
our leanness is our luxury | O |
Our love is what we love to have | P |
our faith is in our festivals | F |
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Stupefying images of grief in dream | Q |
succubae to my natural grief of heart | R |
cling to me then you who will not desert | S |
your love nor lose him in some blank of time | K |
You come with all the licence of her name | T |
to tell me you are mine But you are not | U |
and she is not Can my own breath be hurt | S |
by breathless shadows groaning in their game | T |
It can The best societies of hell | V |
acknowledge this aroused by what they know | W |
consummate rage recaptured there in full | X |
as faithfulness demands it blow for blow | W |
and rectitude that mimics its own fall | Y |
reeling with sensual abstinence and woe | W |
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This is the ash pit of the lily fire | Z |
this is the questioning at the long tables | F |
this is true marriage of the self in self | A2 |
this is a raging solitude of desire | Z |
this is the chorus of obscene consent | B2 |
this is a single voice of purest praise | F |
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He wounds with ecstasy All | Y |
the wounds are his own | C2 |
He wears the martyr s crown | D2 |
He is the Lord of Misrule | E2 |
He is the Master of the Leaping Figures | F |
the motley factions | F |
Revelling in auguries | F |
he is the Weeper of the Valedictions | F |
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Music survives composing her own sphere | F2 |
Angel of Tones Medusa Queen of the Air | G2 |
and when we would accost her with real cries | F |
silver on silver thrills itself to ice | F |
Geoffrey Hill
(1)
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